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THE FIRST VIDEOCONFERENCE:
The subject of the May 9th Yerevan – Marseilles – Los Angeles videoconference was a collaboration between the students during which they answered each other’s questions regarding the locations and details of Armenian monuments. The students would find images of these monuments in Armenian Web sites, and would use the whiteboard to draw their locations on a map of Armenia, while they exchanged information via the video link and text in Armenian. The 3PN is collaborative experience that began in January of 1998 as NNP’98, linking ten Armenian schools in Armenia, France, Lebanon, Canada and the United States through the Internet. Participating students spend one or two sessions every week working on activities specially designed to acquaint them with each other, with the Internet, and with their Armenian heritage.
Participants in the conference were Schools #170 and #198 from Yerevan; The Hamazkain School in Marseilles; and the AGBU Manoogian Demirdjian School, Alex Pilibos Armenian School, and Chamlian Armenian School in Los Angeles. The Armenia node of the conference was made possible by Arminco, the Internet Service Provider in Yerevan, under the project management of the 3PN Yerevan technical coordinator, Ana Karakhanian. Arminco volunteered substantial technical and human resources to this event, and hosted more than twenty participating students in Yerevan. In Los Angeles, students used computer facilities at the Manoogian Demirdjian School, as well as a second node at the Alex Pilibos computer lab. Teachers in charge of the 3PN, Aram Chouljian, Minas Kojayan, Nazareth Apanian and Saro Nazarian participated actively. In Marseilles, France, students gathered at the Hamazkain School, supervised by the 3PN technical coordinator Arsen Karabajakian and the school’s principal, Loussine Malikian.
Originally scheduled for 30 minutes, the conference lasted almost one-and-a-half hours due to the excitement of the participating students. In addition to the planned exercise, students exchanged greetings as well as general cultural, social and personal information over the video link, in an atmosphere of fun and intense collaboration. One of the high points of the conference occurred when a student in Yerevan asked to see one of her counterparts in Los Angeles, with whom she had been exchanging email and collaborating through the 3PN. Marie Lou Papazian, the e4d institute director pointed out that fulfilling this kind of need for a visual and personal contact was exactly the kind of complementary functionality that a videoconference brings to the global activities of the 3PN. "It is also significant," pointed out Papazian, "that the oral and written interaction between students naturally took place in Armenian, despite the predominance of English on the Net. The only language common to these kids in Armenia, France and the US is Armenian." Note: Yerevan videoconference photos, Marked with the "NT" logo, are provided by Noyan Tapan.
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