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This is the first article in a permanent column which will deal with international projects on the Internet. The emphasis will be on projects originating in other countries. Another column on ETNINEWS with deal specifically with those initiatives originating in Israel. 

An Internet project has often been considered an ambitious goal in  communicating  between schools. Schools usually begin their communication through "keypals" (the Internet equivalent to "penpals").  An Internet project usually requires much more coordination and long-term planning than simple keypal communication. Such projects often fail, as many factors complicate these efforts, such as the lack of commitment on the side of one of the schools, difficulties in adapting to different schedules (schools in different parts of the world have holidays at different times of the year), differences in curriculum, lack of a significant project topic and end goal, etc. 

In the early nineties, when only a handful of Israeli schools were connected to the Internet, and the Ministry of Education,  school networks and private companies didn't yet recognize the potential in developing products and curriculum in this area for their target populations, individual educators searched the Internet for people with whom to work together on the larger issues. 
 
Kidlink was one of the few significant possibilities. Beginning as an initiative which started out of Norway in 1990, Kidlink now involves the participation of over 80 countries. The magical thing about Kidlink is that it is totally run virtually by volunteers - a large group of teachers and parents from all over the world. 

There are many different areas in Kidlink. The organization has grown rapidly since its early years. I will concentrate here on only two areas - KIDPROJ, which deals with long term projects - and KIDFORUM, which deals with short term projects. These two areas offer a wealth of activity covering a wide range of topics. It costs nothing to participate. The only limitation is that the activity is for students up to the age of 16 (not included). 

The biggest advantage in being a part of a KIDLINK project, or initiating a new project through KIDLINK, is that one knows that there is a support structure behind this project, a structure which has proved itself time and time again. The structure helps both in finding partners for the project and moderating the progress of the project. 

Let’s start with KIDFORUM. This area deals with short term projects of six weeks in length. The Kidforum management team usually posts a year-long schedule of projects before the start of the new school year (according to the time frame of the northern hemisphere). In order to ensure the smooth running of the project, each project has 2 to 3 moderators (each from a different country). It is the moderator's role to make sure that there is an adequate (and not too many) number of participating schools in the project and that the project runs smoothly. 

To give you an idea of the type of projects conducted under this framework, I will present here the list of  KIDFORUM topics for the 1997/98 school year: 
 

•   "Virtual Vacation" - Sep 1 - Oct. 31 
•   "Friends & Family" - Nov 1 - Dec. 31 
•   "Racing and Rollercoaster Design Agency" Jan 1 - Feb 28 
•   "Blue Print"  - Mar 1 - Apr 30 
•   "My Own School" May 1 - June 30 
•   "Sports" - July 1 - Aug 31 

First Step:   

The objective is for students to write a descriptive essay about your area and send it to the KidForum list (a mailing list is used for all correspondence concerning the KIDFORUM projects. A KIDLINK web team also creates homepages for each of the projects). 

Some things you might want to include are: 
 

• the global address (longitude and latitude) of the place,  population, population density and any other interesting facts. 
• describe the things you like to do, places you like to go, any landmarks, 
• famous people that might come from your area, 
• any historic events that may have taken place in or near your area.
• plan a 3 day visit for guests your own age. 
• where would you take them? What would you feed them?
• can you send a photograph or picture? 
• design a poster advertising your tour and send it via email to Kidforum 
• include a menu or a recipe of a favourite local food.
• what airlines are available? 

Students, after reading all the essays received, write to the Kidforum list saying which place you would like to visit and asking any questions about how to get there, 
 

• what kind of clothes to bring, 
• what will the weather be like? 
• how much money, what kind (ore`, yen, lira, mark, etc.), 
• any other information necessary for a successful trip. 
• any common local language phrases which might be useful 

Third Step:  

Students expecting virtual visitors should develop a travel schedule with a description of the places you will take your guests. 

• Ask visitors questions about places they would like to visit in your area. 
• Find out when and where they will arrive. 
• Do you have to provide transportation from the airport? 
• What arrangements do you need to make for them? 
• Are there any things we should avoid that might offend our visitors? 
• Any foods you should not serve? 
• What is their favorite music? Sport? Movie? 

Virtual Visits will take place with students writing back and forth discussing what they are seeing and asking questions about what they have seen. 
Meetings of travellers in IRC #travel channel are planned so travellers can talk about what they are doing. 
IRCs*  will take place on Wednesday September 24 and October 22. These dates may be changed to meet requirements of participants. 
(*Kidlink has its own IRC - Internet Relay Chat - server. This server is not connected to Global IRC and as such offers a private and secure place for project activity. Access to the IRC server is only through prior registration - which costs nothing.) 

At any point in the project, exchange of postcards, pictures, travel brochures, posters, and videos of places visited or to be visited would be great! 
These would make a wonderful bulletin board display! 
 

The advantage of this short six week project is that it doesn't require any long term commitment on the part of the teacher. The teacher can choose one of the KIDFORUM projects which fit well into the time frame of the his/her class schedule (taking into account holidays, field trips, etc.). The English teacher should easily be able to utilize the subject and tasks required in the project in order to develop English skills in the classroom. What is most important here is that the students are using English in an authentic atmosphere, both to communicate and express themselves. 

KIDPROJ usually deals with long term projects, sometimes covering the whole year, although some projects may be a few weeks in length also. One of the main differences between these two areas is that - while KIDFORUM offers a year-long schedule of projects, each project coming after the other - KIDPROJ offers a wide range of projects which may be going on simultaneously, and many of the projects may be announced after the school year has actually begun.  The longer projects (covering a number of months)  require more prior planning by the teacher and coordination with the other participants in the project. But again, the advantage of KIDLINK is that there is a support structure which helps you do this. The KIDPROJ management team is responsible for helping to find participants for the project and ensure the smooth running of the project. The KIDPROJ mailing list is used for the communication needs of the project, and the KIDLINK web team will construct a homepage for the project if needed. The KIDPROJ management team does try to put together a list of projects for the coming school year, but there is always the possibility of announcing a new project during the school year also. This is the ideal place for a teacher and class, who have a good idea for a project but are not quite sure as to how to put it into effect, to turn to. A number of Israeli projects got off the ground this way. 

The list of the current KIDPROJ projects are as follows: 

• Day In The Life Of The News -Beginning Dec 2, 1997 
• Family History Project - September - December 1997 
• Hunt For Country Capitals - to start October 27, 1997 
• Hunt For Famous Explorers - to be run again this year in April 
• "I Have a Dream" 
• KIDCLUB (a weekly IRC chat runs by kids on a different topic each week) -  no completion date 
• KIDLINK DAY -  October 15, 1997 
• KIDPROJ On-line Magazine  - no completion date 
• Kidwriters - no completion date 
• Landmark Game - begins January 
• Math Around Us - October 1997 - May 1998 
• Multi-Cultural Calendar - no completion date 
• Multi-Cultural Recipe Book - begins September 1997 
• Music Pals - begins October 1997 
• My Hero And Me - begins September, 1997 
• Shipwrecks of the World 
• Through Our Eyes - September 15 - December 15 
• Tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales - no completion date 
• Tribute to Mother Teresa - no completion date 
• Virtual China '97 -  to be run again, spring 1998 
• Virtual Eritrea - begins September, 1997 
• Virtual Sumatra - to run again in 1998-Watch for February  Announcement 
• Words From The Heart 
• Yesterday & Today Popular Games - October to December 1997 

There are of course advantages and disadvantages in participating in a KIDLINK project. The advantages involve working within a support structure which usually guarantees that this project will not be numbered among the many projects which never really make it off the ground. If you are starting your own project, you have instant access to a wide range of schools from over 80 countries who will hear about your project and possibly participate in it. You do not have to worry about monitoring the project alone. The disadvantages include the age issue. If you want to involve students in grades 11 or 12, then KIDLINK is not for you, at least not at this time while the age restrictions remain the same. If you want to be able to build your own unique framework for the project together with the other participants of the project, then you might find KIDLINK a limiting factor in this respect. We will find this is the case when you work within any defined framework (which will be discussed in future columns). It is usually the more experienced teacher, who has already worked with the Internet extensively, often working with KIDLINK in the early years, who wants to break out and do things totally on his/her own. 

In any case, whether you have or have not already heard of KIDLINK  and are interested in learning about it in more detail, you can access the KIDLINK web site at - 
http://www.kidlink.org  

When you enter the KIDLINK site, you will see that you have to choose the language of your choice. KIDLINK has been working more and more with different language areas in order to allow nations around the world to work locally in their own language, in addition to the international projects which are carried out in English (more about this maybe in a future column when we discuss the role of English in the Internet). I imagine that most of you will choose English at this point. Once in, you can choose the section which involves “Activities” and look more closely at the project areas, although I suggest you look to see what the other sections have to offer as well. 

To access KIDPROJ directly, go to - 
http://www.kidlink.org./KIDPROJ  

To access KIDFORUM, go to - 
http://www.kidlink.org/KIDFORUM 

In order for classes and individual students to take part in KIDLINK activities, they must first “register” to KIDLINK. This costs nothing and is a fairly simple process. You will find information about how to do so on the Kidlink site and this can be done on-line through the web site or through email. 
 
If you have any other questions about the points raised here, you are invited to write me at - david@boker.org.il  

David Lloyd 
ETNI manager and webmaster 
Director of Computer Communications Center - Midreshet Ben Gurion 
English teacher at the High School for Environmental Studies - Midreshet Ben Gurion 
 
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