Magazine "PC World"
N10, October 2004

Want to become an academician?

       If you read this magazine, you should understand what combinations .doc , .jpg, .htm mean. Does your child know this? May be he won't become a computer genius having spent three weeks in the International Children's Computer Center, but he'll certainly get acquainted with HTML, 3D modeling, computer algebra. If he wants of course...

       You'll ask me: "What about having rest? It's summer, holidays...Do children really only study without breaks and make projects as some people make pancakes?" Deffinately no, Kukhmar - that's the name of the place where the "island" is situated - has everything for active rest, thanks to the fact that this small "computer country" is in the pine forest on the bank of beautiful Plescheevo Lake. On the one hand you can take part in competitions in tennis, ping pong, football, basketball, grass hockey, on the other hand, you can just sunbathe on the sand beach or go horse riding. But you are still energetic enouhg, go to the evening disco.

       In general, children in the ICCC (www.botik.ru/ICCC) are free to choose. Educational program of the Center has a range of different subjects - starting with the languages of programming, and finishing with paintings. On the very first day, a child gets acquainted with five main branches, and then he himself chooses what he wants to study. Classes of programming, animation, Internet, economics, foreign languages(English, German, and French), history, and culture of nations of the world, ecology and zoology, paintings, ceramics and many others.

       Children who ever came to the Center call it "the magic island". The governor of the Yaroslavl Region A. Lisitsin is complitely agree with this, because here they have "complete pedagogical conception...and a special educational atmosphere, providing children who have never seen computer before with new knowledge which they didn't get at school". Computer has produced a special operation here: it united Russian and American children and stayed on.

       In the ICCC, having the status of UNESCO Associated School that means the usage of new computer technologies in education, work teachers, helping children to discover new skills they even didn't think about. When children come home, they continue to communicate to their teachers through the Internet, e-mail, - the opportunities of those they studied in the ICCC. Even if before coming to Pereslavl-Zalessky school-children had no idea about technology, it turns into the mean of creative work in couple of weeks.

       The most remarkable is the that the Center is not a closed, inaccessible place. About 180 children from different cities(more information on the web-site) come here in the period of holidays, and while the school year goes on, children from Pereslavl have conferences here.

       Telecommunicative projects with the communication to coevals from faraway countries are on during every session. Since July, 2004, they have an opportunity to lead video conferences working on the computer Mac G4 - a present of academician Evgeny P. Velikhov. Openly speaking, the ICCC was founded more than ten years ago by the initiavive of Evgeny P. Velikhov and professor Alfred K. Ailamazjan, the Director of the Program Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Scence. Do academicians prepare new one to replace themselves?

Maria Danova

Best summer camp

Do you like fun camps?
Of course you do.
Do you like computers, art and music too.
Well, then, International Computer Camp for kids
Is for you.
This camp is fun,
This camp is awsome.
The kids here are totally cool,
If I were you
I'de go here now
So hurry up
The summer will end soon.

Gubina Lada
USA

Economic weekly digest "Money"
Publishing house "Kommersant"
N 26 (431) July, 7-13, 2003

Program for the Summer

Air, Sun, and... Computer

        If you are more then just sure that during the summer holidays your child should visit a summer camp, you may broaden the list of possible variants. If earlier you could form your opinion on the presence or epsence of horse riding group, lawn tennis, or four times a day meal, now there is such an opportunity to combine all mentioned items with the IT-education.

       The idea of creating the whole network of childern's computer camps was talked about in the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economical Development, the Ministry of Connection and Information during this winter. Though it is not known when some already working camps will be computerised.

       The idea turned to be not at all new: the International Children's Computer Center (camp-school) of the Program Systems Institute which is situated on the bank of Plescheevo Lake, was founded in 1986. The idea was simple: to strengthen friendship between Russia and America (children from Russia and America had a rest here) through teaching IT-technologies and having rest together. In 1988 it got the status of UNESCO Associated school. Today this camp which is 130km from Moscow, near the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky (Kukhmar Place) works practically the whole year round, accepting school-children for autumn and winter sessions.

