Our Community
Students from Nyirrpi School, N.T., Glengarry Primary School and Rosebud Secondary College in VIctoria have shared information about their communities.

Using photos, drawings and paintings, brochures, stories and reports the students have thought deeply about their own community and learned about each of the other two of the three very diverse cultures, histories and environments.

iEARN teaching partners meet in Jakarta
Sue Foley from Mission Beach State School in Queensland travelled to Indonesia as a member of the Asia Literacy Teachers Association of Australia Tour to Indonesia. While she was there she met her teaching partner, Saara Suaib, for the first time after working together for a number of years.

Sue also met up with Ibu Hasnah, head of iEARN Indonesia and presented her with a gift on behalf of iEARN Australia.

Read Sue's report on her experiences.

Keeping the Promise Camapign
Students at Kurnai College in Victoria shook hands in the Keeping the Promise campaign to remind politicians to keep their promise to halve poverty by 2015.

We have great pleasure in announcing that the scholarship has been awarded to Ron Thomas from Wantirna College, Victoria.

Ron and his students have been involved in many iEARN projects and have initiated their own projects, including Your Sport/Our Sport and Teen Music Around the World.

Ron, who is pictured here with his class, will be taking 8 students with him to Taiwan.

Teddy Bear Exchange with Canada
Students from the remote Central Australian Community of Nyirrpi are participating in the popular iEARN project, Teddy Bear Exchange.

They have sent Marlu the kangaroo to Canada and have welcomed Bucky Beaver into their community.

Bucky has participated in many adventures at Nyirrpi, including participating in traditional dancing and collecting bush tucker, while Marlu is having her first experience with snow and has visited Niagara Falls.

iEARN Annual Conference 2010
Seven Australians attended the recent 17th Annual iEARN conference and 14th Youth Summit held at Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Teachers and students from more than forty countries participated in a vibrant gathering during which dozen of workshops, presentations and keynote addresses informed and involved those attending in sharing skills in global educational collaboration, the use of communication technologies and new media in education.

The conference and youth forum celebrated, in philosophy and in action, the excitement and the educational benefits of cooperation and sharing of learning across geographical and cultural boundaries.

Kurnai College (Victoria) teachers, Nicole Pryor and Josh Garth received significant attention through their presentation on their college's integration of internet-mediated global projects into their curriculum and college environment.

iEARN Australia thanks and congratulates iEARN Canada on their success in planning and undertaking the conference and youth forum. We look forward to next year's conference and forum in Taiwan in July 2011.

We have great pleasure in announcing that the scholarship has been awarded to Nicole Pryor from Kurnai College, Victoria. Through the generosity of Kurnai College, Nicole will be accompanied by her colleague, Josh Garth.

Josh and Nicole developed the solar cooker project as an integrated unit across Humanities, Science, ICT for their Year 7 program.

Nicole [R] is pictured with Liz Rout, a member of the iEARN Australia Management Team and former scholarship recipient.

More information about the conference can be found on the conference website.

Elaine was extensively involved as a leader in the Victorian Education Department's various training programmes over the years and through iEARN developed and facilitated The Great Fly-Off and the Poet's Corner projects. iEARN Australia wishes Elaine the very best in her retirement and will certainly continue to benefit from her experience and skills.

The Natural Disaster Youth Summit, a project begun in 2004, brings together young people from across the globe in constructive discussion and work concerning natural disasters. Its motto is to "build the safer place to live for everyone in this planet".

Teddy Bear Exchange with Japan
Year 4 students at Thomas Mitchell Primary School in Melbourne have been involved in a teddy bear/doll exchange program with Mihara Elementary School in Hiroshima. Students take the doll home, introduce it to their family and keep a diary recording the doll's adventures. Students recently completed a webcam conference with the Japanese school where they exchanged cultural performances, games and simple quizzes.

