When I began my work in I*EARN, I couldn¹t ever imagine that 6 years later we could receive a special Internet-center for our contribution in the development of this international network. It gave us an opportunity to communicate through the net better and more effectively and to avoid some difficulties in doing it as well. It was not so easy for us to be active participants of I*EARN in 1996 because of the lack of outfit but the younger generation, thanks to new Internet center, will be able to impress the world with their creative works and ideas. - iEARN teacher Elena Dolotova from School #1200 in Moscow, Russia

What is GEMS?

The GEMS (Global Education Model Schools) program is a partnership between Schools Online, a public service organization (www.schoolsonline.org) and iEARN. This goal of GEMS is to dramatically increase the number of teachers and students around the world who are involved in online collaborative projects and to provide access and connectivity to areas with little or none. After the announcement of the program at the annual iEARN conference in Beijing in 2000, the pilot year of this program began in September 2000.

For the pilot phase countries were invited to submit proposals. Seven countries were selected:

€ Argentina

€ China

€ India

€ Macedonia

€ Spain

€ South Africa*

€ Russia

* South Africa begins in July 2001

Six schools in each country (five schools in Macedonia) were selected to become part of GEMS. Schools Online provided the funds for the establishment of Internet Learning Centers (ILCs) of 10 computers per centre, connectivity,

and technical support to these iEARN schools who had been working on projects but with limited access and equipment.

What impact is GEMS having so far?

By January 2001 (only two months into the GEMS program) the number of students engaged in project work in each country had increased by an average of 200% (www.iearn.org/gemsreport).

The dramatic increase in the number of students now able to access the WWW, the number of teachers trained and the percentage of students involved in project work has been positive reinforcement that GEMS is indeed making a difference in the lives of not only students but communities. In Spain, the ILCs have been used for IT trainings for parents and adult learners. In Argentina, the development of a Spanish language GEMS training manual has assisted in the training of 200 teachers in Spain and over 100 teachers throughout Argentina.

Victor Minachin, GEMS Russia coordinator, noted that 'students are staying late hours at the schools. The amount of project work has increased tenfold when the ILCs became available.'

In Macedonia, despite civil unrest, teachers, school officials, parents and students remained enthusiastic and active. Jove Jankulovski, GEMS coordinator writes "there was a notable rise in the students' self esteem when they saw that the work they¹ve been doing for years is acknowledged both inside and outside the country. This helps them to reaffirm their identity and look inside their school and community. This is especially important in schools where majority of the populations face social and economic problems."

GEMS schools now have their website project work posted. For links to schools visit http://www.iearn.org/gemsreport