       We'll notice that the word "computer" in the title of the camp, doesn't mean that your child will sit in front of the monitor all day long. Together with mastering basic programing in the International Children's Computer Center, your child will take up some other branches: humanities (the English, the German, the French languages, psychology, rhetoric and othes), sports (horse riding, ping pong and lawn tennis, volley-ball, basket-ball, football), there will be excursions, bathing in the lake, competitions and discoes. The most interesting thing of the rest in Kukhmar Place is, as usually, communication to coevals - foreigners. Participation of children from the USA, France, and Germany is planed in the third and fourth sessions this year.

       Besides basic classes, each session has so called priority directions. So, for example, children coming for the third session (which is since July, 16) will take part in field researches, competitions on Ecology, and will study animals' behaviour in the conditions of the Center's zoo-station.

Natalia Tutunenko

Radio "Svoboda"
"The Seventh Contitent" program
Author: Alexander Kostinsky
June 24, 2003

Computer Camp and kindergarten - another model of education

Alexander Kostinsky: The reform of education is widely discussed in Russai nowadays. If it is important to make indivisible exam for the whole country or not. What minimum knowledge do pupils need to have in every subject? To study eleven or twelve years, is it good or bad when a teenager has extra lessons, etc..Unfortunately, such questions as the quality of text books, those are difficult to consider educating, the low level of teachers' qualifications, and the question about a problem that many teenagers think of the school as of a place of punishment - are left without attention.

Today we will speak about a place, where everything is different: mostly children study with great pleasure. It's the International Children's Computer Center of the Program Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, UNESCO Associated School (http://www.botik.ru/ICCC). It is situated in the pine forest of place Kukhmar, not far from Pereslavl-Zalessky.

The question to one of the children, having rest in the Center:
How old are you?

Child's voice: Eleven.
Alexander Kostinsky: Have you ever been to the camp?
Child's voice: It's my first time.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do you like it?
Child's voice: Yes, very much.
Alexander Kostinsky: What are you doing now?
Child's voice: I'm trying to install a game. There ten interesting games, may be I will set up one of them.
Alexander Kostinsky: What classes did you sign for?
Child's voice: I have many classe, but the most interesting are: computer ABCs, English class, and the Ship of Arts.
Alexander Kostinsky: What do you do at the Ship of Arts?
Child's voice: I model from the clay.
Alexander Kostinsky: But here you play computer games, and there you work with clay?
Child's voice: Both classes are very interesting.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do you use Internet?
Child's voice: I visit Internet class too.
Alexander Kostinsky: Have you watched anything in the Internet yet?
Child's voice: Yes, I've found games, watched "The Last Hero".
Alexander Kostinsky: What else?
Child's voice: "Harry Potter".

Alexander Kostinsky: That's my first question to Olga Ustyukova - the director of educational programs of the Center. What are the basic principles of teching children are there in your Center?
Olga Ustyukova: Basic principles? Teaching and educating children in a new atmosphere, creating a special educating space, where knowledge has the leading position.
Alexander Kostinsky: Children came here to have a rest. Is it good that they are tought here? Isn't it frightening?
Olga Ustyukova: Children really come to have a rest, but they study at the same time.
Alexander Kostinsky: Is this study compulsory? Does a child make his own choice of classes to visit and how many times?
Olga Ustyukova: Our main aim is to creat such an environment, where children would choose classes, preferable for us, at least in some per cent. The section of education is represented by four branches: new computer technologies, ecology, humanities, and crafts. To tell the truth, there is integration of these branches, and a child, coming to some classes of new computer technologies touches ecology, language skills, works on international projects that forms his motivation and desire to go to other classes.
Alexander Kostinsky: Children come to the camp, do you really give them free choice?
Olga Ustyukova: Everything starts with children's arrival. Classes's adverticements are being displayed, announcements are put on the doors, on the pine-trees, on the tables. Then goes a very important traditional moment - classes' presentation. At this point, a teacher not just speakes about his class (that's obligatory), but he must present himself being a leader of the group.
Alexander Kostinsky: Is there a competition between classes for the children's attention?
Olga Ustyukova: I can say so. We are not agaist having a good, positive competition. But every teacher has little time, just several minutes to show their inner world, to present the program, the class, and to contribute to the fire of knowledge.
Alexander Kostinsky: What classes are the most popular?
Olga Ustyukova: Teh title itself - Children's Computer Center - says that new computer technologies are popular. But what is more surprising the dance class is very important too, the class of crafts - we call it The Ship of Arts, English, German, French classes, sports section, children go horse riding, play tennis, gorodki. We'd like children to open the world of new computer technologies for themselves, - that's our main aim, I'm opening a secret to you. The world of computer technologies - is a special space where every child can realize his/her energy in different ways, open new opportunities, those were not found at school because of some reasons.

