Blogger Play

Apologies to those who are interested in my blog but were somehow disappointed to find no updates for the past three months. I almost give up this blog as in China, people cannot view my blog. I had wanted to invite my Chinese students to post their opinions as feedback to my blog. However, as the web page simply cannot be opened in China. I had to give up the idea.

Then I find it is hard to keep up my blog without a target audience in mind. I simply lost the interest. However, I remember in the International Cross Culture Conference held in Harbin, China this June, I was advertising this technology blog of mine, inviting international peers who are interested to know about China to visit this blog. I don't know if there is anyone who did respond to my ad, but I felt sorry that I didn't keep my promise.

I hope this will be a start to get me back to my track. I have checked the new feature of Blogger, BloggerPlay. It is cool as it is advertised. I think the charm comes from the diversity of these pictures as well as the on-line synchronic viewing of the pictures. If we do have internet connection in Chinese classroom, this will be a fun way to expose our students to various cultures. And the cool part is that teachers can stop at any picture and zoom in and elaborate the picture by a single click. If I were to use it in my classroom, I'll have a brainstorming activity before the click. Students can say anything they like about this picture, predictions about the content of the post, stories behind the picture, simply anything that they are willing to share with their classmates. I feel many English teachers treat their students as kids simply because Ss' low English proficiency. But we are ignoring the fact that they are grown-ups and extremely intelligent adults (given the fact that they survive the severe college entrance exam in China). So I am thinking, they should not be hindered to express their opinions, ideas or knowledge even though they cannot express themselves very well in English. I will definitely tolerate some Chinese in activity such as this to encourage my students to open their mouths to talk.

ITunes

I have been downloading all kinds of podcasts from Itunes lately. It was great fun and I just love it.
For those of us who study English in an EFL context, it is really hard to get our hands on authentic English materials at the same time when it happens. Itunes offers what we just need. First of all, you can search in the Itunes store with a simple phrase or keyword. Then you can subscribe to the podcasts that you are interested in. Then Itunes will download the podcasts when you are connected to the Internet and keep you updated with those podcasts.
I have subscribed to some podcasts offered by CNN and ABC news, and some free programs offered by National Geographical Channel. Last night, before I fell sleep, I was listening to a podcast about Law of Attraction, which totally made me feel relaxed and peaceful, even though I must admit I almost laughed my head off when I heard the screams the speaker made when he was on the roller coaster called "the scream machine". hehe.

Law of Attraction

I first heard about this idea from one of Ellen's shows, in which she invited two guest speakers to introduce the idea of "Law of Attraction".

One of the guests put the audiences into test, asking them how many of them could see the arrow in the FedEx Logo. It was amazing, at least for me, for I wasn't able to see that arrow before. And he went on to explain that people were so used to, or conditioned to look at the world in certain ways, which blocked out a lot of wonderful stuff. But some people are able to get better and richer for the way they look at their lives.

There are some fresh and innovative ideas. I am not sure I buy all of their theories, but I do believe this law teaches us to be more positive, or to be exact, to learn to be master of our own lives. You may want to check out one of their videos on youtube.

The Compound Machine

I ran across an interesting website today and tried one of the activities called "The Compound Machine". By answering some simple questions of physics, the player helps the robot fix the toilet.

The questions, of course, are piece of cake for all my college students. However, I still consider it as a potential English assignment that students may be interested in. At the end of the game, students can print their scores and acquire quite a few useful English words.

I cannot view my blog.

I dont know what is happening, but the problem is that I cannot view my blog. I can still create or edit posts, but I simply cannot view it. When I was in Singapore, some of my friends in China complained to me about the same problem.
Is it because I am in China and I was blocked in some way, or is it because of the net connection I have now?I wonder if there is anyone else who can still view my blog.

Strategies for Empowering Students

What is an ideal classroom language activity? How can language teachers come up with language activities that can be both challenging and engaging for students as well?

A website, devoted to searching for strategies that empower students in their classroom activites provide a list of activities that are worth trying out in a language classroom.

Classroom 2.0

Today is International Workers' Day (a name used interchangeably with May Day), and I wish all the teachers who have been devoting their heart and soul to education a very relaxing and peaceful day. Hope the lovely flowers bring you a freshing smile on your face.

As a treat, I'd like to introduce a website that I have been enjoying browsing and participating.

Classroom 2.0 is a social networking site, which might be of interest to those who are in search of practical application of computer technology in the classroom and in their own professional development. If you are just start learning about Web 2.0 tools in the classroom, the website also offers some good starting links that can help readers enhance their understanding and expand their vision.

Better still, join any forum that you like to meet teachers from all over the world. Chat, share and exchange!

Pay Attention

The following presentation from Teachertube draws our attention to one important feature of today's learners, the digital learners. Since most of today's students can appropriately be labeled as "Digital Learners", why do so many teachers refuse to enter the digital age with their teaching practices?
In China, the problem has not become eminent yet as most college students are not well off enough to possess Ipod or other new tech stuff. But still, it poses the inevitable question we must face one day - how to incorporate IT in our every day teaching? This presentation was created in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.

Photo Caption Contest

Last week's Photo Caption Contest failed to attract any comment from readers. Maybe I could do better this week. But in case it happens again, I am attaching the original caption with the picture for reference.

This Jaybird picture was shot by Noël Lee, who loves Jaybirds for their personalities. If you view this picture large, you can actually see the bird's face and the sky reflected in its beak.

The original caption reads:"Couldn't You at Least Break It Off the Cob for Me???"

E-zine

I read an interesting post today on Read/Write Web about the evolution of magazine. All you have to do is to click the cover, turn the page and zoom in/out to read. The whole demonstration reminds me of the saying: everything is possible, and the impossible just takes longer.

I do foresee a multimodal gadget that everyone is going to have in the near future, which is a combination of cell phone, TV, computer, camera, book, newspaper, magazine, etc. You just name it and it is all in one. I wonder what it will be called and how small it can be?

Did You Know?

This Did you know video recently is the most popular educational video on Youtube, which is also known as Shift Happens. It talks about globalization in the information age. Tell me how you like it.

Audio Slideshow

Among other choices of movie, website, newsletter, the final IT project show saw many audio slideshows. I really enjoyed the creativity of my classmates, whose final products, such as Mer-people, Cinderella, were exceptionally good in their storyline design.
I happened to watch another good example of audio slide show, The Sound of Music, which was about one of the most enduringly popular films of all time. The slideshow attempts to explain why the movie was so successful.
This was one of the doable projects that I consider assigning to my students when I go back to China. I am expecting to see a flood of amazing products from them.

SoftChalk LessonBuilder

I have registered three E-training lessons: E-lesson Builder, Photo Editing and Enhancing and Digital Photography. In this first lesson, a software named SoftCalk LessonBuilder was introduced.

SoftChalk LessonBuilder is a powerful web lesson editor that allows us to easily create engaging, interactive web lessons for our e-learning classrooms. It has a very simple and intuitive interface. There are menus, then a simple toolbar (where we have access to the most used functionality in SoftChalk LessonBuilder while creating an e-lesson). I was thinking this had a great potential for teachers in China. We could easily arrange an E-listening lesson using this software. At the same time, we dont have to worry about whether students are listening to the course materials or not for we can ask them to finish all the questions and send their grades to us.

Studying here in NIE, we have e-learning week when we dont have to be physically in the classroom to learn. I am thinking the same thing for my students back in China. Maybe it is time for us to abandon the traditional listening lessons but adopt this e-learning approach. Instead of teacher's talking most of the time in a listening class, we can give time and freedom to our students. We should be a guide to facilitate students' learning instead of teaching listening. According to my own English learning experience, there is not much a teacher can do in improving a student's listening skills than giving them plenty of time to practice. I will definitely give it a try when I get back to China.

Reflections on the Final Group Project

What I learned from completing this project

It is said that all of us have two educations: one which we receive from others; another and most valuable, which we give ourselves, and the combination of which, I believe more powerful and invaluable, are exactly what I have experienced in completing this IT-facilitated group project.

First of all, the whole teaching concept, in which instructors step back and act as a resource, a guide, and a facilitator to scaffold and steward students’ learning, and students become independent through ownership of the project’s process and outcome is, indeed, an eye-opener, forcing me to reexamine my views and perspectives on the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students in the language teaching and learning process.

Secondly, I have honed my digital literacy skills by acquiring new technological skills (including web-page editing and digital photo editing). Besides, in completing an authentic language task, I find myself become more appreciative of linguistic interaction and motivated to constantly modify my own language learning process.

Moreover, I realize that teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. In order to make a team work, every individual should be committed to the group effort, playing different roles and shouldering different responsibilities. Problems are the price we pay for progress, and as there are multiple solutions to problems, disagreement should always be welcomed but constructively resolved in order to achieve the single purpose of success.

My personal contributions to the project

I am deeply grateful and indebted to my group members for entrusting me with making action plans, assigning tasks to group members, combining and compiling all the supported documents. I see an amazing intellectual and personal growth in me throughout the whole process. From the very beginning of contributing the idea of making an E-magazine to conceptualizing, writing up the lesson plan as well as the contents of each web page, I never stop scrutinizing and modifying the product by pushing the limits of every individual of our group. I cherish the opportunity of being a leader, being highly committed to the project and responsible for my group members.

Why this activity is useful or interesting to me

This activity is interesting to me because I have been empowered to complete a liberated IT-integrated language task and the sense of achievement has immensely increased my confidence and self-esteem. I have learned to compete against myself, not others and have had the best competition I have ever had.

The changes my group needed to make while planning the activity

We have had many changes to the contents of our magazine. The kaleidoscope column, for example, which originally covered an article on how to give acceptance speech and some Oscar Awards pictures, has been completely changed into an interview report due to the copyright issue.

Aspects of the project I found challenging

I found two aspects of the project challenging: how to be a good leader and how to protect the copyright law. I am aware that the most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I made my teammates play. Besides the vision and capability of management, I had to find appropriate ways to motivate and push my teammates, trying to get the best out of them. And the issue of copyright was always on my mind throughout the whole process. I had to ensure all contents we included in our project were original or otherwise, proper credits were given to their owners.

Two suggestions for next year’s students

By viewing the old we learn the new, so they should always start with previous example products first. Secondly, if two people agree on everything, then we don’t need two people, so different opinions and ideas should always be encouraged.

How my learning in this course can be applied to my future teaching in China

The course transforms me from a layman into an informed professional. With the valuable knowledge gleaned, and the belief that if it has been done, it can be done, I am sure I will be confident enough to adapt and apply many things that I learned and achieved from this course (such as my IT blog, webography project, and this final project) to my own teaching context in the future.

Photo Caption Contest - Week Three

The winner of last week's photo caption contest is Helen. Her caption "I came, I saw, I gotcha!" is a short, funny quote, embedded with the element of intertexuality. It echoes with the famous quote: "I came, I saw, I conquered." Well-done!
This week's photo is from Lynn Moraq. The original caption is Young Charms.

Flexibility Continuum: Where Do IT-Involved Language Tasks Fall?

Criteria of good tasks

Three features of Candlin's (1987) criteria of 'good' tasks are of great salience in planning IT-involved language tasks:

• Allow for flexible approaches to the tasks, offering different routes, media, modes of participation and procedures;
• Involve language use in the solving of the task;
• Promote a critical awareness about data and the process of language teaching.

Closed and restricted tasks

It is easy to come up with closed or restricted IT-involved language tasks. For instance, EFL teachers who teach general English at tertiary level may ask students to write an email about certain matter, or post their opinions or ideas toward a specific topic or issue on a designated web space. In doing so, students are given more freedom as to when and how they will do the tasks, and as a result, the task itself promotes information sharing and collaboration among students. A restricted task may require students to give a presentation on a specific topic by incorporating a range of multi-media tools. They may have choices of using slide shows (with images, audio or video files), posters, or self-directed role plays to facilitate their presentation.

Liberated and free tasks

It is really hard to have liberated or complete free language tasks in any situation. But IT-involved tasks are making it more possible than ever. A writing blog, for example can be regarded as a liberated language task in the sense that teachers ask students to write about the things they choose to write. As students write with a certain target of readers in mind, they are more motivated and more conscious of the writing process. It can be a great tool for continuous assessment or portfolio assessment. A complete free language task, however, is not meant to be assessed. While it promotes students' self-study motivation, it really needs greater devotion and commitment from students. It will be great if teachers can allow students to do a group project as a demonstration of what they have learned in one specific course. As long as students are freed from their worries of assessment, their minds will be freed, creating wonderful language miracles.

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Photo Caption Contest - Week Two

The winner of my first week's photo caption contest is my classmate, Jessica. Thank you for your participating and give me the courage to continue. Now I am determined to keep it up so that when I go back to China, hopefully I will have gleaned enough experience and confidence (besides the enough examples) to use it as after-class learning activity for my students. I really appreciate your comments and feedback in helping me to pilot the activity.
This week's picture is devoted to the hero of this year - pig. It is said that the year of the Golden Pig only occurs every 60 years. This year is the fifth cycle of the pig (every 12 years * 5), which is why this year of the pig is golden, therefore particularly auspicious.

Uploaded by Lucid Nightmare in Flickr.

8 Inspirational Quotes

I found the following eight inspirational quotes from Clipmarks touch me deep down and shed new light on the way I see myself and the world. I'd like to share with you and invite you to comment on the one that you like.

clipped from quotations.about.com

1) Mark Twain

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

2) Luigi Pirandello

In bed my real love has always been the sleep that rescued me by allowing me to dream.

3) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

4) Zig Ziglar

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.

5) T. S. Elliot

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

6) Buddha

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

7) Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

8) Peter F. Drucker

We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it.

