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You have learned what Oral History is all about, and some of you should have already completed your part, or all of your Oral History task. Here, we will learn how to make use of information from the Internet to further your research on the topic of "Our Chinese Community".  Hopefully, you will also pick up some skills in using the Internet to help you in whatever research you do.

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The Task

Based on the given resources on this web page, you are to:

• gather information to suit the materials you have gathered through the Oral History task.  For example, if your interviewee had focused on housing and education, your further research here will be on housing and education, or other closely related areas.
• process the information so that you can present your findings in a report.

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Resources

The following hyperlinks will bring you to the various sites that might have useful information for your research.  Below each link will the the link description.   The links will open up in a new window so that you do not have to come back to reload this page in order to go to other pages or sites.

National Library - Bedok Branch

Since your school is located near the Bedok Library, you might be able to find some resources from there. This link brings you to a page with some information on the library, as well as some of the useful books you might find there.

Using The Search Engines

The Internet is a rich resource of information.  Search engines serves as a gateway to these information.  This page gives you some hints on how to utilize the search engines as well as some links to them.

The National Archives Of Singapore

The National Archives records events which are of national and historical significance.

Chinese Festivals

This site created by the Singapore Government has some information on the festivals celebrated by the Chinese.

Keeping Faith with the Past

Created by TNJC in Taiwan, this site has a very good resource on Chinese Festivals as well.  Though not all the festivals may be celebrated by the Chinese here in the past, they might be able to provide you with more in depth information on a particular festival you want to describe.

Singapore - A Country Study

Created by The American Memory - Library Of Congress, this American created government website has a wealth of information about Singapore, including Chinese.

Hakka - An important Element Of Chinese Culture

Another American based site, Asiawind houses a site which provides some very useful information on one of the ethnic groups - Hakka.  If this is your area of research, then this site is worth a visit.

The Teochew Connection

Created by the Singapore Press Holdings, this site provides some information on another of the ethnic group - Teochew.  Within the frontpage, there is an internal link titles "My Grandma" which contains an example of Oral History.

Message Board

This is a bulletin board in which students can post questions, or take part in discussions.  Discussions are not restricted to within members of the same group, and you are encouraged to confer with members of the other groups as well.  If you have any queries or any difficulties with your assignment, you can also post them here.   By answering you questions, we might also be answering the questions of other students who have not brought it up to me.

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The Process

1. From the information you have collected from the Oral History exercise, determine your area of study (for example, living conditions, education, occupation and so on.)
2. Bookmark this page and use this page as a launching base to further your research on the topic of research.
3. In your groups, the leader will assign each member with a different role of this online research.  Each of you will be responsible with trying to gather raw information from at least one website.
4. When you are more familiar with using the Internet as a resource of your study, you are encouraged to extend beyond the resources given by this page, and source for more information from the Internet.  For example, you may choose to do some field work at check out the places of historical interest (if it is relevant to your studies) to find out what are the Chinese there like now, compared to the past.
5. Every now and then, check back the Message Board to see if there are useful information.
6. Consolidate your data, and present your findings to the other members of your group.
7. As a group, come up the report based on the research findings and interview, along with with supporting materials such as pictures and photographs.

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Learning Advice

1. Follow the designated schedule for your assignment. Do not try to do last minute work.
2. Work as a team.
3. When you run into conflicts or disagreements with your team mates,. try to settle them amicably, using the social skills taught to you.
4. Try to utilize the Message Board as much as you can.  Cooperative learning can help you gain a lot of knowledge and experience.

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Conclusion

Congratulations!  By the time you read this section, you must have already completed the project, and have learnt a lot more about Our Chinese Community.  More importantly, you have acquired the skills needed to help you work with others, as well as have an idea of how to use the Internet to aid you in your research.  We hope you had fun with your assignment!

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