Alexander Kostinsky: These are words of children who rest and study in the Computer Center. What do you like here?
Child's voice: Rest and good atmosphere.
Alexander Kostinsky: You have no rest, you just sit and study, like at school. Isn't it bad?
Child's voice: Of course no. The lessons seem to be games, they are not very serious.
Child's voice: Now we do project about a foreign country. We are doing a topic about the history of Great Britain were thinking about it and now I shall write it on the computer with some photography's which are seek in the Internet.
Alexander Kostinsky: Now please, translate it into Russian.
Child's voice: (everybody laughs) It's more difficult.
Alexander Kostinsky: Is the History of Russia clearer?
Child's voice: Yes, Russian History is easier. Much more. Once upon a time, Atlantida shew up and England appeared. We've found some photos in the Internet and we're going to type a story. That will be the beginning of our project.
Alexander Kostinsky: What do you do?
Child's voice: I think over the same problems.
Alexander Kostinsky: What do you like in this camp, and what not?
Child's voice: I like everything.
Alexander Kostinsky: You can say openly, the director left. Do you write e-mails to your parents?
Child's voice: My parents don't have e-mail - so, no.
Child's voice: My mother even don't know how to turn the computer on(everybody laughs).
Alexander Kostinsky: Did you choose English yourselves?
Child's voice: Yes, it's interesting here, even funny.
Alexander Kostinsky: Is it cool?
Child's voice: I cannot say that it's a lesson, it's just a class, we have fun. It's like a game.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do you study only England, or some other coutries too: Australia, America?
Child's voice: We study many English-speaking countries, and not just them but also different cultures.
Alexander Kostinsky: What other classes do you visit?
Child's voice: Now I have six classes, but there too many people in the Internet class, so I go only to five of them. I go horse riding, to the sports hall, English, Psychology, and Zoology.
Child's voice: At first I went to six classes, but rather seldom go to all of them. To tell the truth, I had seven of them: horse riding, Dancing Club, Sports hall, Zoology, English, Ship of Arts - two of them.
Alexander Kostinsky: You had lessons at home. You came here and again have lessons?
Child's voice: I tell you, that it's rather difficult to call lessons, as we have fun, just enjoy being here.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do you think you'd better have such lessons at school?
Child's voice: I don't know, I think no.
Alexander Kostinsky: But why? Does school need to be serious?
Child's voice: I don't like that we have to go to all subjects, here we can go only to the classes we like, but mostly, all children study - it's fun.
Alexander Kostinsky: What classes do you have?
Child's voice: Photoshop, 3D-builder, Internet.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do you use Internet here?
Child's voice: Yes.
Alexander Kostinsky: Is it good that you have classes here, won't it be better to play football all day long?
Child's voice: On the conterary, it's fun. We have many things to do in our free time. We'd better go and do something.

Alexander Kostinsky: Now we are at the zoo-station of the Computer Center.
Teacher: Here we have our zoo-station, we look after animals. I tell children how to feed them, how animals behave in the wild nature, and here in the cages.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do many children come here, it's the computer Center? Different animals, birds, horses. I noticed, that practically all children decided to go horse riding.
Teacher: They just love animals. About 50 children come here.

