Local schools join in website contest

JAKARTA (JP): Six teams from three privately run schools in the capital will pit their wits against their peers around the world in a five-month-long international website design contest beginning on Thursday.

The organizer, telecommunications company AT&T, said all of the Indonesian teams are composed of students from secondary and high schools managed by the Penabur Christian Foundation Body.

Two teams consist of students from SMUK 1 BPK Penabur senior high school, two from SLTPK 2 Penabur secondary school and the remaining two from SMUK 3 Penabur and Sekolah Tirta Marta BPK Penabur high schools, the organizer said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"We are very excited at taking part in this program for the second time. The students are very enthusiastic and feel that this program is fun and cool, especially in collaborating with overseas students," teacher Markiano Masin of SMUK I BPK Penabur was quoted as saying by the organizer.

It was not explained how the teams did in their first outing or how they were selected for the contest.

The third AT&T Virtual Classroom Contest 98 requires the participating students to work with teammates from other countries to produce a website via the Internet.

This year, about 3,000 students from 300 schools in 38 countries in the Asia-Pacific region will take part in the contest.

"Each team consists of three schools from different countries," AT&T said.

AT&T provides all the teams with "virtual" facilities, such as private chat forums and web servers to host their websites.

Participants are required to plan, design and create web pages using Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) and publish their web sites via File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

A panel of judges will rate the websites on the basis of content, presentation and level of collaboration.

Winning teams will receive trophies and prizes, including modems and software. The grand prize is an invitation for winning team representatives to attend the awards ceremony in Hong Kong on May 10, 1999, and meet their teammates in person.

"AT&T is committed to our Virtual Classroom program, which not only encourages students to use the Internet as a tool for learning, but also gives children the chance to work together to transcend national and cultural boundaries," AT&T Asia/Pacific president JoAnn Patrick-Ezzel said. (bsr)