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InterLink

Size: 400 pages

My professional status: contractor at CWA New Media

Website client: The British Council

Dates: September 1996 - July 1997

Brief: to develop, design, build and constantly update the website for this ground-breaking project linking 12 pairs of schools in New Zealand and the UK, who worked for 6 months on a range of 70 projects using the internet for trans-global communication - and to manage the InterLink project itself.

My responsibilities included:

Concept development, school selection and project management
Design of website (look & feel, architecture, navigation, graphics, HTML and JavaScript encoding, feedback pages)
School and teacher internet facilitation and development
Content creation and conversion of completed project work from schools (approx 60 emails per day) into web pages
Liaison with Victoria University researcher
Organisation and facilitation of inter-school IRC sessions and two international video conferences at the end of the project.

Wow - this project was so full-on - 60-hour weeks for six months - and I loved every minute of it. Such a challenge to create those partnerships between pairs of schools across the globe and help them to make this project a success. It was wonderful receiving their work every day and creating pages to put on the site - and their enthusiasm was awesome.

Awards

Best of Asia Pacific award - 10 April 1997

WAMMO PostBeta award 4 stars - 7 May 1997
"Projects offer a comparative slice of life perspective, covering a wide spectrum of topics. Informative and innovative."

ETA 5 Star Award - 31 May 1997
"This is an excellent example of ETA visions in action."

Wise Owl Site of the Month award - June 1997
"....in recognition of exemplary design and educational excellence."

SODA award - 15 August 1997
"Bringing kids from two sides of the world together is a big ask, but having seen some of the kids' reactions that have taken part, this project has been a great success. The site design is nice and clear with plain white backgrounds and relies on a neat cohesive look for graphics and picons to add colour."

Education Index Top Site award - 30 October 1997
"...an outstanding education-related site on the Web."