The KIDS-92 Newsletter
A Global Dialog for Children 10-15 Years

Issue number 4, Feb 3 1992

1. "Quiero ser medico"

The goal of KIDS-92 is to get as many 10-to-15-year-old children as possible involved in a GLOBAL dialog continuing until May 19th 1992. All of them begin by responding to these questions: 1) Who am I? 2) What do I want to be when I grow up? 3) How do I want the world to be better when I grow up? 4) What can I do now to make this happen?
Here are some recent responses:

>From Lima (Peru): 1. Soy Victor Montoya. Estudio en el colegio La Salle. Pienso estudiar ingles intensivo en El Centro de Idiomas de la Universidad Catolica. Soy Peruano. Y tengo 13 anhos
2. Quiero ser medico.
3. Tratar de cada dia mejorar evitar la violencia, combatir la drogadiccion, no destruir a los semejantes.
4. Comenzar por cambiar uno mismo, encontrando la paz.

>From Gatchina (a small town outside St. Petersburg,Russia):
1. My name is Kate Toporkova. I'm 15. I study at the Lycee and at the musical school. It's hard to combine these two schools, but I like music, I like playing the piano indeed. Also I enjoy reading and listening to music. I love animals, especially dogs and I hate people who treat animals with contempt. Also I'm fond of travelling, but unfortunately I don't have such an opportunity very often. Last year I was lucky to go to the USA, it was an exchange program.
2. As I have said, I love animals. That's why I like biology. As we are students of the Lycee, we have many subjects, among all of these subjects I prefer English, History. Frankly speaking, I'm not sure what I want to be, but I think my future profession will be connected with the sciences.
3. I see the future world without wars and nuclear weapons.It means death, but everybody wants to live. All the people will be like a big, closely knit unit. The planet will be our common home, but this home must be clean. It's one of the main questions that worry people. It's very important to clean up the Earth and to preserve peace.
4. I'm not sure that I can do something for the planet. But I think if we have more connections with the foreign children, we'll understand each other better. And when people understand each other, there won't be the war.

>From Taiwan:
Hi!, My name is Kiddy Way , I am 10 years old and I live in Taiwan R.O.C.. I hope I can be a computer scientist , how about you? I wish everybody can send mails to me as soon as you can . O.K.? Thank you !!!!!

>From Rio de Janeiro (Brasil):
1. Eu sou Murillo Varella Biagi. Tenho 15 anos e moro no Rio de Janeiro, a Cidade Maravilhosa, Brasil. Minha casa e' perto da praia de Ipanema onde amo jogar bola com meus a-migos. No Brasil falamos o portugues que e' similar ao espanhol e ao italiano. Estou procurando amigos de todos os paises.
2. Quando eu crescer gostaria de trabalhar com computadores como meus irmaos.
3. No futuro lutarei por um mundo pacifico, sem guerras, sem poluicao e por animais livres.
4. Eu estudo sobre paz, linguas e animais.

2. ALEXANDR_STOLPOVSKY_BRAZIL_CALLING

When the kids have sent in their responses to the four questions, they're invited to participate in the KIDCAFE discussions.
Most of the messages in KIDCAFE are in English, but some children write in German, Italian, Spanish and French. KIDCAFE is where kids make friends.
Exciting things happen there all the time. Like when Alexandr met with Murillo:

"Hello, Alexandr Stolpovsky. It's a real pleasure to exchange messages with a person from Moscow !!!
My name's Murillo, I'm 15 years old and I like playing soccer, volleybal, to travel with my friends and italian food too. Do you like soccer ? The late UCPP had a good soccer team ... How is it now ???
I live in Brazil, near Ipanema Beach, where I love to walk, play soccer and ride my bike.
What kind of music do you like ? I like new bossa, POP music, reggae, 50's rock'n roll ( Elvis Presley's great !!!) and Beatles, like you."

Alexandr replied:
"Hi, Murillo.
Now we have holidays. In Russia the weather is cold but this winter is not snowy. What weather is now in Brasil?
I wery like Elvis Presley too! But I haven't many Elvis Presley's songs.
When your school holidays began and over? Do you have a snow this winter?
Good Bye, Stolpovsky Alexandr."

