Greetings To Pakistan From Around the World!

October 24, 2000
Hello dear friends in Pakistan,

I have asked many of my colleagues in our virtual community of educators to send you abundant wishes from all over the world for a fantastic conference - Rethinking Education. We can't be with you in person but with all the emerging technologies we have today, we can still "reach" each other and support one another. We are only a keystroke away.

I have been doing online projects with my students since 1992 and have seen the sparkle in little children's eyes as they join hands with other children around the world in our "globalclassroom." Their lessons have real world meaning because they have an audience and a purpose for what they are writing and doing. They are excited about learning and this is beautiful to see!

Please take a look at the pages I have prepared for you that share some of the exciting projects and activities I have been doing with my students.

New Mindsets for a New Millennium

Please join us. We have many seats for you here in our globalclassroom.

Best wishes for a fantastic conference!

Warm hugs to all,
Patti Weeg
Salisbury, Maryland USA
patti@globalclassroom.org


From Argentina

From: Carlos Calderon calderon@cyber1.cybertech.com.ar
Date: October 2, 2000

Technology education brings together knowledge gained from other disciplines, such as science and mathematics, as the basis for studying systems in the areas of Transportation, Communication, Construction, Manufacturing and Biology.

I have about 10 years of experience in Robotics, working with children from 7 to 12 years old. Then I considered that it is very important to create a place where the children can explain their ideas and inventions. Inside the school there is much information but there is not enough time to build, to find the problems and solutions or to invent. For this reason I consider that it is very important to learn robotics in a workshop after school. In my case, in this year, I implemented a private workshop called iTOYS . Intelligent Toys . I have a General Programm in three different levels : Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.

Well, your questions about it will be...

Where is the teacher? What does the teacher do? How are the different levels formed?

When conversing with my students, I must be alert for clues which indicate their of understanding. They must work with pulleys, axles, gears... then motors, different types of sensors and programming. Finally, they work with intelligent bricks -wireless-.

From Holy Trinity College

elevator

robot

robot arm

windmill
From iToys

building

car

helicopter

car's motor

The kind of homework they are asked to do is mainly related to doing research on the different topics dealt with in class. Students look for this information in the Internet, CD ROM and of course : books. During the last 3 years I saw a very good material available to teach technology. This means that technology education will prepare students for any future job. Of course we use Internet for exchange and communication about robotics project that include an intelligent house, a factory, a robot arm, a truck, a greenhouse, a windmill, and trains...

When each child finishes with his/her job a photo is sent to his/her e-mail address. Afther that a video tape is recorded with images of the projects in action so that the students can have that material at home where the learning process continues with his/her friends and family. In this way, the Internet is used to an advantage. And with Patti Weeg we had communication and exchange information about customs, habits, weather, children´s hobbies and pictures.

Some time after that, we use Kidlink to exchange information with the children of the world.

Dears Teachers... I hope you'll have a great success in your workshop with Patti Weeg, who is an excellent teacher.

Best regards from Argentina
Carlos Calderon

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From Austria

From: Alois Vilim avilim@atnet.at
Date: October 4, 2000

Liebe Patti, Liebe Lehrer und Lehrerinnen,

Unser Schuljahr ist nun 5 Wochen alt. Unsere 593 Schüler und Schülerinnen haben alle eine e-mail-adresse, die sie bereits fleissig nützen. Ich bereite gerade eine Kurs vor, bei dem neue Lehrer und Lehrerinnen den Umgang mit dem Internet an unserer Schule kennen lernen sollen. Ich wünsche Dir Patti und Deinen Lehrerinnen und Lehrern viel Spass beim Lernen im Internet.

Alois Vilim

in English:

Dear Patti, hello teachers,

Our school-year is now five weeks old. All of our 593 students have their e-mail-address .....@fichtnergasse.asn-wien.ac.at , and some of them are really busy in sending mail. We have some new teachers at our school and I'm preparing some lessons how to use the Internet, Computer and CD-ROM with our classes.

Have a good time in Islamabad
have a lot of fun
Alois VILIM

http://www.fichtnergasse.asn-wien.ac.at

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From Botswana

From: Kgaswe Primary School kgaswe@botsnet.bw
Date: October 12, 2000

Dear Patti,

Our Std 7 class have compiled a special greeting for your conference delegates. As Kgaswe is an international school, they did a survey of the different languages spoken and the greetings from each language. You can see the result here:

http://www.geocities.com/kgaswe/greetings.htm

Regards,
Greg

[Click on the image to see a larger image and a table with an country name for each of the words in the image greeting. - Patti]

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From Brazil

From: Marisa Lucena mwlucena@kidlink.fplf.org.br
Date: October 29, 2000

Hi,

Greetings from my warm country Brazil!

