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elements of their own culture to others, though most
of them couldn’t identify what those elements
should be. Organizers had anticipated this, and
guided the children with books and references they
had prepared for this purpose.
In Japan, 4
th
to 6
th
graders were more interested
and focused on thinking about elements from their
own culture than younger participants were, but all
of them were very excited while watching video
messages from other countries.
Internet access was essential to the management
of these workshops; written communication was by
email, the conversations were over VoIP software
such as Skype, and materials were exchanged using
FTP servers.
The results of this program were the base of
discussion for a symposium—held in Japan— about
the mission and views of the future of ICT, children,
the digital divide and cultural exchange.
3.2 Global Kids Eclipse 2009
On the morning of July 22, almost 500 students from
eight countries—Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand,
Bangladesh, Philippines, Malaysia, and United Arab
Emirates—gathered at 13 different locations in Asia
to share the longest total solar eclipse of this century
and a multicultural exchange experience.
This program provided a common virtual space
where the students—the majority were 6th graders—
could watch eclipse images transmitted from remote
sites and also participate in other real-time
interaction sessions. The participants were connected
through the SOI Asia network, utilizing video and
audio applications developed originally to offer
multilateral communication. This was also a good
opportunity to investigate how the SOI Asia
platform performed in activities other than the usual
online lectures for higher education.
3.2.1 Main Goals
The program was designed with two main
objectives: to promote science and to have all of the
participants feeling global.
FEELING GLOBAL - By connecting different
places around the world remotely, it was hoped that
the students would increase their awareness of the
world (overseas, time differences, other countries)
and be inspired by the opportunity to interact and
share experiences with other students from different
backgrounds.
PROMOTING SCIENCE - In the International
Year of Astronomy 2009—declared by the United
Nations and endorsed by UNESCO—GLOBAL
KIDS ECLIPSE 2009 attempted to encourage
student interest in science and astronomy and
support the central theme of IYA2009: “The
Universe, Yours to Discover.”
3.2.2 Methodology
Since regular education curriculums vary from
country to country, and to give more time to
participants to be involved in this activity, the
program was divided into two days.
All locations were asked to hold a pre-event, in
which students would hear a lecture about the
eclipse phenomenon and also create an art piece on
the theme “My ideal Star/Planet.” Drawings were
used for the cultural exchange corner in the main
event.
The main event schedule was divided in two
themes: multicultural exchange and eclipse
observation. It started with a very simple language
exchange that also served to break the ice.
Next, participants from each site had time to
introduce some of their drawings, explain concepts,
techniques, and included messages. In this part,
students from any site could ask questions of or
make comments to the authors. Since the majority of
participants were not fluent in English, a
simultaneous interpretation network was design to
make multilateral communication flow smoothly.
Between sessions, students enjoyed quizzes that
made the learning fun; they were motivated to
express that which they had learned previously and
also could see other participants’ immediate
reactions, stimulating interaction.
For the eclipse observation corner, live images of
the total eclipse, provided by the National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), were
received in the main site in Yokohama, Japan and
then transmitted to other locations through the SOI
Asia network. This technical structure enabled the
transmission of high quality images to all sites. This
is an essential factor to facilitate communication
among children; facial expression and voice tone are
very important elements in cross-cultural
communication, especially because they didn’t have
a common language to rely on. High quality images
of the total solar eclipse also allowed the 500
participants to share the emotion and the experience
with those in countries where the total eclipse could
not be seen.
3.2.3 Evaluation and Results
In order to evaluate this activity, surveys were
distributed for children and teachers in Japan and
Indonesia. When asked about their impressions and
thoughts about participating in this event, children
gave very positive feedback on the opportunity to
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