By the way, do you know the recipe for Duftkuchen mit Birnen? We do, because the kids at Caecilienschule in Oldenburg (Germany) told us. In German:

Zutaten (fen Teig): 1 Pfund Mehl, 20 g Hefe, 1 Ei, ca.1/4 l lauwarme Milch, Ealffel, Zucker
Aus diesen Zutaten einen dicken Teig zubereiten und anschlieaend 1 Std. gehen lassen. 1 kg Birnen schlen vierteln, zuckern und in einen groaen Topf geben. 3/4 l Wasser und 1/4 l Wein zu den Birnen geben und zum Kochen bringen. Den Kloa auf die Birnen (+ Wasser + Wein ) setzen auf 1 Std. mit zugedecktem Topf kochen lassen.

Bon appetit!

3. The KIDLINK Gallery of Computer Art

One of the things that makes KIDS-92 unique is the requirement that the young participants respond to the four questions. Then there is the Creative Challenge. The kids are asked to illustrate their future vision in as many ways as they can, for example in a drawing, a video tape, or something else.
During KIDS-91 most of them used traditional artforms. Most of the contributions received this year have been created on computers and sent to us by modem.
The problem with computer art, is that they often are not reproduced well on the commonly available printers. The good news is that distribution as computer files maintains the graphic qualities of the originals and allows them to be seen by a wider audience. We are now in a position to take advantage of that.
At the very end of 1991, a flurry of new submissions arrived from kids in New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, and Russia. The curator, Dan Wheeler, together with a group of volunteers, have looked into how the artwork can be viewed on various types of microcomputers. They are now in the process of making this information available for MS-DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari, and Apple II computers.
If you want more information about the Gallery and how to use it, send an e-mail message to either LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET or LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU . The only contents of your message should be the following lines:

GET KIDART ARTHELP
GET KIDART ARTCAT

Note that our Gallery of Computer Art is just a small part of the overall Creative Challenge. Inquiries and submissions of works in other media should be sent to Anne-Tove Vestfossen, KIDLINK, 4815 Saltrod, NORWAY (or to her at opresno@ulrik.uio.no).

4. Around KIDS-92

An article about KIDS-92 appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper, USA in January. The Fall 1991 issue of SciNews, the newsletter of SciLink in Toronto, Canada, had a nice front page article about KIDLINK. Mike Burleigh had an article published in the schools section of the British Overseas Development newsletter (January 1992).
We had a mention in the Japanese PC magazine Eye-Com (#23- 1991, p. 14), in the book "Informasjons-teknologi og ledelse" by Petter Gottschalk (Universitets-forlaget, Oslo, 1991), and in the UK GreenNet News newsletter, in the EDUCOM Review, USA, Jan/Feb 1992 (Vol 27 No 1, p. 9 ff, "Network-Based Collaborations: How Universities can Support K-12 Reform Efforts" by John Clement).
The Santa Barbara Regional Access Information Network has begun linking schools in Santa Barbara, California to KIDS-92. Initially, they're starting with 8 schools, and plan to have the Public Library provide a workstation for kids to come in and check out the list and send replies.
The Institute for Global Communication (USA) is now receiving the various KIDLINK discussions directly from the LISTSERV for distribution to Alternex (Brazil), GlasNet (Russia), GreenNet (England), ConflictNet/EcoNet (USA), Nicarao (Nicaragua), NordNet (Sweden, via GreenNet).
A new discussion list, KIDPROJ, has been set up to meet the needs of teachers and youth workers wishing to use the KIDLINK worldwide network to promote curriculum exchange between school and youth group children in the 10 to 15 age range.
Another list, KINDEX, has been set up to help subscribers cope with the growing number of messages in KIDCAFE. Once per day, an indexed list of message subject titles is distributed to the subscribers. They can then retrieve individual messages from the LISTSERV using simple commands sent by electronic mail.
You can subscribe to these two "facilities" by sending a message to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu . In the TEXT of the message write one or both of the following lines:

SUB KIDPROJ Your-first-name Your-last-name
SUB KINDEX Your-first-name Your-last-name

5. When nobody writes to your kids ..

Yes, it does happen that some kids don't get any messages. The solution is simple: Write some of the other teachers, who are involved in the project, tell them the names of the unhappy children, and ask for help.
Who to write to? Lists of electronic mail addresses of some of the teachers involved in KIDCAFE can be had from LISTSERV by sending the following commands in a message:

REVIEW KINDEX
REVIEW KIDCAFE

If private mail doesn't seem to help, write a request for help to KIDS-92@vm1.nodak.edu .

