The Ministry of Education kicked off its third annual Taiwan School Cyberfair yesterday. This year, students and educators are being encouraged to create Web sites that tell a story about their local community.
"By participating in this educational project," said Lu Mu-lin (
"Using digital resources, students can create educational Web sites that tell us stories about their communities," Liu said.
As in previous years, students are being asked to create Web sites based on a theme and judges will award prizes to the designers of the best sites in each themed category.
This year's themes are leadership, local ethnic groups, community organizations and businesses, local specialties, tourist attractions, historical landmarks, environmental issues, art, music and an open category, Liu said.
"Winning teams are chosen in the final round of competition to be held in March next year," said Hsing Yue-chane (
Hsing said that local teams have won numerous awards at the International Cyberfair since Taiwan first began participating in 1999.
"In 1999, our teams won platinum awards in the middle-school and high school divi-sions," said Hsing. "And in 2001, our teams won platinum, gold and silver awards in a host of categories."
"Not only have our students gained international recognition for design excellence," enthused Liu, "but they have also introduced Taiwan's natural beauty, history and culture to people in other nations."
"All this falls in with President Chen's (陳水扁) vision," Liu said, "which is to introduce Taiwan to the world."
Hsing said that so far 200 teams have registered for this year's cyberfair.
"We expect that more than 1,000 teams -- consisting of over 10,000 elementary, middle and high school students -- will have registered to participate by the time the deadline ends," Hsing added.
The registration deadline is Dec. 31, Hsing said.
This year's Taiwan School Cyberfair is being sponsored by the Taipei and Kaohsiung bureaus of education, National Tsinghua University, Chunghwa Telecom Co Ltd and Microsoft Taiwan, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique