OurStory Project Information
1. Name of Site: http:\\kinu.ns.ca\~waycobah\waycobah.html
2. School: Waycobah First Nation Secondary School
    District: Waycobah First Nation
    City: Waycobah First Nation, Cape Breton
    Province: Nova Scotia
    Email: Please feel free to email us at wfnss@auracom.com.
3. Teachers: Lisa Lunney, Phyllis Googoo & Kelly Ritcey
4. Classes participating: Computer Related Studies 12, Mi'kmaq Language 11/12, Mi'kmaq Studies 10, Social Studies 7&8, along with other students who wanted to contribute.
5. Number and ages of students: Approximately 35 of our 70 students were involved in some way with the web page. They ranged in age from 13 to 20.

Project Reflection
1. Description of School:

Waycobah First Nation Secondary School is a band run school with approximately 70 students in grades 7 to 12. There are 12 full-time staff members including the teaching staff, principal and support staff.

2. Summary of project:

This project was designed to showcase the community of Waycobah.

3. What obstacles did you have to overcome to complete your
    project?

Early in April we had a number of computer problems. We discovered that our internet server had a virus and we were forced to reformat the hard drive and reinstall all the software. It was a long and difficult process which set us back considerably. This also resulted in the internet server being disconnected from the network and this problem has still not been fixed yet. This left us with only one computer connected to the internet. We had to do a lot of copying onto disks.

In addition to these problems, we were all beginners with respect to creating web pages so we all had to learn about HTML together. It was decided that the grade 12 computer class would do most of the actual coding of the web pages using the materials that the other students typed. This worked out to be a good way of organizing the work load. The computer class became the project managers with students assigned to each section and they were responsible for gathering work from other classes.

4. What information technology tools did you use in creating your
    website?

We used HomeSite v1.0 to edit most of the web pages. We also created some pages using Microsoft Office 97 and a downloaded trial evrsion of HotDog Professional 5. We purchased a microphone for the purpose of recording sound. These were all done as wave files because of our limited technological abilities. :) We made use of our scanner to scan pictures that we gathered from the community. We used Corel PhotoHouse to edit some of the pictures. We also used a downloaded trial version of PaintShopPro 5 which worked very well.

5. How did the project goals relate to your curriculum?

In addition to learning more about their community, the Computer Related Studies class had the opportunity to experiance a wide variety of information technology tools as described above. It provided them with a real project to practice and refine their skills in this area.

For the Mi'kmaq Studies, Language and Social Studies classes it provided them with an opportunity to learn more about their community and, in particular, talk with their elders.

6. What has been the impact of this project on your students
    learning?

The students are all very proud and excited about this page! They rushed into class everyday wanting to know what still needed to be done. They worked very hard and wanted it to be the best. They have a place to share their knowledge about their community and, for the first time ever we suspect, they can hear their own Mi'kmaq language on the internet!

7. How did you connect with your community?

Almost all of the information on this page came from primary sources. Students interviewed community elders and leaders. Some talked to their grandparents and parents to write stories about family members. Other students talked to their neighbours to find out community stories. Some of the items students wrote from their own personal knowledge. It seemed as though every time we thought of something we would like to add, a student would suggest the name of a community member who could help us with that. We also had a great deal of help from the band office who provided us with statistics, photographs, and anything else we needed.

8. What would you do differently if you were to do the project
    again?

I think if we were to do this again there would be a few changes made. First, we would have liked to know more about creating web pages so that we could have added more graphics, frames, midi files, maybe quick time movies. At present we are only working with basic HTML programming. We do plan to continue to learn new things and add to this page as time permits.

Time is the second thing we probably would have liked to change. It seemed as though there was simply not enough time to do everything we wanted to do. March and April were very busy months at this school. There were lots of things going on, and with a small staff, it often seems as though there is just never enough time to do what you want to do. Perhaps working on it earlier in the year would have been a benefit.

In any future endeavours, it would also be nice to see even more students and staff get involved in this wonderful project.

9. What recommendations would you give other students and teachers wanting to run a project like this?

As a few words of advice to other schools planning to undertake such a project we would say:

1. Start early!
2. Plan well.
3. Try to tie your web page in with what you are doing in your classes. For example, the grade 10 class were doing interviews about community elders and leaders for their Mi'kmaq Studies 10 class as well as for the web page. We were also able to use some of the profiles of community leaders that students had written in previous years in this class.
4. Make sure you have the right technological tools. We had much stress caused by uncooperative computers.
5. Assign team leaders from among your student population.
6. Invite everyone to take part!