LET THE FUN BEGIN!
Hook, Line and Sinker...? Not in this case! Gander, Newfoundland is host to the "Hook, Line and Net ‘97 conference this week August 18-21. The computer conference involves 120 students and adults from Newfoundland and is the first to include both students and adults. The conference features the use of the Internet, technology and an SNN (SchoolNet News) journalism team. The SNN journalism team published a special-edition news report for display on the net early Thursday afternoon. Special remarks and a panel discussion opened the conference at Hotel Gander on Tuesday morning, August 19. Guest speakers brought greetings from their organizations and spoke briefly about the conference itself. The mayor of Gander, Mr. Claude Elliott, welcomed participants on behalf of the town and jokingly suggested that to enjoy themselves more, all participants should go into Gander and spend money at local stores Harvey Weir, the director of STEM~Net, spoke briefly and then introduced Art Rockwood of CBC Radio, who was an early user of the Internet. The panel included Nancy Parsons-Heath, assistant-director of STEM~Net, and members of the national board for SchoolNet News-- Jennifer Smith, a reporter for The Evening Telegram in Newfoundland; Anne Crawford-Major, a learning-resources teacher at I. J. Sampson Junior High School in St. John's; and Larry Danielson, an English teacher at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler, Manitoba. This very informative session lasted for an hour-and-a-half and discussed how far the Internet has come in the recemt years. Mr. Rockwood demonstrated what the Internet was like back in 1988 when it basically consisted of nothing more than words: no pictures, no real audio, and no Netscape. Larry Danielson spoke on how the Internet has affected his students in Winkler, MB. His students have had 60 articles published on SchoolNet News. As a result, one student was accepted into a journalism school at age 17. Other panel members also took part in the discussion on the development of the Internet. One issue of the SNN newpaper was the original plan; fortunately, more than one now exists-- one each month to be exact! SNN is completely bilingual and is well worth reading. The address is www.stemnet.nf.ca/snn. Be sure to look for it on the Net!
|