I invite you to visit Kidlink in Brazil: http://venus.rdc.puc-rio.br/kids/kidlink and to search for good educational and analysed websites that you can use in your classroom with your students in: http://www.estudioweb.com.br (click the Flag for English version).

Good luck and enjoy the Internet and Kidlink!

Cheers
Marisa

Dr. Marisa Lucena
Coordenadora Nacional do Projeto KBr
Coordenadora do Portal eduKbr
Kidlink Project Assistant Director
Kidlink Institute Research Director
http://www.kidlink.org - http://venus.rdc.puc-rio.br/kids/kidlink
http://http://venus.rdc.puc-rio.br/kids/kidlink/ksociety/cv-marisa.html

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From Denmark
From: Hanne Wolff hp_wolff@post8.tele.dk
Date: October 10, 2000

Hello teachers in Pakistan!!

Greetings from Northern Europe. We are a small school in Denmark named Aller Friskole and we have been working on projects in Kidlink for several years. Our school only has 80 students from grade kindergarten to grade 8, but we all like to use computers a lot. Even though the youngest of us do not read or write, we enjoy using pictures. Pictures can tell a lot about our and other people's way of life. Those of us you are beginning to learn English like to do projects with other students in English. It helps us a lot in using English in an "every day" way. Those of us who have been learning English for several years - enjoy chatting on the Kidlink IRC or the Kidlink c2d. Please visit some of our projects on the Danish Kidlink c2d.

Greetings from Aller Friskole, Denmark, Europe

Hanne Wolff, teacher
e-mail: hp_wolff@post8.tele.dk

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  From Finland:

From: Staffan Holmberg staffanh@narpes.fi
Date: October 14, 2000

Dear teachers in Pakistan,

I wish you and Patti Weeg luck in your efforts. We all have to learn more about each other. Kidlink is a wonderful way to meet people from around the world. Though Pakistan is indeed a long way from Finland if you travel, you are only a click away thru the internet.

In our small primary school we are trying to find Bosnian penpals for our group of Bosnian refugees at the moment. I hope Kidlink will provide us with these contacts. Keep up the good work, Kidlink people!

Staffan Holmberg, Narpes, Finland

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     From Iceland:

From: Eygló Björnsdóttir eyglob@ismennt.is
Date: October 1, 2000

Dear Patti and teachers in Pakistan!

How lucky you are Patti, to have the opportunity to tell our colleagues in Pakistan all about Kidlink and how lucky they are to have you with them :-)

I wish I could join you, but as everybody knows there is a long way from Iceland to Pakistan :-) But on the other hand, distances are relative. Via Kidlink we try to break barriers like distances and cultural difference to enhance our and our students' quality of life.

I have sometimes thought about how my life would have been if I had not been so lucky to get to know Kidlink and it's opportunities. There I have got lot of friends, (whom some of them I have never met in real life) and they have thought me so much which I have been able to use with my students.

As I am not teaching this year but studying, I have no class to give greetings from, but I am sure my former students in Westman islands would have sent greetings to you all.

http://vestmannaeyjar.ismennt.i s/nem/

I look forward to meet you all here in Kidlink!

Hugs from a little cold but sunny Iceland!
Eygló Björnsdóttir

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     From Iceland:

From: Hilda Torfadóttir hilda@ismennt.is
Date: October 4, 2000

Dear Patti and teachers of Pakistan,

I have been a part of the Kidlink family since early 1998 and it sure changed my life. Patti is like the mother of the family and I am very much looking forward to visit her and her school in February. Good luck to you all.

Hilda Torfadóttir
Akureyri
Iceland
Kidproj-Icelandic Manager

Ađstođarstjórnandi Kidlink -íslenska

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From Iran

From: Ali Parsa parsa@neda.net
Date: October 12, 2000

To my Pakistani brothers and sisters,

I wish all of you success in your 'Technology in Education Conference'. Patti Weeg has asked me to send you a short greeting message. I can't promise that it is short, but, besides wishing you success, I wanted to talk to you about computers in the schools.

I have studied computer science in Iran and in the US. And I have been working in this field since 1979. I am one of the first users of the Internet in Iran (1991). So you can't say that I am against computers. But at the same time I am against mindless acquisition of computers in homes and schools.

I am sure many of you have seen how young people are attracted to computers, playing games and using the various chat services on the Internet. Do we think this is what we have in mind when we set for putting computers in schools? Is chatting that educational? Is playing games (usually violent ones involving shooting 'the enemy' 26 times a second) what we are to get from computers? Is this the best way to spend the very limited financial resources of our schools? I think not.