Photo Caption Contest

I want to borrow Will's idea of hosting weekly photo caption contest on my blog (I am grateful to Will even though I dont know him in person, but I have learned so much from his blog). That is, I will post an interesting picture to my blog every week and then I hope readers will write a caption for this picture by commenting on this post. Since I don't have many readers to run it as a contest, but I do wish with time going by, the blog would get better and have more readers. I am deeply grateful to people who help me make my wish come true.

Week One Picture
(uploaded by Dee R) Original Caption: This is my best side.

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Animal School

The Animal School recommended by The Fisch Bowl is really worth watching. The short movie makes an interesting analogy between an animal school where animals attend four subjects of learning, which is, swimming, flying, climbing, and jumping developed for all the animals and our human schools where children are taught to learn and are judged similarly. It is easy for us to identify the duck, fish, bear, kangaroo, zebra, eagle, bee, squirrel students in our own educational settings, which really makes us have second thoughts on the whole structure of schools.
I'd really like to show this video to my own students to see how they feel about the truth unveiled in this video. I am sure we can work together to free more bees and find a lot more shining pearls.

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Wireless or Mindless?

In an article titled "Digital Distractions in a Wireless Classroom" (published in the Chronicle of Higher Education), "Michael Bugejia discusses some current realities faced by American universities as they integrate IT into the classroom. Even though it may still take quite a few years for Chinese educational counterparts to face similar challenges, the article insightfully probes several important issues related to the incorporation of IT in a classroom, which should be concerns of all educators in the 21 century.

• Laptops: Friend or Foe?

Before we decide whether we should allow students to use their laptops in class, it is useful to ask ourselves the question: "is it a real necessity or a pure luxury?" I believe almost ten out of ten times, it is a luxury that can be done without. A parellel question comes into my mind is: "is it really necessary to have an e-dictionary to be able to understand a language class?". For me, the distraction and temptation of misusing laptops in class is too strong for young students to face and handle alone. It is up to our teachers and educators to make a decision for them. As what Dennis Adams, chairman of the information-sciences department at the University of Houston wrote about shutting off wireless networks, "while classroom access to the Internet may be a wonderful teaching tool, it can also be a barrier to learning."

• Courteous etiquette or mandatory enforcement?

Then the next question we should ask is how we should educate our students about the issue and how we should deal with offenders? It is always wise to approach the problems of our stuents "nicely" first, therefore, I really like the idea that there are Syllabus clauses warning against the misuse of technology. In my opinion, a clause like the following should drive off most of the potential offenders:

"If your cellular phone is heard by the class you are responsible for completing one of two options: 1. Before the end of the class period you will sing a verse and chorus of any song of your choice or, 2. You will lead the next class period through a 10-minute discussion on a topic to be determined by the end of the class. (To the extent that there are multiple individuals in violation, duets will be accepted)."

• A Beatutiful Mind

I believe universities should spend more energy, time and expenditure to come up with constructive ways to intrigue students to develop their mental capacity, rather than set up more computer labs in a competing fashion to mislead students into a belief that IT is the single most important thing to be successful in the 21st century. Computers should be servants and never masters. The following quote from Roszak should be a motto in every future classroom:

"What kids need to learn," he says, "and what teachers must commit themselves fiercely to defending is the fact that the mind isn't any sort of machine, that thinking with your own naked wits is a pure animal joy that cannot be programmed, and that great culture begins with an imagination on fire. We should remind our children at every turn that more great literature and more great science were accomplished with the quill pen than by the fastest microchip that will ever be invented."

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ZoHo Notebook Announcement

I just watched the coolest demonstration of web publications, and I recommend everyone check out the demo of Zoho Notebook. Personally, I cannot wait to get my hands on it and see what students can do with it.

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The Water Buffalo Movie

Question: What should we teach our students in a language class? How should we teach them? How can IT help us to achieve our goals?

I came across the 4 GENERATIONS: The Water Buffalo Movie on The Fischbowl Blogger (please refer to the two websites for a detailed account of the whole story). A Christmas gift, rejected by one person in America is the best gift ever received by a family in China. A beautiful story begins and ends in 24 days via the media of web posts. However, the real story, or the better part which comes out of it continues to spread across the world. The spread of the video on the web helps more and more people get involved in the shaping of a better world beyond the boundaries of races and nations.

The story once again made me see the charm and power of IT in the language classroom. What matters is not only how much linguistic knowledge we teach our students, but also how we prepare our students to live, learn, love, work, and hope in such a world.

