Interning with Internet.

"Next week", my Editor asked me, "do you think you could help out UN Publications on an Internet project called 'CyberSchoolBus'? They need people, and I know you have Internet experience. We'll 'loan' you to them for a week. Does it sound interesting?" It did.

Even before my internship started at the UN Chronicle, I had often "visited" the different UN Web Sites and been very impressed by the vast amount of information they contained: documents, news, conference schedules, databases and more. However, I had to admit they seemed designed more for researchers, correspondents, non-governmental organizations, diplomats, and others who had some professional interest in the United Nations. The Sites are informative, but not always much fun. Would the CyberSchoolBus be more of the same?

With some doubts in mind, I reported the following Monday to UN Publications. Mr. Abouali Farmanfarmaian, who's responsible for the project, explained that the CyberSchoolBus was an educational project for students from grades 3 to 12. "Imagine the United Nations as a vast land of resources you can travel through. You can stop on the way and pick up information on water pollution or on housing and urban problems. You can drop in at any one of the four major UN conferences. Or you can visit different UN offices and peacekeeping missions around the world. You can also take a tour of the United Nations and then stop by the bookstore to order instructional materials, charts and posters."

So far, it didn't sound much different from other UN Sites. However, once I browsed through it a bit, I saw just how exciting it was. They designed it, as Abouali put it, "to make learning fun". The CyberSchoolBus Site is a curriculum-rich environment with information, lesson plans and activities on issues of global concerns. It consists of six major parts - Global Teach-In; Special Projects; Photogallery; Bookstore; UN Tour; and UN Factfile - written in easy-to-understand language. Besides including general information about the United Nations, the Site offers interactive projects and games that get kids involved. And most are updated on a regular basis.

For example, there is one game called "Ph.Q" (Professor Photo Quiz). Each week, a picture of a world heritage site is uploaded and kids are quizzed about its location. In another project, young players participate in "building your ideal city", getting them to think about how best to deal with rapid growth, pollution, homelessness, and other urban problems. Begun only in June 1996, the basic construction of the "ideal city" was almost complete by the time I came to work for the CyberSchoolBus.

All the work, from designing and information collecting to Web constructing, is done by Abouali and Jim, a Web Site designer. To make sure that the projects meet children's interests and needs, they invited teachers from Chile, India, and United States, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom to help develop the curricula for "Special Projects" - the most important section in the CyberSchoolBus. I helped scan graphs and pictures into the computer, and created some simple HTML files based on the information they provided to me.

The most difficult part of building a Web Site, I came to realize, is not Web page construction itself but the preparatory work - the project design and the information collecting. Once you decide what you want online and what it should look like, it's rather simple to put it into a format recognized by the World Wide Web.

But there are exceptions, such as "The World at a Glance" where you can click on a UN Member State and see basic information about it. How do you present 185 Member States without creating 185 separate HTML pages? There's a trick. First, build a database containing information about all UN Member States. Then, create a CGI file using the script language PERL. The function of this CGI file is to "go" to the database and "retrieve" the information on the Member State "requested". But creating that complex CGI file was no easy task; and I still remember how happy Jim was when he successfully created another one that could calculate the amount due and print a receipt for users who order publications online.

A fundamental purpose of the CyberSchoolBus project is to help children develop a "global sense". The Internet - a world without national borders - seems the ideal place. Since the SyberSchoolBus' launch on 21 October 1996, it has attracted traffic from all around the world. In just the first two weeks, 50 schools, school districts and individual users expressed the wish to become part of the project. And more "cool" projects are planned, including: "Live Chat with the Ambassador to the UN", where ambassadors to the Organization will chat "live" with children; "Flag Tag", where kids can test their knowledge of the world's flags; and a Model UN discussion group.

It's fun. Just climb on board the United Nations CyberSchoolBus at http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus.