ALISON GREEN

Kia ora!

I'm Alison Green, also known as :)Ali. Those of you who are taking part in InterLink will know me from my emails and phone calls - I'm the project co-ordinator, and your first point of contact for help and advice.

Three months ago, I had no idea how big InterLink would become, or how much support there would be from so many external sources. We are breaking new ground with this project, and certainly creating a lot of interest world-wide. If you take a look at the greetings pages, you will see what I mean.

As a former primary school teacher in England (William Booth Infants in Sneinton, Nottingham), and now as someone who virtually lives on, and makes her living from, the Internet, this project is very dear to my heart. When you put together a young person and a computer, wonderful things happen. Kids aren't scared by technology, they embrace it and make it their own. Showing a group of children the basics of how to use search engines, for example, opens up the world of cyberspace to them - and in my experience they leap into it with wild enthusiasm!

What makes InterLink special is the way that it links pairs of schools in Britain and New Zealand together. We have developed the projects so that they NEED the co-operation of both schools in order to work - and through the projects we are giving our InterLink children the opportunity to teach each other about their ways of life, and to understand each other a little better. At the same time they will be learning about how the Internet works and finding out how web sites are made; and will eventually be creating their own pages which will be put online.

The fascinating thing about children on the Web is their immediate wish to communicate. Almost every group I have worked with has wanted to email someone, wanted to interact with the virtual community, and knows that there are people out there with whom they want to make a connection.

I think that says something very important about the whole debate on our rapidly expanding "virtual world". To me it says that we do not need to be afraid of the Internet, of email, of all those new technologies which we lump into the vague concept of "cyberspace". This technology won't reduce our need or ability to communicate, it will enhance it, and if these children are anything to go by, it will encourage them to reach out further than we could have ever dreamed possible.

I'm looking forward to InterLink very much. It's going to be awesome watching those project reports come in from the kids, and very cool seeing them learning about each other online. The website will be an ever-changing thing, so come back often and see what we're up to!

If you have any questions about InterLink, you can email me on alison@cwa.co.nz.

If you're interested in other stuff I've done, try the Many Hands web pages.