6. Sponsors

CANNON UK sponsored KIDLINK United Kingdom with a fax machine, and X-ON Software Ltd. London UK (John Coll) provided valuable help.
Arendal Kommune (Norway) sponsored KIDLINK administration with NOK 5.000 (around US$850).

7. New Documents and Files

Here are some new or updated files that are available by email from the KIDS-92 archives:

CINTIENQ		Article about KIDS-92 in the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper, USA
KIDMAP		Map of the Kidlink network
KIDMAPIT		Map of Kidlink (in Italian)
BOLOGNA		One year of KIDLINK in Bologna
PROGETTO		Bologna's Progetto Kidlink (in Italian)
GEO-DAT		Data Files for GeoClock (geographical coordinates)
RATING		Norwegian Students evaluate KIDLINK
PROJINFO		Procedure for Approval of KIDPROJ projects
TEMPLATE		Form for personal intros to KIDS-92
PROJECTS		KIDLINK Project Overview
NEWS3-92		Newsletter #3

To get a list of all available files in the KIDS-92 archives, send a message to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu . In the TEXT of your message, write the command: INDEX KIDS-92
To get one of the files from the list above, write the command: GET KIDS-92 <filename> as in "GET KIDS-92 CINTIENQ". If you have problems downloading files, please email Odd de Presno.

8. About KIDS-92

On May 18th and 19th, 1992, the children will be invited to "chat" with each other in a global electronic dialog. Exhibitions of selected parts of the responses will be sent back to the world for the children to see and enjoy.
Our global online discussion forums, KIDS-92, KIDPROJ, KIDPLAN, and KIDPLAN2, are meeting places for teachers, parents and other per-sons involved with the KIDS-92 project. KINDEX is a special service to help coordinators cope with the volume of messages in KIDCAFE.
The project operates the following forums for the children themselves:

RESPONSE		where the children send their personal introductions (their responses to the four introductory questions)
KIDCAFE		where they can 'talk' about anything they like
KIDS-ACT		where they can discuss 'What we can do NOW to make the world a better place to live'.

To join KIDS-92 through Internet/BITNET, send the command SUB KIDS-92 Yourname to LISTSERV@vm1.NoDak.EDU (for example: SUB KIDS-92 Ole Olsen). The command should be in the BODY of the text. The discussion forums are also available through several conferencing system and mail exploders around the world. Write us for more information.
All discussion forums are open for everybody, but only kids between 10 - 15 may write messages in KIDCAFE and KIDS-ACT.
The KIDS-92 newsletter is an information bulletin for teachers, participants, sponsors, mediators, promoters, and others. Suggestions and contributions are invited. But please don't wait until the next issue to plan activities in your community! And be sure to write us if you want to get on the mailing list for KIDS- 92!! Onward!

Editor/Project director:		Odd de Presno, Saltrod, Norway.
Mail address: Telefax:		Saltrod, Norway (Europe). +47 41 27111
Online addresses: Internet: UUCP/EUnet: DASnet: Saltrød Horror Show BBS:		opresno@ulrik.uio.no uunet!ulrik.uio.no!opresno [DEZNDP]opresno SYSOP. Phone: +47 41 31378.

If you want to help out with KIDS-92, or participate, contact the editor, or one of the following persons:

Daniel D. Wheeler:		Bitnet: wheeler@ucbeh Internet: Dan.Wheeler@UC.Edu
Nancy Stefanik:		MetaNet=stefanik, PeaceNet=nstefanik, AppleLink=x0447, TCN=tcn145 Internet: stefanik%tmn@uunet.uu.net UUCP/EUnet: tmn!stefanik@uunet.uu.net Fax: (202) 547-2079

You can also write to KIDS-92, 4815 Saltrod, Norway or just sign up ...