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iEARN-Sri Lanka had been working with all the following
counties for last 3 & 4 years and the students and
teachers got a enormous experience dealing in
international issues.
Here are some messages sent by our dearest friends
around the world for our web site, We do have some
more messages with us and we are adding them gradually.
We invite you Sri Lankans, to join hands with us to
make a difference, I am sure that all the wonderful
below messages will inspire you in a great deal!
FROM AUSTRALIA
Dear iEARN friends of Sri Lanka,
Greetings from iEARN Australia. Great bonds
of friendship have grown between Australian
teachers and students and their counterparts
in Sri Lanka through wonderfully successful
collaborative project work over a number of
years. The links between us are exciting and
productive.
Congratulations on the publication of the iEARN
Sri Lanka web site.
May it enhance the wonderful work you are doing.
With warm wishes,
iEARN Australia Management Team
www.iearn.org.au
FRO BULGARIA
DEAR SHRI LANKAN FRIENDS
I, Neli Georgieva, wish all the members if the iEARN
Shri Lanka team a successfull year. You should take
this opportunity to participate in projects about
global understaning and peace, meet wonderful people
from all over the world and expand your horizons beyond
the familiar and comfortable.
I encourage all Shri-Lankan students to participate in
the "Aspects of Love" project. You can access the
on-line forum by going to foro.iearn.org with your
username and password, and then select Love- Aspects
of Love from the drop-down list of projects.
The web-site is
http://sites.schools-bg.net/varn-1langschool/default-en.htm
Neli Georgieva
FROM CHINA
Dear I*EARN- SRI LANKA
"Congratulations on the incoming iEARN-Sri Lanka web
site. iEARN members from Sri Lanka have been working
so hard and you're always playing quite an important
role in the international iEARN family.
Keep on going,friends! I know you're sure to do better.
All the best,
Guan Le
(Peking University, China)
guanle@pku.edu.cn
FROM EGYPT
Dear iEARN FRIENDS,
It gives me great pleasure to write about iEARN Sri
Lanka as its active participation is a clear evidence
of the great work you are doing. I kept on reading what
you write and send to the iEARN community and enjoyed
the way you tackle the issues that we are all
interested in. I admire much the wonderful commitment
in responding to the different messages and the
fruitful ideas you give and add .your active participation
keeps the iEARN forum alive and helps others to keep on
sending messages and this enhances the interaction
and collaboration needed as we need all iEARNERS to
share the others their opinions and thoughts and
even their feelings as a gate to strengthen and
tighten the relationship amongst them to create
the global community we are all looking for.
IEARN Sri-Lanka is a wonderful achievement done by
the members of iEARN in Sri-Lanka and a sign of the
great amount of work done by the students. This shows
how the students understood the aims and goals of iERAN.
I am sure that the students became more and more aware
of the local and global issues as well
and are now positive members in the society.
I am proud of your work and I hope to see iEARN
Sri-Lanka more and more successful.
Sharing you the success of iEARN Sri-Lanka,I hope to
see students in Egypt engaged in carrying out
meaningful educational projects with their peers
in Sri-Lanka.I am sure they can together cause the
difference and change we need. We can through
cooperation between iEARN Egypt and iEARN Sri-Lanka
involve students in projects dealing with issues
found in both countries and encourage them to use
iEARN forum to send and receive messages. I am sure
this will enhance their learning skills and raise
their awareness of the local and global issues through
using telecommunication technology as a step to be
global citizens for the benefit of their countries
and the world. I hope iEARN Sri-Lanka all success
in carrying out its sacred mission and in achieving
its goals.
Regards,
Elgohary Helal Elgohary
iEARN team leader
iEARNEgypt board member,
Egypt.
To My dear friends from Sri Lanka,
First of all I would like to thank you for giving me
the chance to write to you which gives me great
confidence that our friendship will really last forever.
Before I talk about how active you are on the interactive
forums or about your wonderful iearn projects.
I want to talk about you as one of the best people I
met in the i*EARN Conference in Russia and not only
in the conference but in my life as well.
I am really happy to have friends that understand
the real meaning of friendship and how to be positive
human beings in this life we are living especially
nowadays..
