Silvia Plavusa (11), Slovenia

The KIDS-94 Newsletter
A Global Dialog for Youth 10-15 Years

Issue number 4. March 21, 1994

Note: Throughout this newsletter, references are made to various KIDLINK archive files. An index of files, as well as instructions about how to get them, are given in Section 10: "New Documents and Files.

1. "It is Stupid to Kill!"

The goal of KIDS-94 is to involve as many 10-to-15-year-old youth as possible in a GLOBAL dialog continuing until May 7th 1994. On May 8th, 1994, we will start the KIDS-95 project.
All participating children are required to answer 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?
KIDLINK has received answers to these questions from kids living in 60 countries around the world.
Here are some recent responses:

** From Quito, Ecuador **
(1) I am Ricardo Mendieta. I am going to be 15 years old in two weeks. I am from La Paz Bolivia, but I am living in Quito Ecuador for 2 years. Quito is an very interesting city. There are almost 2 cities. One is the old Quito and there is the New Quito. The difference is that the old Quito was build by the Spanish people that conquest South America. I study in Academia Cotopaxi. I like to play with my computer at home. I also like to draw. I am learning English right now, I'm in E.S.L. I am concerned on learning English more.
(2) I want to be an architect and build houses as my father. I help him drawing and making small models of house or building. To be and architect as my father is not easy but I want to be one and I thing I will be one.
(3) I want the countries to stop fighting between each other so then we are going to live in pease. All of us are brothers and sister. Is stupid to kill between each other. You can see lion killing other animals, but you will never see two lions fighting each other.
(4) I can not do much, but there is always a but. You can stop making enemies. Instead you may try to make more friends in the world and try to persuade grown-ups to stop fighting among each other and we can make a better world for us to live.

** From Kosice, Slovakia **
(1) I'm a girl at 11. My name is Heda. I'm fond of reading.
(2) I'd like to become an air-stewardess.
(3) I wish there would be no more racism in this world. I wish people wouldn't use poor animals as an object of their stupid experiments.
(4) I'll write a song about those things and send it to the "Rock FM radio" wich is our famous radio station.

** From Zambia **
(1) My name is Satu Heittola. I live in Finland. I'm an eleven year old girl and my birthday is in 9.11. my hobbies are running, skiing and drawing. I collect shells, stones stamps and butterflies. I live now in Zambia because my dad now do work in Zambia. But we are going back to Finland. In Zambia I go to school. In my class is four children and teacher. I like to go school in Zambia because I learn English. My teacher's name is Sheena MacLeod. The school's name is The English Centre. The class is very little.
(2) When I grow up I want to look after animals. I would like to work in a game park and make sure that everything is good for the animals, and stop people poaching animals. I would also like to be an athlete and run races in the Olympic Games, but I'm not very sure about that.
(3) I want the world coming better, peoples not wars and fighting and peoples not kill animals and some peoples are not poor and starving. Africas animals are killed by poachers. poachers kill leopards and cheetahs, they want their skins. They kill chimps, because they wont to take them for experiments. They kill rhinos and elephants, they want tusks what made for ivory. They kill gorillas, they want trophies.
(4) We can start to make the world a better place now by teachers teaching people to read and to count. Teachers can teach people how to protect land and the world. And people should not throw rubbish on the ground, they should throw it in the bin. I hope that you enjoy reading about me and Africa. I look forward to reading about you!!!

2. Major change in KIDCAFE

The big news in KIDCAFE is that there will be a major change in the way this mailing list works starting on April 1st. It all began with a letter in KIDCAFE from Nathan Willis:
What do the other recipients of Kidcafe think of all these "I want a penpal" messages. Which flood every recipients mailbox in gusts. . . . I think that Kidcafe should really be split up with a selective invite only mailing list for those who have and do write inspiring oneliners to each other.:-)
Sarah Goodwin responded almost immediately: Yeah, I see your point. It drives me nuts after a while too, particularly when you WRITE TO A PERSON AND NEVER EVER GET A REPLY what is the point of sending out letters if your not going to reply to them?????
Dan Wheeler saw these messages in KIDCAFE and invited the students to join the KIDPLAN list for a serious discussion of ways to change KIDCAFE to eliminate the problems. After vigorous discussion, agreement was reached on new rules:
Messages in KIDCAFE will be divided into three categories:

KEYPALS (messages between individuals),
ABOUT (discussion on topics), and
QUERY (requests for information).

