In June, the XIII Forum "Electronic Week in Altai", which was continued by the Summer research expedition of IT-Timurovites ‒ member of a youth organization for helping people in need ‒ "Sound, Altai, in Native Languages!" was held in Barnaul. The expedition "On the Roerich Trail" was held from July 23 to 30 in the Altai Mountains and united two regions: Altai Territory and the Altai Republic.
The expedition was organized by the Altai Institute for Education Development named after A.M. Toporov (Barnaul) and the ANO "Center for Project Solutions of Socially Active Schools". Experts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ took an active part in the event and conducted lessons on safe Internet in rural schools of Altai and presented the project "Study the Internet - Govern It!". On the first day of the expedition, July 23, the Director of the Coordination Center Andrey Vorobyev and the Head of Special Projects of the Center Evgeny Pankov visited the Kuyachinskaya secondary comprehensive school. They held an exciting quiz for the IT-Timurovites "Study the Internet - Govern it!". Guys enthusiastically answered questions about the history and structure of the Internet, online games and gadgets, as well as the basics of digital literacy and online security rules.
Then the experts of the Center went to the most remote point of the IT expedition – Tourak primary school of the Altai Territory. In the school museum, the expedition participants were told that Tourak primary school is an example of wooden architecture of the early 20th century, the building is more than 120 years old. The quiz "Study the Internet - Govern it!" for junior school students was excellent. Children demonstrated a high level of knowledge of Internet technologies and received prizes from the registry of national domains.
he expedition members celebrated the 95th anniversary of Vasily Shukshin's birth by meeting with teachers, students and parents of the Altai Secondary Comprehensive School No. 2 named after Honorary Citizen of the Altai Territory I.A. Yarkin. There, specialists from the “Igrovest: Network Factory of Board Games with Augmented Reality” project held the game "Intellectual Exchange: Vasily Shukshin", created by the Srostki Secondary School named after V.M. Shukshin (Vasily Shukshin completed seven grades in the village of Srostki in the Altai Territory).
Director of the Coordination Center, Andrey Vorobyev, highly praised the exposition of the history and local history museum of the Altai Secondary School No. 2, which has a section dedicated to the development of computer technology and Internet technologies. The school also has a "Growth Point", the educational institution is the base site of the AIRO named after V.M. Toporova, and the team is proud of its teaching dynasties and, most importantly, its graduates, among whom there are many gold medalists.
The expedition to rural schools of Gorny Altai continued with a visit to the village of Aya, namely the municipal budgetary general education institution "Ayskaya Secondary School". The school has museums open and operating: the history of the school "Esperanto", the office-museum of V.M. Shukshin and the exhibition hall "Roerich in Altai". There, not only students but also teachers took part in the quiz from the experts of the Cultural Center. It was decided that the team of the Ayskaya school will take part in the autumn All-Russian championship of "Study the Internet - Govern it!".
In the Altai Republic, before heading to the remote regional centers of Ust-Kan and Ust-Koksa, the expedition participants visited the National Museum in Gorno-Altaisk. Director of the Coordination Center Andrey Vorobyev noted:
“Our trip to rural schools in Altai is another opportunity to see for yourself that the global cultural code associated with the harmonious development of culture, creativity, and man, discovered by Roerich’s expedition in the Altai territory almost 100 years ago, still works today.”
The next day, the expedition members reached the village of Ust-Koksa and visited the Ust-Koksinskaya Secondary School named after Kharitoshkin. The experts of the Coordination Center held a lesson on safe Internet and a quiz called "Study the Internet - Govern it!", in which students from different grades of the school and even this year’s graduates took part.
Finally, the expedition “On the Roerich Trail” reached its final point — the village of Verkh-Uimon in the Altai Republic on the right bank of the Katun River. The delegation visited the Memorial House-Museum of N.K. Roerich, where he stayed in 1926 during the Central Asian Expedition to study the hard-to-reach regions of Central Asia. In honor of the 150th anniversary of N.K. Roerich’s birth, an exhibition of his works “Altai — Himalayas” was opened in the exhibition hall of the house-museum. It presents 70 paintings and graphic works from private collections.
The goal of the summer research expedition of IT-Timurovites "Sound, Altai, in Native Languages!" along the Roerich trail is to transfer technologies of IT-Timurovites' work in local communities to improve the quality of life in the regions using Internet technologies.
"The expedition "Along the Roerich Trail" as a research part of the "Electronic Week in Altai" has completed its work and launched a new project - cooperation between IT-Timurovites of the Altai Territory and the Altai Republic," Alena Mitina, methodologist of the Altai Institute for Education Development named after Toporov, coordinator of the "Electronic Week in Altai 2024" program and the expedition of IT-Timurovites "Sound, Altai, in Native Languages!" said.
The project "Study the Internet - Govern it!" continues to expand its horizons - by the beginning of the new academic year, a board game "Study the Internet" will be released. It will be presented at the festival "The Playing Man", which will be held in September this year in Barnaul. Representatives of all schools that the expedition passed through are invited to the festival.
The experts of the Coordination Center brought back many bright photos from the exciting trip to Altai - an album with them has already been published (link) in the Center’s group in VK.