Alexander Kostinsky: What do you like here?
Child's voice: I like to look after animals. It's very interesting here, I want to come here more and more.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do you work on a computer here?
Child's voice: No. I like everything else.
Alexander Kostinsky: But you came to the computer camp.
Child's voice: May be I will go to some computer class, but I like zoology and the ship of arts better. I can help here, look after the animals, feed them. I love animals! I live in Moscow, but here I'm for the fourth time.

Alexander Kostinsky: It's a question to Olga Ustyukova, the director of educational programs of the Computer Center. You don't have exams, marks, or you have some other kind of evaluation?
Olga Ustyukova: Every child (we call them students) has a special card, where there are all the classes provided by the center. There can be marks in the fields of those classes children go to(ten-grades system), but these are not actually marks like at school. No, it's the children's participation in the creative project of the class, in the whole work. What is the result of the work? We have children's conferences, press-conferences, and the last big conference - a traditional science-research conference, where children present all the works, made in the classes during 18 days (but nobody insists).
Alexander Kostinsky: Do children from other countries come to you?
Olga Ustyukova: It's historically determined that the Center was founded by the initiative of academicians Evgeny P. Velikhov and Alfred K. Ailamazjan as International. American and Soviet children met in this camp for the first time. It was spoken about in the leading newspapers of the world, and we have these articles in our archives. That was a great event.
Alexander Kostinsky: When was it?
Olga Ustyukova: In 1986, and in 1988 tha Center got tha status of UNESCO Associated school. We still have many international partners and work with them through the Internet, they come to us to make some projects right here. We take part in international projects, Virtual Classroom for example for three years already - it is on since 1996. we were active participants. In 1996 we won the second award in our group of 100 virtual classrooms or 300 schools from Canada, the USA, Japan, Great Britain and other countries(there were ten schools from Russia). In 1997 we took the second place in our nomination for the project "Human Rights", there were 150 schools-participants.
Alexander Kostinsky: It is difficult to push children study on holidays, how do you menage to do this?
Olga Ustyukova: There are no classes those don't start projects, uniting several of them. The Ship of Arts works on this scheme, it takes it's place in a big, interesting project. It can work with the Publishing House, the Ship of Arts, Fashion Studio, Internet. Our collegues, where we go rather regularly, Fitch Camp, Pensilvania, USA, gave us many ideas, but the use our results in their methodology.
Alexander Kostinsky: What did you give for their methodology? And, please, could you compare the systems of education in Pereslavl and in Pensilvania, what is different?
Olga Ustyukova: They are similar in the fact, that children have practically the same amount of time to study. There are 46 people, but we have 150. children there take only computer classes, and then they have some rest. When we went there, we had a professional interest in conducting the Logo program. After we took part in that process, we decided to write our own course book, but the basic methodology was taken from the Fitch Camp. What did American see in our camp and what did they like? Our Center unites computer technologies, ecology, but not a separate science, it works as a part of the project of making web-pages, sites, chats, devoted to some topics, or we can just creat our own online magazine, some competition in knowledge. Moreover, we developed a vast sports program, crafts, but they have only the branch of computers. To tell the truth, children want to participate in all kinds of activities. So, we observed their sessions, made our conclusions, updated our program, and they made their program for leasure time brighter(not just spending time on the beach). That team works with children rather closely, too.