Skype with students in Japan
Students from Gunbalanya Community Education Centre, in Arnhem Land, NT had a SKYPE linkup with Ishikawa Prefecture Junior High School in Japan. Students at Gunbalanya were able to communicate with more that 230 students, teachers and parents during the linkup, share information and sing Happy Birthday to one of the students in Japan.

Visitor from jEARN
Mr Yoichi Tsuji and his two sons have recently visited St Paul's Anglican Grammar School in Warragul, Victoria. Mr Tsuji, from jEARN, in Japan has worked collaboratively with Judy Barr on the Oral History - Kindred project.

For the third edition of the book, Yoichi, translated the first Japanese story that was submitted to the project. The story was written by MIss Yukiko Shimomura. The story was a moving account of the impact of the nuclear explosion that claimed the life of her grandfather at Nagasaki in 1945. Her grandfather asked to be transferred to a shipbuilding yard in Nagasaki. He left his family in Kokura to set up a new home in Nagasaki as it was too dangerous for his family to stay at Kokura. Before the family moved to the new location, the US Air Force dropped the bomb that killed him instantly. Yukiko's grandmother rushed to Nagaski to find her husband. For three days she searched in the rubble for him. She did not know of the affect that the radiation would have on her health for the rest of her life. Finally she died of cancer. To read the complete story click here.

During the three week visit in Australia, Yoichi's younger son, Taira, attended classes in the Junior School and his older son played on a golf course for the first time in his life. The St Paul's Japanese language teachers were delighted to use video-conferencing with Yoichi's colleagues in Japan. Judy and Yoichi have made plans to develop the Kindred project with more participation from students in Japan.

International Youth Summit for Environment
Phillip Blake and Alex Baxter, from Bairnsdale Secondary College, Victoria, represented Australia at the International Youth Summit for Environment. They presented to an international audience, met with the G8 Environment Ministers and participated in discussion groups with students from 20 countries.

Alex Baxter had the opportunity to meet with the Hon. Penny Wong, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water.

Me and My Community Project
As part of the Me and My Community Project, students from Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Korea and a remote indigenous school in Northern Territory linked up via Elluminate technology to share information about their communities.

The students and teachers in Korea made t-shirts to share with all participants. The photo shows iEARN students in Taiwan with their
t-shirts.

We have great pleasure in announcing that the scholarship has been awarded to Liz Rout from Thomas Mitchell Primary School, Victoria.

More information about the conference can be found on the conference website.

iEARN Asia/Pacific Conference 2007
Rob King, a member of the iEARN Australia Management Team, represented iEARN Australia at the conference in Tokyo, Japan.

Teachers and educators attended for three days of presenting ideas and sharing project information. iEARNers arrived from all over Asia including Bangladesh, Iran, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and iEARN International was represented by Bob Hoffman.

Read Rob's report to find out more about the conference.

Partnership with Asia Education Foundation 2006
A collaborative partnership has been formed between the Asia Education Foundation (AEF) and iEARN Australia to foster collaboration and inter-cultural learning between students in Australia and Asia.

Selected AEF schools in Australia will be participating in two projects with schools in Asia: The Teddy Bear Project and Learning Circles.

Visit the Asia Education Foundation website to find out more about the work of the AEF.

Australian Youth Ambassador for Development Volunteer
Lucy Hopkins, an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development, has gone to Bangladesh to work with iEARN Bangladesh for 12 months. While she is there she is working on developing youth programs.

Read about her experiences and see more photos in her report.

Christmas Card Project
The Christmas card project is a highly successful project in which classes make and exchange Christmas cards with each other.

Judy Barr, coordinator of the Christmas Card project has made a video to illustrate how the project works.

Honouring Muriel Wells
Muriel was honoured at a function at Melbourne University in September, 2006. Muriel has been an integral member of the iEARN Australian Management Team for 10 years and has been significant in the development of iEARN in Australia.

Muriel devised and initiated the iEARN Teddy Bear Project . As coordinator of the project she faciliated and mentored many hundreds of exchanges between classes . Muriel was awarded the Cable and Wireless Childnet Award in London in 1998 in recognition of her achievements.