Local schools join in website contest

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)