The list will also become fully moderated; every message will be checked before it is distributed by a team of students from KIDCAFE. The initial team will consist of Mark Assad(14), Beverly Thurber (15), Ben Walter (15), and Nathan Willis (15). All of them have been active participants in KIDCAFE for quite some time.
Full details about the new mode of operation is given in the KIDCAFE GUIDE file. See below for retrieval information. (The special language versions of KIDCAFE will work as before!)
While all this discussion was going on, KIDCAFE did not stand still. Here is a student in Canada following up on old family ties to the Ukraine:
Hello Kostya, I read your letter in Kidcafe and decided to write to you. My great-grandparents came from Ukraine near L'vov in 1930 and I have always wanted to go there. My name is Camille Labchuk. I'm a girl and I'm one-quarter Ukrainian. I live just off the east coast of Canada in the province of Prince Edward Island (PEI). My grandfather speaks Ukrainian and I would like to learn the language, but in Canada we must learn French in school. . . What is life like in Ukraine? Is it nice there? If you write back, I could tell you what life is like here in Canada.

3. Olympic games and sport in KIDFORUM

KIDFORUM is set up to promote exchanges between classroom groups of students on topics related to the KIDLINK themes (the four KIDLINK questions). Through this forum, it is easier for teachers to have whole classes participate in KIDLINK.
During January and February, KIDFORUMers talked SPORTS. Topic coordinators were Alenka Makuc, a Slovenian teacher at PTT High School in Ljubljana, and Tor Arne Richvoldsen, a teacher in Arendal, Norway. Students joined in from schools in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, and U.S.A.
When the Winter Olympic Games started in Lillehammer, Norway, Tor Arne got his hands full preparing "Olympic Quizes", fact files about Olympic events, and responding to requests for background information. He even sent out 150 Olympic diplomas to participants by snail mail!
Over 37 schools sent their answers to the questions. There were messages from two of the Olympic mascots, Kristin and Hakon, a lot of excitement and fun.
When they researched THE WORLDS MOST POPULAR SPORT ON KIDFORUM, 47 sports were selected by 1094 kids. Some sports were actually "somewhat beyond" the ordinary. One student listed STUDYING as her choice. An American girl wrote:
I also like to play mud wrestling. I practice in the mud hole in my back yard for 2 hours every day.
And the winner was: Basketball. It topped the lists with 289 votes.
Soccer (108) and US football (98) came next. In Scandinavia, handball received top scores, while students from other countries failed to mention this sport.
Other sports included baseball, swimming, tennis, icehockey, volleyball, skiing, ice scating, horse riding, badmington, bike riding, gymnastics, running, softball, golf, rollerblade, floorhockey, aerobics, dancing (including classic), and much more. By the way, 28 of the sports mentionned were played with a ball.

4. SHELTER UNDER THE SUN

is the title of the current topic in KIDFORUM. It will continue until May 12th, which is one week into KIDS-95. So much for continuity.
This topic is related to both architecture and science. Under architecture, the kids are encouraged to look at and write about the architecture of buildings. The science discussion builds on the annular solar eclipse that will occur from Baja California, Mexico all the way across the United States to Nova Scotia, Canada on May 10.
Lara Stefansdottir (Iceland), the KIDFORUM Director, announced "Shelter Under the Sun" using these words:
"We think that once more KIDFORUM is taking new steps. It will be interesting to see how it will work out to have two topics running combined at the same time. For the first time our topic is focusing on art, we have indeed had pictures from our participants before, but now we are doing it as part of our main topic."
Sister Dianne Mollica <dmollica@pilot.njin.net> is the architecture moderator. She teaches computer applications at Immaculate Conception School in Somerville, New Jersey, U.S.A.
The science moderator is Jim Kuhl <jkuhl@onondaga.bitnet>, a sixth grade math and science teacher at Central Square Middle School in upstate New York, U.S.A.

