Many of the students
from my school also had their poetry and stories published in the first
edition of "Lewin."
Lewin
is an Aboriginal word meaning messenger. The anthology is produced by
a team of teachers and students from several Victorian government schools.
A similar project, "A Vision," is facilitated by teachers in the northern
hemisphere. This is an ideal situation, as students are able to send
their work to either project according to the time of year. While one
hemisphere takes its summer vacation, the other is busy in the middle
of their academic year. Many of the email projects I have worked on
with a single partner have faltered because of the demands of the school
year. Through no fault of the teachers, and despite the best intentions,
the daily demands of a busy school schedule can destroy the most well-intentioned
email partnership.
This is one of the
strengths of the I*EARN network and the value of the electronic conferences
that are used. Many partners commit to a project, which is conducted
on one of several conferences. This enables partners to participate
as frequently as every day or as infrequently as once when a unit of
work is completed. All participants are able to read the submissions,
which may be stored for 12 months or longer. new contributors can follow
the previous discussion to understand who is involved and whether the
work will be of interest to them. It enables newcomers to avoid the
problems of re-hashing material and questions that have already been
addressed.
The
electronic conference enables teachers to fit the projects into their
curriculum according to their time frame and the needs of their students.
Projects can be used for a single period, one topic, the focus for a
month or a semester. The work can be tailored for a small group, a whole
class, a co-curricula activity or as extension material for able students.
Appropriate projects can be found for students of junior primary to
senior secondary age. The projects are mostly interdisciplinary so that
they are not subject dependent. Many of the teachers in other countries
use the projects as subject material for English as a send or foreign
language. Some are conducted in languages other than English and some
are multi-language.
My own enthusiasm
and interest continued to grow especially after my students and I proposed
a new project, "Kindred." 
After brainstorming,
we decided that it would be interesting to extend the family tree project
that the students had completed in History to a world scale. We invited
students to research an event of significance in the lives of one of
their ancestors. We encouraged them to conduct interviews with their
grandparents with the aim of linking the life experiences to significant
events in world history.
When new projects
are proposed in I*EARN, one of the questions that must be answered is
"How will this project make a contribution to others and the planet?"
The "Kindred" team believes that participation in this project makes
students more aware of their place in the world and how their lives
and the lives of their relatives are influenced by world events. In
the words of Nina Griasnova, a teacher of English in St Petersburg,
Russia: I think your idea is really great to show young people how much
in common they have and make them to feel proud of their ancestors,
whom they even maybe hadn't known about before they started their research,
and furthermore this work helps them to understand better the history
of the country and how the families were influenced by the historical
events. And, I'm sure my grandparents benefited from this work, as they
are convinced now of the fact that their grandchildren are interested
in the family's background and will be able to tell their children about
it."
Nina's colleague
Helen Davidova gave a different perspective. "We are so excited working
in the project because we ourselves learned so much about our students,
as if the project touched the hidden strings of their souls which turned
out to be so kind and interested." The "Kindred" team began with the
aim of doing more than simply publishing a book. They wanted to ensure
that all students who submitted work would be answered in as short a
time as humanly possible, given the restrictions imposed by examinations,
holidays, and the like.
The "Kindred" team
wanted to establish a web page on which all stories would be published,
in the event that we could not afford to publish them all in a book.
It was decided that to meet the aims of the project, patrons would be
sought to cover the cost of printing the book and providing a copy to
each contributor
I*EARN projects
affect participants in unexpected ways. Students who become totally
captivated by their involvement are not unusual. I have found my students
both enthusiastic and willing to continue with their I*EARN work after
school, at weekends, and during school vacations. If only all that we
taught could arouse such enthusiasm and devotion!at no cost. By selling
the book, the aim is to raise money for diabetes research.
-Judy
Barr is a teacher at St. Paul's Anglican Grammar School in Warragul,
Victoria AUSTRALIA, and is the facilitator of the Kindred
Project. (Originally printed in Tree of Life Online, by Freya Job)
I
have heard many people speak of the internet and the ways they use it
with their students:
some warn of the perils, others tell of wonderful information that can
be found. But none have inspired me in the same manner as my I*EARN
experiences. 
