Who-Am-I? as a Resource
for Youth Speaking Quechua

1. Who Am I?
I am Aino Telaranta and I'm almost 14 years. I play the piano. I'm concerned about pollution and the Iraqi situation. I like music: pop, rap, hip hop, heavy (not hard) and so on. My sister and I have a gerbil.

2. What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up?
I really don't know, but I have a little bit thought of becoming a pediatrician or a doctor. And why? I don't know that either.

3. How Do I Want The World To Be Better When I Grow Up?
I want the earth, water and other nature to be clean, there should be no wars and it should no matter how somebody looks or thinks. I'd like the world to have no famine and no violence. No racial descrimination, no dictators, people shouldn't destroy nature, and people are equal. People should have work.

4. What Can I Do Now To Make This Happen?
I must save the world as much as I can. I should never tease anybody or be a racist and I should never kick or hit anybody. I can give money to the Red Cross and so on.

Since the start in 1990, it has had over 175,000 youth participants from well over 100 countries on all continents.
Kidlink is based on the idea that getting kids around the world to talk to each other will allow them a direct experience with friends having the common experience of childhood but often in very different circumstances.
By hearing a range of opinions and developing familiarity with different ideas, we can hope to overcome some communication barriers and solve some problems in a more co-operative manner. We also hope that their new personal networks will support them in their private lives and future careers.

How it works?

Kidlink's kids network with each others through mailing lists in Catalan, Chinese, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Saami, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish, and through our private network for Real-Time Interactions (chats).
There are 81 public mailing lists for conferencing - half of them for adult coordinators and helpers. There are several online art exhibition sites, and a large number of volunteers living throughout the world. Most volunteers are teachers and parents.
Since the start, teachers have networked to use the Kidlink resource in their classrooms, to cooperate, to learn.

Who-Am-I?

is an eight-month multi-lingual educational program that runs in parallel in many languages. It runs from September to May for schools in the northern hemisphere, and from March through November for the southern hemisphere.
It gives kids a reason to use their language in written communications with others, helps them build pride of their culture and language, build knowledge of themselves, their place, rights, families, friends, roots, and gives them an audience of youth around the world eager to learn about them.
In the process, new educational contents in their language are being built. About their culture's history and elements. Contents that teachers can use with their next set of students.
Who-Am-I? helps teachers motivate students to learn the subjects of their curriculum: writing, research, social studies, history, geography, foreign languages, economics, mathematics, science, the arts, current awareness, as well as personal development, Internet networking skills, information and communications technology skills.

Proposed plan

1. Provide Internet access to students
   For example, in cooperation with local Internet cafés, or by opening Kidlink House telecenters in areas where access to the Internet is not available.
2. Translate the Who-Am-I? program
   • lesson plan
   • infrastructure information (How to use the Kidlink network)
   • workshop for teachers
3. Introduce teachers to networking through Kidlink
   (both in their own and other desired languages)
4. Arrange teacher workshops on use of Who-Am-I? in the classrooms
5. Introduce Who-Am-I? to students
6. Publish student contributions
   To build new contents in their language, to support discussions with peers in other cultures, to exchange ideas and best practices.

Time line

Each day a student works with the Who-Am-I? program, she stands to learn important basic things about herself and her community.
As parents, grandparents, teachers, the community are being exposed to students' questions, concerns, reports, they're also affected.
However, realizing the full potential rewards on a larger scale will take considerable time, because

• Most youth participating in the program will need 5 - 8 years to make an impact in their local communities.
• Teachers - as a group - may need 5 - 8 years to develop their "teacher lounge" into a mature and efficient forum for sharing experiences, student results, and cooperation.
• Several Who-Am-I? program cycles may have to be run before teachers can publish student results with a potential for really making a difference when communicating with other cultures (and other teachers in their own area).

Also, the language area may need 5 -8 years to build a sustainable support organization of volunteers.

Next page: Enhanced learning with Who-Am-I?