School: Claret School of Quezon City

          6 students, ages 13-15 years old worked together to complete this CyberFair project on October 19, 2006. They have participated in CyberFair in the following years: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005

Classes and Teachers: Second Year-Saint Martin de Porres , Mr. Roxan Ruchillo S. Cosico, Mr. Patrick Ian V. Cordero, Ms. Noelle Angela C. Soto, Ms. Roselyn F. Abancia and Mr. Jaime Emana

E-Mail contact: [email protected] (Leader: Jake Romero)

Our School's Web Site: http://www.claretschool.edu.ph

1. Description of Our Community

          Cubao, south of Diliman is an important commercial area. At its heart is the Araneta Center, along EDSA (C-4) and Aurora Boulevard (R-6). It contains a number of shopping malls catering to the middle-class Filipinos, such as the Ali Mall (named after the boxing legend Mohammad Ali), The Farmers Plaza, and the modern Gateway Mall. Department stores and retail centers can also be found here, such as Plaza Fair, Rustan's, Shopwise Supercenter, and Makro. At the center is Araneta Coliseum, often called the Big Dome. Many musical concerts, religious crusades, wrestling, cock-fighting and basketball games are held in this 50,000-capacity coliseum. North from Araneta Center along EDSA (C-4) are numerous bus terminals. This is the area where many residents in Metro Manila go to in order to take bus rides to almost any point in Luzon as well as in the Visayas especially in Samar, Leyte, and Iloilo. It is also an intersection point for two of city's commuter trains: the EDSA MRT, which travels from North to South, and the LRT-2, which runs from East to West.

2. Summary of Our Project

          Netopia Internet Café is present in over 150 locations all over the Philippines with regional expansion beginning with branches operating in Bangkok, Thailand. Backed by telecommunications giant PLDT, Netopia continues to be the industry leader and innovator in offering customers the most comprehensive and cutting edge IT and Internet-related services at affordable rates. Netopia Internet Café’s plans include continued expansion with a target of close to 500 branches by 2008 in the Philippines, along with regional expansion in other countries in South-East Asia and beyond. With intensive Research & Development plus close partnerships with the biggest international names in the IT industry, Netopia promises to keep on delivering the best modern technology will have to offer. The purpose of this study project is to honor Netopia Internet Café and to introduce it as a major business for the future.

3. CyberFair Theme

          This year’s CyberFair theme is entitled, “Inspire and Unite! Prepare for the future and unite communities!” Our project supports this theme because we are preparing for the future and, at the same time, uniting communities. We see that Netopia Internet Café has indeed found its place as one of the most successful internet cafes in the Philippines. We see that by creating a website about Netopia, it would be easy for us to convey the success of Netopia. This is important due to franchises and personal businesses to bring in extra profit are presently immensely popular. Through the success of this project, the information would disseminate and we would be able to help the community. This would ultimately lead to the unification of the communities and a healthy technological future.

4. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home: more than 60%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom: more than 10

C. Connection speed used in the classroom: broadband connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet: 4-6

5. Problems We Had To Overcome

          Since the second quarter is the shortest period of school, we had to pass numerous requirements for different subjects almost simultaneously. Meeting all the requirements on time and still attend meetings to deal with the project narrative and the website ate up our time. Everybody’s schedule was always full so it was hard to find a time where we could all go to Netopia. Time was truly the greatest problem.

          Money was a challenge as well. Getting to Netopia and back to Claret was somewhat expensive. Furthermore, testing the qualities of the computers of Netopia required a regular flow of money.

6. Our Project Sound Bite

          This project was truly a joint effort between Netopia Internet Café and Claret School of Quezon City, High School. Students and community members from both sides worked closely together to reach a successful conclusion to the project.

7. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

          To incorporate this project into classroom curriculum, it was decided that 6 students of a class form a group, so everyone would have a sense of being a part of this venture into a common goal. School's curriculums place priority on developing local culture. In the subsequent stage of course planning and design, the teacher placed a time to research about the project’s content. In addition, we arranged with the Netopia staff to place meetings in the afternoon when it was the best time for coordinating the helps from parents. We could then make the best use of our time doing research, interviews, and discussions together. This way, we mobilized all the resources to accomplish our goal of completing the research at the best of our efforts. This also accomplished the educational goal of project-based learning.

1) What information tools & technologies did you use to complete your CyberFair project?

          The software tools that we used were (1) Microsoft Windows XP to run the computers, (2) Adobe Photoshop to process the photographs, (3) Microsoft FrontPage to create the web pages, (4) Microsoft Word to type and edit the project narrative, and (5) Yahoo! and Google mail to communicate and send data to each other. The additional hardware tools we used were (1) digital cameras to take digital photographs, (2) printers to print the project narrative and some photographs, (3) USB flash drives to pass parts of the website for modification, and (4) computers to run the programs that would make the website. The most essential tools used were the computers, digital cameras and the software program, Microsoft FrontPage – without these, the project would not have become successful.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person?

          When we went to interview people from the Netopia staff, we had to tell them who we were and why we were interviewing them. We told them that we were students of Claret School of Quezon City and the interview is in partial fulfillment of our projects in English, Filipino and Computer. We told them all about the CyberFair competition. Through that discussion, we acted as ambassadors by representing our school and our community. Furthermore, we proved to be spokespersons for the CyberFair competition. We want people to see that Claret School of Quezon City’s communities are united and are prepared for the future.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

          As of the moment, this project has only had a direct impact on us students. We were all made more aware of what is in store for the future and are tasked to prepare for it. What we hope is that this website will bring more awareness of the road ahead. We hope that the publicity from this website will allow all the communities to unite and work hand-in-hand in molding the future into a great success. Furthermore, the working relationships between our members have flourished. Throughout this project, numerous adversities became known, however, we were still able to fight them off and finish the project successfully.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

          This project would have been impossible to accomplish without the help of many people. We would like to thank Netopia, our primary lead, for giving us the opportunity to make a website about them. We would like to thank our parents for they supported and assisted us in finishing this work. They were the ones who helped us financially when we were lacking funds. They were the ones who gave us the strength of mind when we were losing hope and time. We would like to thank our teachers because they assisted us in this project. They lent us the equipments and the time we needed for this project. Lastly, we would like to thank the Almighty God for without Him, none of these things would be possible. He is our inspiration and our greatest helper.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises

          We were surprised when we saw the number of people using the computer units at Netopia. We did not imagine that a lot people are fond of network and internet computer gaming in our community.

          There is no power without solidarity. That was the most important lesson we discovered in this project. We learned to trust and believe in each other’s abilities. We discovered that it is very difficult to make a project like this without seeking each other’s help. We can say that this is both a fundamental and a knowledgeable activity, which enhanced our technical computer skills. We conquered a lot of difficulties and challenges in doing this project. We are confident of what we accomplished and we are proud of it.