This was so clear through your postings on the iearn
interactive forums. Everybody realizes how active you
are. We all saw your sweet and positive replies that
gives us the feeling that we are able to change the
world around us..
For Me I realized that they are not only working on
the interactive forums but they are trying to encourage
other active students either from Sri Lanka or from any
other countries to work on the interactive forums to be
active members like them!!
My Dear friends!!
Go On!! Continue this Wonderful Work, what you are
doing is really a great Job!
Keep It Up guys!!
May God Bless you all!!
Wishing you the best of Luck,
Best Regards,
Nanis Yousry
Cairo - Egypt
FROM INDIA
From Mr. Edward Fernandez (Eddie) Mumbai, India. IT &
Educational consultant to schools throughout India
since 1984.
To start with I would like to quote " two sayings ",
that aptly describe Sri Lanka and the SLEARN team :
a) Great Things come in small packages..........
b) Dynamite comes in small packages but the blast
affects a large area...........
Entire Sri Lanka land mass measures about 65,610 square
kilometres with Colombo as the Capital and largely
three mainstream languages ie. Singhalese, Tamil and
English. If compared to the Indian land mass of
3,287,590 square kilometres it is much much smaller !!.
I have to say that being from India and with Sri Lanka
as my neighbour on the south-east coast I have
seen/heard/read about so many upheavels in the
Sri Lankan political system since so many years
but yet SLEARN has been formed under such adverse
circumstances which has to be acknowledged and
full credit for the mountaineous efforts is due to the
entire Sri Lankan SLEARN team and in particular the
Coordinator of Sri Lanka, Mrs. Lakshmi Attygalle, the
Royal College and Udara Soysa who alongwith Radha
Blackman from i*EARN, USA introduced i*EARN way back
in 1999 to the Sri Lankan community. I have met with
the Sri Lankan delegation at Moscow and the Awaji
Islands of Japan and have found them to be always
well dressed, well mannered, friendly, jovial, action
packed and full of ideas, the last of which is the
most important quality that each iearn member should
have and they come in large delegations filled with
youth. Sri Lanka has proven that
they are among the few countries participating in
i*EARN where from there are more of student participants
rather than teachers or adults, which is
what i*EARN is all about.
I must quote here an incident that occured during the
Moscow conference of 2002. I found just one student
from Sri Lanka who nearly lost himself near the Kremlin
at Moscow, I was near the kremlin with the Nepalese
delegation when we spotted him almost in tears at
around 7.30pm and recognised him because of i*EARN !!.
To cut the rest-of-the-story short he accompanied us
back to the hotel to the utmost relief of the Sri
Lankan coordinator, Mrs. Lakshmi.
From " Ideas " flow " Thoughts " followed by
" Actions ". The " Idea ", the " Thought ", and the
subsequent " Action " of hosting the Sri Lankan website
www.slearn.org was expected from Mrs. Lakshmi and her
team. The website is " Great " from such a " Small "
country. It has the right colour fusion, a precise and
structured information plan and allows easy, simple
and quick access from the navigation buttons onwards.
The list of projects that have been either suggested
singly or jointly with other nations shows proof of
the seriousness and urgency that Sri Lankans attach
to fruitful and meaningful participation in i*EARN.
It is " through participation " that " we learn from
others " and " others learn from us ".
I have studied the participation in some of the
projects..............
a) My country at the crossroads of peace
b) Animals are our friends
c) The fight against drugs
d) Child Labour
e) Sweet whispers
f) The value of money
and find so much of enthusiasm and efforts put in by
the Sri Lankans and others in their projects. Their
projects focus then mirror on so many issues
that the entire world is facing today and it is to
be appreciated that students and teachers from around
the globe are participating in these projects which
speaks volumes of the choice of projects. The
Sri Lankans have not only selfishly stuck to promoting
their own projects but have shown their eagerness and
selflessness to participate in so many world projects
like Lewin etc. which is another steering quality that
every iearner should cultivate.
It is very easy to start on something but it is not easy
to continuously follow upon what is started, which is
exactly what the Sri Lankans have been doing.
Putting their minds, heart, soul into almost every
project from around the globe. Surely we in India have
learned so much from our little neighbour, Sri Lanka
and I have to add here, Pakistan too !!. These two
countries together are like dynamite surrounding
us and the sparks/blast of their participation have
surely goaded us to participate even more. Thank
you Sri Lanka for waking up the giant in us !!.