5. Curriculum Exchange on KIDPROJ

Thanks to the support of stalwarts such as Patti Weeg (U.S.A.), KIDPROJ now have many more contributors. We suspect that much of the project material is being used in classrooms although it is often difficult to judge this.
The Multi-Cultural Calendar is a year long project inviting contributors to tell the world something about the cultural festivals and celebrations in their localities.
On KIDLINK, *every* day is a holiday... somewhere! For over two months the KIDLINK Multi-Cultural Calendar has been growing and promises to be a valuable resource for all.
One of the very first entries came from Ekaterinburg, Russia. It contained a description of the Russian New Year by Olya Malykh. She even included a New Year 'card' in graphical .PCX format and a sound file, a little tune about the fir tree which is brought into the house as the New Year tree.
Here are just a few of the many holidays you will find in the KIDPROJ Multi- Cultural Calendar:

12th Night	Italy
Robert Burns Bight	Scotland, United Kingdom Newfoundland
Coming-Of-Age Day	Japan
'Fat' Tuesday	Finland
Chinese New Year	Hong Kong
Ramadan	Saudi Arabia
Hanucha	Guatemala
13th Day	Iceland
Patriot's Day	Massachusetts, USA
Candelaria Day	Peru
TET	Vietnam
St. Sebastian's Day	Chile

Peter Daly (England) of Amateur Radio fame continues to astound us with the magnitude of the projects he provides by following on from the '1993 Trans-Antarctic Walk' with the 'TransPolar Drift Stream Expedition 94'.
The weekly KIDCLUB IRC conferences for registered KIDLINK kids continue on Saturdays with focused discussions led by each of the KIDCLUBs in rotation. Topics range from 'Music' to 'Children's Rights'.
These clubs seek to use the KIDLINK network as a means to illustrate ACTIONs which they are taking to 'help make the world a better place'. For example, Ann Lawrence (aged 15) in Maryland, U.S.A. reports on KIDLINK news in her regular column in the local newspaper. The Castelnau Youth Group in Richmond on-Thames (England) conducted a 24 hour on line vigil collecting messages of support from 17 countries and 19 American States which helped them raise 100 pounds from their local sponsors for UNICEF camps in the Lebanon.
Students from the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown (South Africa) have launched *NEWSROOM* to keep us informed about events in their country. No doubt there will soon be other regular news items contributed from across the KIDLINK network.
The 'Local Lore' project also seems to be gaining a following.
KIDPROJ Director Mike Burleigh in England <UBJVM6Q@CCS.BBK.AC.UK> reveals some about the forum's future plans:
"Monthly e-mail and IRC conferences beginning on March 19th leading up to a weekend residential youth conference in July. The Castelnau Youth Group have been asked by 'Save the Children' to organise a tele-communications link so that the youth groups attending from throughout the UK will be able to interact with others on the KIDLINK network.
Will Parks (who moderated the UNICEF project) is planning to be in the Solomon Islands in the summer. Given further sponsorship he hopes to be able to bring those islands into the KIDLINK network."

6. Get Ready to Celebrate! ** May 5, 6 and 7 **

May is *not* distant anymore. It is just a few weeks away! So get ready for KIDLINK's annual celebration. The more planning, the more fun and value. A simple equation.
KIDLINK's fourth Annual Celebration follows three years of celebrations in which about 10,000 kids have participated. The purpose of the celebration is to bring the children closer to each other on our "Birthday", to play with modern communication technologies (to learn), and to tell the other kids out there about our projects. Make sure your site signs up soon (*NO* site is too small!!!). GET KIDLINK CELEB for more information and a site registration template.
The first version of this year's Annual Celebration Site Information file is now available. GET KIDPLAN SITE94DX to see a list of the sites who have already signed up for the celebration that commences on May 5th for three 'round-the-world/clock days!
To make this work the best, all sites who are even remotely interested should sign up early and update often. This will allow others to develop their plans and adjust their information as needed.
For an idea about what happened last year, retrieve the file KIDPLAN SITEK93R. It indexes the reports from last year's celebration.

7. The KIDLINK IRC and Gopher

The KIDLINK IRC is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network. It allows kids all over the world to "talk" to one another in real-time. The Gopher is a subject-oriented menu system that allows for easy access to key KIDLINK information, such as information, art and music files. It is a finding and fetching capability in one tool.
You must have direct access to Internet to fully use these services (see below for details).
Our IRC/Gopher manager, Mark Hunnibell (U.S.A.) tells that the KIDLINK IRC system will soon feature a second Client/Server to use as a backup and for special events. A formal announcement will be made on KIDLINK when it is "open for business." This will help a great deal with the high traffic we expect to see during the annual celebration. For more information on KIDLINK IRC, GET KIDLINK IRCHELP.
Comprehensive reports on all the activity at the KIDLINK Gopher are available from the "Research, Reports, Papers, and Newsletters" menu.

8. The KIDSONG Music Project

is moderated by teachers Wolfgang Reinfeldt and Gerd Walter in Oldenburg, Germany. The objective of this exciting initiative is to compose and arrange a piece of pop-music by international cooperation. The project will continue until May 8.
In the moderators' words:
"With the help of electronic equipment (computer and electronic keyboard) it is possible to produce songs of considerable quality. Assisted by an experienced person even kids who don't have special skills with musical instruments can step by step play the different parts on a keyboard, combine and edit them to make their own impressing piece of music - drums, guitars, brass, violins, bass,... almost whatever instrument they like.
The notes are stored in the MIDI file format and can be played by different types of hardware. The product can be recorded on an audio cassette but also be presented live together with singers and real instruments.
Midi files can be transferred via e-mail, uuencoded just like picture files. This opens the possibility to cooperate inter-nationally to produce a common KIDLINK-song."
Here are some of Midi files resulting from this project that you may want to inspect:

KIDART M-FORMAT	Textfile desribing Midi File Format 1, Polyphony and Drum Note Assignments.
KIDART M-PUZZLE	M-PUZZLE.MID midi file with basic melodies rythms and chords. To be used as "Skeleton" resp. "jig saw puzzle" for your version of KIDSONG
KIDART M-PROPOS	The original project proposal of the KIDSONG Project
KIDART M-TEST1	Uuencoded midi file with 9 bars of Reggae. This is NOT the "Skeleton" of the KIDSONG, but just for testing.
KIDART M-UUDEC	Textfile explaining uuencoding and decoding of midi files. Includes uuencode and uudecode program for MS-DOS.

For more information, write either Wolfgang or Gerd by electronic mail to <reinfel@caeci.ol.ni.schule.de> and <gerdw@caeci.ol.ni.schule.de>.

9. Around KIDLINK

We are slowly getting used to all the 'wonders' of being increasingly international. Just read what Dan Wheeler wrote recently in our management forum:
We just got a subscription to RESPONSE from the name "$B0Kf#!!9U (B". I almost sent him a *nastygram* asking him what his name really is. Fortunately I realized that this is probably Kanji--he also subscribed to KIDLEADJ.
On a more serious note, Mikael Sundholm (Vaasa, Finland) has been appointed the moderater of KIDCAFEN, the Scandinavian language version of KIDCAFE. Email: <msundhol@bilbo.abo.fi>.

10 New Documents and Files

The following new or updated files are now available by e-mail from our archives:

KIDLINK MASTER	KIDLINK Document Descriptions
KIDLINK GENERAL	What is KIDS-94?
KIDLINK POLICIES	KIDLINK Policies
KIDLINK POLICIEF	KIDLINK Policies (in French)
KIDLINK NATIONS	Countries in KIDLINK
KIDLINK SOCIETY	KIDLINK Organization Overview
KIDLINK IRCHELP	KIDLINK IRC Help File Index
KIDLINK GOPHER	How to use the KIDLINK Gopher
KIDLINK COUNTING	Request for help. Math?
KIDLINK MEDIA	Request for help: KIDLINK bibliography
KIDLINK NEW-LIST	Starting special language forums
KIDLINK CONTACTS	People to contact about KIDS-94
KIDLINK PEOPLE	KIDS-94 People. For class to class, person to person information and contacts.
KIDLINK NEWS394	KIDS-94 Newsletter #3
KIDLINK NEWS294C	KIDS-94 Newsletter #2 (Cyrill.)
KIDLINK NEWS394N	KIDS-94 Nyhedsbrev #3 (Dansk)
KIDLINK NEWS294N	KIDS-94 Nyhedsbrev #2 (Dansk)
KIDLINK K94-9305	RESPONSE LOG9305x (.WKS data)
KIDLINK K94-9306	RESPONSE LOG9306x (.WKS)
KIDLINK K94-9307	RESPONSE LOG9307x (.WKS)
KIDLINK K94-9308	RESPONSE LOG9308x (.WKS)
KIDLINK C-930508	KIDCAFE logs May-Aug 93 (.WKS)
KIDLINK KANJI	Telecommunicating in Japanese
KIDLINK CYRILLI1	Cyrillic for MS-DOS (1 of 3)
KIDLINK CYRILLI2	Cyrillic for MS-DOS (2 of 3)
KIDLINK CYRILLI3	Cyrillic for MS-DOS (3 of 3)

