The International Schools CyberFair and ThinkQuest. Because they pump up the joy of learning, but not the stress of competition. They further the making of connections with one's community or with peers of dissimilar resources or abilities and put kids in the driver's seat of creating content and design. Students select the winners themselves through a process of peer review. Global SchoolNet Foundation and Cisco Systems are the sponsors.
Students evaluate content accuracy, design effectiveness, mechanics and community involvement.
In the process of evaluating other kids' Web sites, they begin to look differently at their own. In 1997, a team of students from Dubbo South High School in New South Wales, Australia, created a Web site for their Western Plains Zoo, Australia's first-ever natural habitat zoo. Working closely with the zoo education officer and keepers, students documented animal facts. Dubbo High took first place in the local attractions category. They also came to realize their definition of community was more than geographical.