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Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Armenia School Connectivity Program (ASCP) >> View*
the June 2007 newsletter about
the Cultural Connectivity's Armenia program. The Armenia School Connectivity Program provides high-quality computers, Internet access, equipment, and training for a growing network of schools across all 11 regions of Armenia. ASCP provides students, educators, and community members with opportunities to access and share information, to engage in innovative online collaborative projects, and to develop technical skills marketable in a digital world. The program increases school-community interaction, US-Armenian partnerships at the school and community levels, and civic engagement on the local, national, and international levels. ASCP combines technology and innovative educational approaches to strengthen democracy and support civil society development and cultural understanding. Funded through FREEDOM Support Act appropriations and implemented by Project Harmony, the Armenia School Connectivity Program is the largest and most comprehensive in-country educational and technology initiative in Armenia.
Recent Projects Parent-Teacher Associations One of the key components of the Armenia School Connectivity Program (ASCP) is cooperation with Parent-Teachers Associations (PTA) functioning within the schools. Throughout 2005-2006, numerous PTA activities were initiated in all eleven regions of Armenia. All the PTA activities were designed to support the school’s Internet Computer Center’s sustainability and to increase parental involvement in school activities. Examples of PTA activities include: handcraft fairs; sport competitions between teams of parents, students and teachers; publishing of brochures on diverse topics; collection of recycled paper; and exhibition-sale of photos. Each of these activities generated funds that will be used towards the operation of the school’s Internet Computer Center. To date, twenty-four schools participated in PTA activities and involved more than 200 students, teachers, and parents. Approximately $700 USD has been raised for school Internet Computer Centers. “Natural Disasters Youth Summit”(NDYS) Project For the second consecutive year (2005 and 2006), Project Harmony participated in the international project “Natural Disasters Youth Summit (NDYS)” - http://ndys.jearn.jp/eng.html. The project was organized by the Japanese Education and Research Network (jEARN, Japanese branch). The goal of the project is to enhance the awareness of natural disasters in families, schools and communities around the world. As a result of the project, students learned about past disasters, presented the state of disaster management in their communities, and prepared disaster management plans for their communities. Specific measures for mitigation and disaster preparation were written by students on a Community Disaster Safety Map. The map of each school was joined in one Global Disaster Safety Map, through which students acquire the knowledge and power to cope with unexpected disasters wherever they live in the world: http://ndys.jearn.jp/gsmap/top.htm. In order to transfer the information about disasters to students throughout Armenia, the Armenian NDYS working group created a web page (http://projects.ascp.am/disasters/hm.htm) and a Power Point Presentation (http://projects.ascp.am/disasters/bnakan_axetner.ppt). Anyone with access to the Internet may access these resources. Prior to this project, there were limited resources about disasters and disaster planning in Armenian.
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