Editorial
I know of no person capable of following everything going
on within the
Kidlink community.
After all, there are now some 75 public mailing lists in 15 language areas
in addition to the things going on in our real-time interactions network.
There's simply too much going on.
 This diary does not
pretend to cover it all. It very quickly list some of what goes on within
Kidlink, and
occasionally provide links and pointers for more information. Enjoy!
Odd de Presno
Kidlink's Annual
Meeting
The annual meeting of the
Kidlink Society
just started.
The
Kidlink Society
is
Kidlink's owner
(http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/facts.html).
Membership is open to all interested persons, regardless of age, but is not
required to enjoy
Kidlink's
free services!
Its members support
the continuity of
Kidlink through
their membership dues (around $25 per year), and participate in important
decisions regarding the organization's future, like election of members to
the
Board. A new Board member representing the Pacific region will be elected
at this year's meeting.
The meeting is a one
hundred percent online event. Discussions and votes take place on a private
mailing list for members only. The meeting involves people living geographically
very far apart, and will typically take months to complete. For example,
the 1998 meeting took some four months to complete.
If you want to become
a member to support
Kidlink and
participate in the meeting, all you need to do is send us your credit card
number as explained at
http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/dues.html.
Your support will be
very much appreciated!
Kidlink's birthday
party!
Kidlink's 9th
birthday was celebrated on May 8 through 10. A total of 2,782 students from
32 sites in 13 countries participated: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark,
Iceland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Sweden, USA, Uruguay. The net
shivered under the load of intense conversations about boy friends, music,
foods, weather, seasons, languages, Yugoslavia, Littleton, Colorado, armadillos,
boots, homework, and more.
Coordinator Joyce Burtch
says: "There were less problems than in previous years as teachers seemed
to be monitoring their students more closely. And, as usual, Robbert Uittenbroek
from The Netherlands was on hand to deal with problems that did arise in
his charming, non-offensive manner."
 Students at at Nya Lövgärdesskolan in
Sweden stayed over-night at school. Assisted by teacher Stellan Kinberg,
his students created an exiting recap of the night. Enjoy their night at
http://www.netg.se/~lovgarde/projects/overnight/index.html.
A report from Lynne Sueoka's class in Hawaii is at
http://kalama.doe.hawaii.edu/hern97/AES/kidlinkirc/
Oh boy! What a bigtime
party!
Everybody are now looking
forward to the new millenium along with
Kidlink’s
10th Annual Celebration!
New participants
Gibraltar! That small mountainous peninsula at the south
tip of Spain. The home of Anna Gabriella Cosquieri, a six year old girl,
and student at St. Joseph First School. This is her answer to
Kidlink's four
questions:
Who am I ?
My teachers name is Mrs. Tirado I am in Year 2. I
like doing PE. and dancing ballet. I am doing a ballet show and I am a fairycake.
What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up?
When I grow up I want to be teacher or an annimator.
How Do I Want The World To Be Better When I Grow Up?
I would like everybody to be good friends and that there
will be no fighting between us.
What Can I Do Now To Make This Happen?
I have to love my brother, mother, father,friends and
family very much.I also have to read a lot and study very hard.
Programs
The Latin
American cycle of the
Who-Am-I? program has started. For a list of participating
teachers and schools, see
http://www.kidlink.org/portuguese/waila/participantes.html
and
http://www.kidlink.org/spanish/wai/profes.html.
At startup, there were some 475 preregistered students in the Portuguese
language area, and some 260 students in the Spanish language area.
To see what the students
are doing in the program, click at
http://www.kidlink.org/kie/waila/students.html.
John Ost
(jost@mv.mv.com) is trying to get a
millennium project off the ground in KIDPROJ. He plans to build a millennium
site and have kids reflect about past and future over the next year. Let
him know if you hear of others in the far corners of
Kidlink considering
similar projects. His thought is to actually carry the project through the
end of 2000...
El Proyecto
Célula is now starting up in the Spanish language area. If you
have students proficient in Spanish, write Hugo Paredes Ferrer (Prof.
Matemática - Física) at Colegio Espíritu Santo, in Lima,
Perú at
espiritu.santo@infotex.com.pe
for information, or see the message that Hugo posted to
Kidleader-Spanish
on Sun, 23 May 1999 at 19:23:00.
Volunteers
wanted
If you want to help produce this "newsletter," please
drop Odd de Presno a line
(opresno@kidlink.org).
Information
KIDNOTICIA is another
Kidlink newsletter
produced in our Spanish language area:
Ya esta' publicado el Nro. 3 de la revista KIDNOTICIA.
Tiene arti'culos muy interesantes. Visi'tenlos en:
http://www.kidlink.org/spanish/kidnoticia/
La coordinadora de la revista: Beatriz Pintado
<bpintado@varela.reu.edu.uy>, ya esta' recibiendo arti'culos para el
pro'ximo nu'mero. Tambie'n recibe inscripciones de los chicos que quieran
ser kidreporteros.
In case you haven't noticed,
Kidlink now offers information in the Catalan language.
Thanks to Neus Lorenzo i Galés
in Barcelona, Spain. Connect to our home
page, and click at "Catala" for a peak. While you're at it, why not take
a peak at our Saami languages pages as well. ;-) Click at "Sámi" at
the top menu. Please note that you'll not get the special Saami characters
up on your screen until you have installed
"Levi" on your computer. Hint: You
do not have to install keyboard support to use the fonts.
Fonts for Win 3.1, 95, and NT may be retrieved
from
this
web address. Macintosh fonts are at
http://www.indigo.ie/egt/earra_bog/apple.
If you don't read a Scandinavian language, installation may be
difficult.
In the Media
Click at
http://www.sasinschool.com/resource/thread3.htm
for a nice mention of
Kidlink and the
Who-Am-I? program by US
columnist Caroline McCullen.
An article about teacher Rosie Andersen's work with
Kidlink and the
Who-Am-I? program appeared in Bergens Tidende (Norway)
on May 12. Text and pictures are at
http://www.bergens-tidende.no/vis.html?id=25419
.
Kidlink is presented
in a recent Icelandic language handbook about computers and internet
in schools called "Upplýsingatækni í
skólastarfi" (ISBN 9979-60-456-5) .
For more media mentions,
visit
http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/biblio.html.
The
Kidlink Community
Lara Stefansdottir, Iceland, has stepped down from her
position in the
Kidlink top management team to focus on less demanding
Kidlink management tasks.
She has been
Kidlink's Assistant Project Director since 1995. That's
a long term in an office of so much excitement and joy, but also of thunder,
rain, and strong winds! Her areas have included
Kidlink's
RESPONSE service, English language
area services, Multiple language services,
KIDART, Icelandic, Swedish,
Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Slovenian, Nordic, Saami, Kidplan, and The English
language
Kidlink announcement list.
Thank you very much
for all you have done for us, Lara! We are sad to loose you in our top team,
but are glad that you are prepared to serve us in other positions.
Claus
Berg (Denmark), another long term
Kidlink manager, will take over the responsibilities
that Lara had on the top team. In his career within our
organization, Claus has served on the Board of Directors, been manager
of the RESPONSE mailing list (the four
Kidlink questions), the Kidleader mailing list, and
New User Support. He now manages
Kidlink's fast-growing
Danish language activities.
Believe it or not, Claus
joined
Kidlink in May 1991! :-)
At
http://www.kidlink.org/english/society/topteam.html,
you'll find photos and lists of responsibilities of the top management team
members. |