My alternative: why not spend the money in organizing a science center in the school? A small science center with hands-on exhibits. And why not organizing a science club, which will take the students to many interesting industrial, technical, and scientific organizations in the form of field trips. The club can arrange for various activities related to science and technology. It might even have a computer branch. Students can go to an Internet Cafe, or some company which provides time on its computers, and work with computers, even chat and play games, in a supervised, and planned way. I hope you would tell me about your ideas and experiences in this regard.

At the end I want to present this poem by the great Pakistani thinker and poet, Iqbal Lahori, to Patti Weeg:

Mowjim ke asoudegi-e ma adam-e mast
Ma zendeh bedanim ke aram nagirim.

(Like waves we will perish if we stop
We live as long as we are restless)

I think she is a real embodiment of this poem and we at this part of the world have many things to learn from her.

Many thanks for your attention and wishing you all a successful conference.

Ali Parsa
Tehran, Iran
parsa@neda.net

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From Israel

From: Hannah Sivan hannah@boker.org.il
Date: October 2, 2000

Dear Teachers of Pakistan,

Congratulations for your first Conference. This is Hannah http://www.boker.org.il/davids/hannah/welcome.htm

from Sde-Boker http://www.boker.org.il/meida/negev/valbum/album2.jpg Israel. We work and live in a small community in the Negev Desert in the Southern part of Israel.

We know Kidlink and Patti 10 years already and we have learned a lot. I wish you all a most interesting Conference and I am sure that you will learn a lot from Patti.

Shalom to you all,
Hannah

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From Italy:

From: Isa Bellocchi cdi9ca@re.nettuno.it
Date: September 27, 2000

Hi to all the conference participants!!

My name's Isa Bellocchi and I teach English at Istituto "Don Dossetti in Cavriago, Reggio Emilia (do you know REGGIO CHILDREN? It is famous all over the world because they said in the Newsweek we have the best nurseries school!!!!!!!), but I'm writing to talk to you about my experience in Kidlink, more famous I think.

My students enjoy participating in almost all the Kidlink projects: in particular: Who Am I?, Toe Project. They like sharing letters and opinions with other foreign students. They learn a lot from their experiences. So we always must say: THANKS TO KIDLINK, and especially to Patti Weeg and her collaborators. We have included it in our school work.

BYE TO EVERYONE FROM
ISA

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From Japan:

From: Tsutomu Iyanagi diyanagi@mail.chabashira.co.jp
Date: September 27, 2000

Greetings from The Earth Club, Shimizu city, Japan to The First National Technology in Education Conference, Pakistan.

Hello from our kids club in this community! We are 20 members from 7 to 12 years old. We cannot write and read English yet but we can speak picture language well. We want to work together through "Communication for pictures".

Here we, 20 members are!! [Click on the link below to see a message with many pictures for you.]

http://www.iceberg.org/~iyanagi/salad/fl/fl1/earth3.html

We want to be your friends. Patti, thank you for delivering our dream to all over the world. We wish you success on your conference.

Best wishes,
The Earth Club members and T.Iyanagi ( Club assistant )

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From Norway:

From: Odd de Presno presno@eunet.no
Date: September 26, 2000

Hello friends in Pakistan!

The first child to use Kidlink from Pakistan came in 1996. Since then, we have had many of your children and youth use our services, so it seems high time for you to meet our Patti Weeg face-to-face. I am very glad that this is now happening, and also because I have some dear personal friends in your country. :-)

Now, that I have this short opportunity to talk, I'd like to present a challenge that might interest you:

I know that Pakistan is a country of many languages and cultures. The Ethnologue claims you have 66 (http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/Pakn.html), with Panjabi, Urdu, Saraiki, and Pashto being the largest.

One of our ambitions is to help protect languages and cultures. This is done in several ways:

(a) By giving your language a "place in the sun." See Kidlink's top page to understand what I mean

http://www.kidlink.org

(b) By including your language and culture in the Who-Am-I? program. This programme also provides systematic exchanges with other languages and cultures. Its contents are explained at

http://www.kidlink.org/k ie/nls/abstract.html

If you are interested in having Kidlink in your language, please browse the information at

http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/language.html.

We have plenty of room, and on behalf of all the other kids around the world: we need you.

Good luck, and have a great meeting!

Thanks,

Odd de Presno
Kidlink Executive Director

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More greetings


|Argentina | Austria | Botswana | Brazil | Denmark | Finland | Iceland | Iran | Israel | Italy | Japan |
| Norway | Peru | Portugal | Russia | South Africa | United Kingdom | USA | Uruguay |


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| Kidlink's "Who Am I?" | Kidlink's "I Have a Dream" | Interactive Math | | Multi-cultural Calendar |
| Global Greetings | Kids@work: Math in the Cyberzone | CJ POD |


Patti Weeg
www.globalclassroom.org
May 2000