To retrieve files from the list above, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU (or LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 on BITNET). The TEXT portion of your message should include the GET command for the file(s) you want to receive. It will look like this:

GET KIDLINK GENERAL
GET KIDLINK MASTER
GET KIDLINK GOPHER

The files are also available through KIDLINK's Gopher. Telnet 165.190.8.35 login: gopher. (You can also use your own Gopher with the command: gopher kids.ccit.duq.edu 70 .) Browse through the menus to find the information below, stored by subject.
If you only have email access to the Internet, it is still possible to use the gopher. Send a message to gophermail@Calvin.EDU . In your message's Subject line write: kids.ccit.duq.edu . Leave the text empty and send the message. After a while, the KIDLINK Gopher's main menu will be returned to you with detailed instructions on how to get more.
A number of new art creations has been made available through the KIDART archive, the KIDLINK Gallery of Computer Art. The library contains over 140 files. For a list of current offerings, send a message to the LISTSERV containing the following line: INDEX KIDART
These pictures are also available from the KIDLINK Gopher.

11. KIDS-94

is a project run by a non-profit organization called the KIDLINK Society. It will continue until May 7 1994. Most of the dialog between the kids is based on electronic mail.
KIDLINK is impartial as to what methods are being used to solve the problems of the world today. KIDLINK does not promote specific solutions to problems or political points-of-view.
While the KIDLINK mailing list is an announcement service, the various coordinator forums (KIDLEADR, KIDLEADP, KIDLEADJ, KIDLEADS, KIDLEADN), KIDPROJ, and KIDPLAN are meeting places for teachers, parents and other persons involved with the KIDS-94 project.
KIDS-94 operates the following forums for 10 - 15 year old youngsters:

RESPONSE	where the children send their personal introductions (their responses to the four introductory questions),
KIDCAFE	where they can 'talk' about anything they like,
KIDCAFEP	Portuguese language KIDCAFE
KIDCAFEJ	Japanese language KIDCAFE (opened for testing)
KIDCAFEN	Scandinavian language KIDCAFE (testing)
KIDFORUM	for exchanges between classroom groups of students.

To join KIDLINK through the Internet, send the command SUB KIDLINK Your Name to LISTSERV@vm1.NoDak.EDU. (Replace "Your Name" with your real name.) Put the command in the BODY of the text.
Our discussion forums are also available through conferencing system and mail exploders around the world. Write us for more information.
All forums are open for everybody, but only kids between 10 - 15 may write messages in KIDCAFE, KIDCAFEP, KIDCAFEJ, KIDCAFEN, and KIDFORUM.
A 130+ picture slide show about KIDS-94 is available (for MS-DOS computers with VGA color display). To get a copy, send a for-mated 1.4MB diskette, an envelope carrying your return address, plus US$10.00 to KIDLINK, 4815 Saltrod, Norway. (Currently being updated.)
You can also retrieve the slide show by Anonymous FTP. For details, send a message to the LISTSERV containing the command: GET KIDLINK KIDSHOW
The KIDS-94 newsletter is an information bulletin for teachers, parents, participants, sponsors, mediators, promoters, and others. Suggestions and contributions are invited.
The newsletters are distributed through the KIDNEWS mailing list, the KIDLINK announcement service, and the KIDLINK Gopher.
Subscribe to KIDNEWS by sending email to the LISTSERV with the command "SUB KIDNEWS Your-full-name" in the text of your mail. (Please use your real name instead of "Your-full-name".)

Editor/Project director:		Odd de Presno
Mail address: Fax: Internet: email address: BBS:		Saltrod, Norway (Europe). +47 41 27111 opresno@ulrik.uio.no SYSOP. Phone: +47 41 31378.

If you want to help out with KIDS-94, or participate, contact the editor, or write to kidlink-info@vm1.nodak.edu
You can also contact one of our local contact persons around the world for information. For a list of contact persons, retrieve the file KIDLINK CONTACTS.
KIDS-94 has local representatives in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovenija, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the United States.
You can also write to KIDLINK, 4815 Saltrod, Norway or just sign up ...