As much as I have said about Sri Lanka I would like
to invite each of you Sri Lankans to participate
actively in so many of our projects which you can
have access to from our website and in particular
our very own project formulated by Lorraine, Shubadra
and myself from India under the title " Is Honesty
the Best Policy ". We have many students participating
in our project and invite many more participants from
our little neighbour. The only way to reach our project
is through the " Interactive Forums ", under "
Civics - Student Discussions ". Besides i*EARN related
projects we have many " Project Based Learning (PBL)
Modules ", introduced in many Indian schools
since 2002 and which utilizes the computer technology
periods each week in schools, wherein we encourage
students to use the computer more as a tool
rather than as in learning only computer languages and
packages. There is so much of excitement among students
working in groups, collecting and collating information
/data, finding the links/relation between information
gathered and regular school curriculum as in science,
geography, history etc., putting the jigsaw puzzle of
information in the correct order and
finally fine tuning the same on the computer which
culminates in an annual exhibition of their finished
products and viewed by neighbouring schools,
parents, teachers and the general public as well in
March each year, which gives them much pride in
themselves. The entire PBL programme was conceptualized
by us to be Of-the-Students, By-the-Students and
For-the-Students with the least possible interference
/influence of thoughts from their teachers. There are
so many qualities a student embibes through the journey
of PBL, to name a few... team spirit, self confidence,
selflessness, responsibility, time management,
presentation skills, filing systems, committment,
methodology of gathering information/data,
thinking/logical skills etc..which otherwise is
not part of most indian schools academic curriculums.
A few of the modules for this academic year are :
Fast Food : Concept, Origins, Reason, Types, Hygene,
Heatlh Hazards etc..
Myself as a School Bag : The burden of text/note books,
Relevance to today's world, The need for Education,
The use of the school Calendar etc..
War and Terrorism : Origins, Causes, Effects, Mass
weapons of destruction, Who is responsible, the Need
for W/T etc..
To know more about our PBL programmes feel free to
contact us at :
a) eddie@bom4.vsnl.net.in
b) lorrainefernz@yahoo.com
Happy New Year to you and everyone in Srilanka.
I am greatly honoured to be asked to write to your
website. I did go through it earlier and find it very
impressive. Its a wonderful idea to do projects
together. All of us are aware of the tense situation
between the two nations. And we being in Tamil Nadu
are more aware and are the first and most affected
than the rest of the world.
But happily things have started to change for the
better. It would indeed be a wonderful and most
appropriate to initialise projects. I would really
like to get involved with the refugees who have to
go back to Sri Lanka. Please let me know what help
we can do and I can do my best.
Let me know what exactly you want me to write and
where. As I had mentioned earlier I am no longer
the SOL Coordinator. Am more an Educational Consultant
these days and can go to schools and talk to them
about iEarn but I need to get Sunita's permission
first.
I wish you all the best and look forward for more and
more projects and interaction between us.
Regards
Kanchana
Dear friends from Sri Lanka,
It has indeed been a pleasure to watch iEARN - Sri Lanka
grow over the past few years. I remember the small but
lasting steps taken by pioneers who dared to do
something different in carrying the benefits of IT
and the internet to the remote areas of Sri Lanka
where even formal education had not completely reached.
When I met Wani at Cairo in Nov 2000, I was humbled by
seeing the work he'd done. It must have been a
tremendous effort with the slow internet connection,
the geographical barriers between the children and the
nearest internet facility available! Udara's
contribution on the iEARN forums was another landmark
contribution. It was like Udara everywhere! He breathed
a new life in the CIVICS discussions! Lakshmi and her
team are doing a good job of inspiring the new
generation in joining iEARN activities. Seeing iEARN
Sri Lanka blooming now makes one full of pride and
admiration for all those who have put in the effort.
It is a remarkable example for other developing
countries
It would be nice if Sri Lankan students participate in
the SHIST (Studying History In Search of Truth) project.
We will be trying to find common roots. We can also
start making friends and exchange letters and maybe
arrange for children to tour our respective countries
and create stronger bonds.
I wish you all the very best!
Rashmi Makwana
IEARN - India.
makwanarashmi@indiatimes.com
FROM IRAN
To- IEARN-Sri Lanka
Thank you very much for your kindness.
Your contributions of any kind will without a doubt
be a great help in lifting the heavy weight of loss
and sorrow that lingers over the victims of this
tragedy. The human capacity for love and compassion
is amazing. On behalf of all members of iearn-Iran
i thank you and the whole iearn-Sri Lanka network and
also the children for your efforts.
Mojgan Momeni
iearn-Iran Coordinator
FROM JAPAN
Congratulations, iEARN-Sri Lanka friends, on publishing
your web site with many pictures taken at the
Tenth iEARN conference in AWAJI, Japan. Good memories
for us all.
We are glad to know that our web site is linked to
yours. Thank you !
The most exciting thing for both of children and
teachers in Sri Lanka and Japan
may be connecting real time over internet video
conferencing in addition ton iEARN projects together.
It is not big time difference, isn't it?
Anytime you want to have this type of video conference
either by internet or ISDN, please let us know.
JEARN will arrange it between your students and
students in Japan, or between both iEARN teachers.
There are quite many projects which we would like
to do together, and among them, "Love from Japan to
Slovakia" Project is the one which
we would like to have you on the way to Slovakia.
http://www.jearn.jp/eng/JEARNworshop.html
http://www.jearn.jp/eng/jicaw/jearnw040118.doc
Please look at the above web sites and be one of
chain countries to all the way to Slovakia. We are
looking forward to your participation.
Any questions to JEARN Office at : office@jearn.jp
NPO JEARN@Yoko Takagi
yoko@jearn.jp office@jearn.jp
http://www.jearn.jp http://2003japan.jp
FROM PAKISTAN
Dear Friends All over Sri Lanka,
I welcome you to the huge iEARN Community which is
growing and growing daily. iEARN is a wonderful world
where you get to meet people from all over the world
also you get an opportunity to world collaboratively
from peers around. Working in iEARN has always been a
wonderful experience for me. In the 3 years I have been
involved in iEARN I have made numerous friends across
the oceans which have alot of meaning in my life.
I have shared my good and bad moments with these
friends and have now formed a bond which makes me feel
all these people are a part of my life. I should better
not forget to mention that the first person with whom I
interacted in iEARN was indeed a Sri Lankan who had
always been a great support for me and a great friend
and his help has made me move forward.
I had the chance of meeting the Sri Lankan delegation
back in Moscow 2002 the time I spent with them was
memorable I thoroghly enjoyed their company and it was
wonderful meeting them and being friends with them.
I hope to work with more and more students and teachers
from Sri Lanka I will appreciate if you work
enthusiastically and actively in our iEARN projects
such as Fight against Drugs this project endaveors to
fight the evil of drugs and stop the youngsters from
destroying their health by getting hooked to the harmful
substances. This project started as a joint venture by
students from Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Also I will
appreciate if you encourage your students and friends
to participate in the Fight against Child labour
project through this project we tend to irradicate the
menace of child labour which is largely spreading in
our society these days. This is a little step to bring
forth justice and make the children aware of their
rights.
I am sure the friendship between the iEARN Sri Lankan
students and iEARN Pakistan students will keep
prospering and we will be able to see more and more
active students from iEARN Sri Lanka in the interactive
forums and hence they will continue to work effectively
to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people
by participating in the iEARN projects.
I wish to welcome you all with a hope that you will
follow the footsteps of other iEARN students from your
country and will continue to work effeciently with the
same zeal and enthusiasm. One more thing I would like
to add is that the iEARN Sri Lankan team has put in
alot of effort in their website and I must congratulate
them and encourage them for their hard work.
With a hope for a better, safer and peaceful world.
Lots of love,
Sarah Alam
iEARN Pakistan
www.iearnpk.org
FROM ROMANIA
I have just visited your site.
I was very much impressed both by the way it has been
made and by your active involvement in international
projects.
You are a wonderful group of young people.
I will give you as an example to my colleagues from
Maramures, Romania, inviting all of them to see what
can be achieved through passion, civic involvement,
hard work and dedication.
Congratulation!
