Q1. Please tell me more details about what we are supposed to be doing during the work period from October to February.

A1. Although we will provide participants with instructions explaining the activities step by step, below is a general outline of the work period. Self Introduction--Participants meet their virtual classmates. Students can write self-introductions and post or mail their photos so that everyone in all three schools will get to know their names and faces. We recommend you post the self-intros from your partner schools on a bulletin board so students can see the other students at any time. If you can, make a video or take snapshots of school activities and send them to the other schools. Planning--Outline the team's website. Particpants from all three schools will brainstorm and jointly select a theme for their website project. The team will jointly make an outline of the website and plan its implementation. We recommend that you create subgroups made up of students from each of the three different schools. This will give your students an opportunity to work more closely with their virtual classmates. Web Authoring--Collect the necessary resources according to the topic your team has chosen. Write drafts of the text, draw pictures, take photographs and prepare to make Web pages. At the same time, start thinking about the layout of your website. Think about what images and what text to use. Once you have prepared everything you need, you're ready start making Web pages and uploading them to the server. After all three schools have finished uploading, check all the links and you're finished. Review--The students will look back at their work and evaluate their team's presentation and collaborative process.

Q2. In Australia, we have our long summer vacation from early December to late January, which would appear to be the main time for work on submissions. Has this really been a problem in past years?

A2. If the other two members of your team agree, you can speed up your schedule by spending less time on self-introductions and start working from the middle of October until your vacation in early December. The other two schools in your team can either quit then, or continue working together through February. In past years, some teams continued working on their site without the Australian school, and some Australian schools continued working after December even though the students had already graduated. The important thing is to discuss your team's schedule with your partners well beforehand. Note that this does not only apply to Australia, but may also apply to any schools in the southern hemisphere.