Alexander Kostinsky: The director of the Children's Computer Center - Peter Ustyukov.
Peter Ustyukov: The parents like it. One week is over after children's arrival and can you imagine, children not just became familiar to the situation, they also started to visit classes, and we are absolutely sure that they told parent about their choice. Naturally parents react on their children's statements. And, talking to children here, and then, to their parents at the week-end, I'm sure that our parents are happy for their children's choice. May be some classes were adviced, but mostly, it was a free decision. On the other hand, it's the most pleasant fact for the parents. The child took his initiative and decided upon his future development, having looked through all the classes.
Alexander Kostinsky: Your ways of teaching differ from common schools, do your children understand this?
Olga Ustyukova: Of course, children understand everything, they want to stay here for the whole year, but the difference is in this. there is a kind of philosophy: if you came to me, I'm thankful to you. You entrusted me yourself, and I will share my knowledge with you. Both teachers and students become adherents in one educational project.
Alexander Kostinsky: But may be you are in a better position, because it's impossible for schools to have pheasants, rabbits, horses. May be children like only these things?
Olga Ustyukova: We have 12-15 classes devoted to new computer technologies, and pheasants and rabbits have no influence. A child can deffinately have an idea to creat a web-site devoted to the best type of horses, it will be made in HTML.
Alexander Kostinsky: Is the computer mostly an instrument or the aim itself?
Olga Ustyukova: We think, the the 21 century cannot servive without computer technologies, and a man has to know them. It's like a pen - an instrument which can help showing the inner world, to realize the opportunities in the work, study, crrier.
Alexander Kostinsky: These principles are used in the educational system in the primary school "Pochemuchka". Olga Ustyukova continues her story.
Olga Ustyukova: The primary school Pochemuchka - is a department of the Program systems Institute, and now it became a part of Science-educational center together with the International Children's Computer Center. There are two groups in the kindergarten and three classes of school.
Alexander Kostinsky: What does the word "project" means in the kindergarten?
Olga Ustyukova: It's a wonderful sphere for children's skills and knowledge. The project "Teddy Bear" will be realized since this year. Our young learners create a story of a bear living in the school "Pochemuchka". This story tells about the city and the place he lives in. Children send their bear to a travel to different countries, and children there return digital stories about it, telling about their own adventures. So, children exchange interesting information, developing their imagination, and creative skills.
Alexander Kostinsky: What countries do you work with?
Olga Ustyukova: Australia, USA, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, India. We have pretty good relationships with them for many years already, and we bring some projects from the Center to our school.

Alexander Kostinsky: Do you work on a computer?
Child's voice: Yes. I can draw, type, play different games.
Alexander Kostinsky: : Can you use e-mail?
Child's voice: Yes, I use it.
Alexander Kostinsky: Who do you write to?
Child's voice: I write to my mother, and father when they are a work.

Alexander Kostinsky: Slava, how old are you?
Slava: I'm ten.
Alexander Kostinsky: Do you study here?
Slava: Yes. I visited even this kindergarten.
Alexander Kostinsky: What do you like here?
Slava: Most of all I like how childen treated me. I liked how we created fairy-tales. We composed music on the computer and draw pictures, and Alesha and I wrote the whole text of the fairy-tale.
Alexander Kostinsky: What fiary-tale?
Slava: "Zhurka"
Alexander Kostinsky: Who is Zhurka?
Slava: Zhurka is the crane's name.
Alexander Kostinsky: What do you want to be?
Slava: What do I want to be when I am an adult?
Alexander Kostinsky: Yes.
Slava: I want to be a football player.

Alexander Kostinsky: What do you like here best of all?
Child's voice: I liked our teacher of technologies in the third form.
Alexander Kostinsky: What did you study in your technology course?
Child's voice: We made a project, as Slava told you. Only it was based on another story - "An Inventor". It is written by Prishvin. We worked in four different directions: music, colour, imagies and thoughts.
Alexander Kostinsky: Even thoughts?
Child's voice: Logic.
Alexander Kostinsky: That's great. I need such a direction too. Can you type on a computer or it's still difficult for you?
Child's voice: I am not a complete beginner, but cannot say that I do it perfectly. I know keyboard pretty well.

Alexander Kostinsky: While talking to children from the Computer Center or from the kindergarten who study with great pleasure, you start thinking that if we really think about our children the lesson should become a game, a theatre, but not an endless study of the right uninteresting books, those our text books are.

Extract from the report of
the President of the RAS academician U.S. Osipov
"Impact of the Russian Academy of Science to Education."

        ... "The International Children's Computer Center of the Program Systems Institute of the RAS, UNESCO Associated School, realizes one of the priority directions-usage of new computer technologies in education. The Center leads sessions for pupils during their holidays. More than 7000 children of 7-17 years old had an educational course in the Center in 10 years. Children from Bulgaria, Italy, the USA, Germany, England and other countries came here." ...

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