Mariana Gabriela Hudrea
International cooperation inspector
Maramures County School Inspectorate
Romania
www.isjmm.ro
www.multinet.ro/international_projects/
e-mail: Mariana.Hudrea@mail.alphanet.ro
FROM RUSSIA
Dear iEARN friends in Sri Lanka,
The teachers and students of iEARN Russia are very
proud to be part of the same iEARN family with teachers
and students in Sri Lanka.iEARN means very much for us
and we know that it can make a difference.
Let me tell you a true story. We still recall what
happened at the iEARN
conference in Moscow in 2002. When the iEARN students
from Sri Lanka applied for Russian visas only a few
days remained before the start of the conference and
there was no time to process visa invitations in time.
There was no chance that you could get visas in time.
We were all very sorry and unhappy. Then, when I was
walking in a street of Moscow, my cell phone rung.
When I answered it , it was the Consul General of the
Russian Federation calling from Colombo, Sri Lanka.
He said that that he saw and met the iEARN Sri Lanka
teachers and students who came to the consulate in
Colombo. They were so wonderful and were doing such
good work that he wanted very much to find a way of
making it possible for them to come to Moscow in time.
We discussed it for a few minutes and found a solution.
The teachers and students from Sri Lanka arrived and
participated in the conference. This is not the end of
the story. The Consul called me again when the
conference was already in progress and inquired if the
Sri Lankan team arrived safely. This story is one the
most unforgettable events for me.
As soon as the new version of iEARN Sri Lanka is up,
please send us the link and we shall be very happy to
pass it on to our teachers and students.
Many of them communicate in English and will be very
happy to do to work jointly with you on many iEARN
projects.
With very best wishes,
Victor
FROM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dear iEARN friends in Sri Lanka,
It is an honor to be able to write a few words about
the work that you have done and about the hopes that I
have for the program in your country. It was only three
years ago that I had my first chance to meet students
and teachers from your country and hear of the excellent
project work that had been done by your students. It
was in Beijing at the iEARN International Conference
in 2000. For anyone who has not been to one of these
conferences, it is nearly impossible to describe the
fast pace and compressed schedule duringwhich the
workshops and many, many meetings take place. Everyone
is eager to spend even a few minutes to personally
interact withindividuals who they have met only online
or at a prior year's conference.
With 700 -1,000 people to meet during the week, every
minute is full of conversations, stories, hugs and many
smiles. For me, these meetings mean that I rarely have
the chance to actually attend any of the workshops
presented by students and teachers, which is a major
loss for me.
And, it so happened that I was caught up in meetings
and was not able to attend the presentation by the Sri
Lankan delegation. ;-(
But, something happened that had never happened to me
before. The delegation, out of kindness and generosity,
offered to present their workshop again--only for me.
I was treated to a personal presentation of the online
work that the students from Sri Lanka had done. It was
a moving experience for me and on more than one
occasion during the presentation, tears of joy welled
up in my eyes.
So, from that early day, Sri Lanka and its students
and teachers have a special place in my heart. I feel
a friendship, commitment, enthusiasm and vision that is
rare in the field of education. I applaud the work you
have done and look forward to the future. My hopes and
expectations for a great future of iEARN in Sri Lanka
is based on what you have all demonstrated in the past
few years. You are a model for others to follow.
In admiration,
Ed
IEARN-USA
http://www.iearn.org/
Dear Colleagues and Sri Lankan Students!
Best iEARN wishes from the mountains near Albuquerque,
New Mexico, USA! What do iEARN wishes mean? I hope that
you can join with your global colleagues in online
projects through the iEARN forums, participate
in online classes (Check that out at
http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html),
work in your country with colleagues and students,
and perhaps join us at an annual conference, this year
in Slovakia!
I was lucky to introduce iEARN to teachers in
Sri Lanka, Columbo and Anaradapura, in 1999!
I just love the beauty of your country and the
hospitality of your people!
I am proud to see your website and your
activity in iEARN projects! I love stringhoppers,
fresh tea, curry, dahl, etc.!
Welcome to the iEARN family, where collaboration,
respect and understanding can grow so deep that this
family becomes as important as your blood relations.
Warmly,
Celia Einhorn
Tijeras, New Mexico, USA
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