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Webography Project

Topic: Using Web-publishing Projects for Project-based Language Learning

Introduction: Project-based language learning involves the organization of a series of language learning activities on a particular theme or topic of relevance to the interests and daily lives of students. Students projects in the English language classroom can require student involvement, stimulate higher level thinking skills and give students responsibility for their own learning, resulting in a student community of inquiry involving authentic communication, cooperative learning, collaboration and problem solving. By making on-line publishing a key or culminating component of a broder project, we can integrate students publishing with the development of other important language and learning skills and experiences. Seven websites are evaluated accordingly.

Theoretical Support for Web-publishing Projects for Language Learning

• Horizon

The Horizon site was founded by James L. Morrison, whose expertise made him author and co-author of over 200 publications focusing on educational planning and on using information technology tools in educational organizations. The site's mission is to inform educators about the challenges that they will face in a changing world and steps they can take to meet these challenges. To accomplish this mission, the site provides easily navigated sections: seminars and workshops, conferences, and presentations to explore and extend our thinking as an education community. In addition, it also has a wealth of links in the Education On-Ramp section to valuable Web data sources that provide historical data and informed discussion related to the future of education. The Projects section is most relevant to this webography project in that it contains hundreds of academic articles published in distinguished journals, which delineate a solid theoretical framework for integrating web-publishing projects into project-based language learning. The website is objective, academic-oriented and constantly updated. It is completely ad-free.

Technical Support for Web-publishing Projects

• Instructional Technology Resources

As part of the UCLA website, Instructional Technology Resources lists various web-publishing possibilities that teacher or student users can explore (such as, Blogs, Wikis, Social Bookmarking, iWeb, Podcasting/Videocasting, Images, etc.). For each category, there is one or two suggested tools or widgets that can be used to realize the functions that the users desire. As a website that provides general technical support, it is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate. I have benefited a lot from this website in doing this webography project in that I have learned there are more tools at my disposal to help me publish and improve my web projects. And accordingly I have incorporated most of them in my Blogger. For users who are interested in more technical and advanced-level development of webs, it also provides information on HTML and Web Design (Dreamweaver, for example). The website is updated regularly and viewers can easily contact and give feedback to the ITC team.

Sample Web-publishing Projects

• The Day I Was Born (Online Project - Discovering YOUR Place in History)

The Day I Was Born is designed to help students find interesting details and report about what was going on in the world on the day of their birth--including news events, popular songs and TV shows, etc. This website is created by Bernie Dodge, a specialist in Educational Technology at San Diego State University. One major feature of the site is the inclusion of specific instructions on how to use each link, directing students to the exact location of the data they need. Students can participant alone or they can register themselves as a virtual class to carry out the project. The Day I Was Born is now being used by students all over the world who contribute their favorite facts about their birthdays. The results can be translated into 15 languages, from Czech to Welsh, in one grand student-researched, ever-growing, on-line history book. Students with higher language proficiency may find the project not challenging enough. And the site contains some advertisements.

• Oracle ThinkQuest

Sponsored by the Oracle Education Foudation, ThinkQuest organizes annual competitions which offer a unique project-based learning experience to students and teachers across the globe. Everybody wins by having their completed websites published in the ThinkQuest Library, a rich online resource visited by millions monthly. Featuring over 6,000 websites, the library is systematically categorized according to the topics of winner projects for viewers' easy reference (For example, Arts & Entertainment; Books & Literature, etc.). And the Coach Resources section is designed to provide practical advice on managing the project, such as how to conduct research and how to build web pages. The degree of difficulty of a project challenge like this is most appropriate for non-English major college students in China. Besides, it is an international website, which means, not only a Chinese corresponding website is available, but also Chinese students can compete with their international peers and have an equal chance to win the top prize as well. Students will be highly motivated.

• The Web Quest Page

The WebQuest is hosted by the Educational Technology Department at San Diego State University, updated continuously by Bernie Dodge. The WebQuest home page includes very detailed training materials; teachers and students can use their Portal page to search for examples of language or culture WebQuests drawn from different educational levels. The WebQuest is an educational model for designing web assignments originally developed at San Diego State University. WebQuests are problem-solving projects intended to develop and assess all the aspects of web information literacy; in the words of the developers, "WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation." WebQuests emphasize authentic tasks and products. I find the Readings and Training Materials section most helpful and relevant to my webography project. Here are two examples of WebQuest Projects: Teen Travel Experts; Le Cirque: A Global Simulation.

• Roger's (ESL) Home Page

Roger's ESL Home Page contains the most comprehensive collection of web-publishing students' projects samples in project-based language learning, which covers projects in ESL writing, listening/speaking and grammar. By participating off-campus activities that students use for their various assignments, students are able to finish their writing and create their own pages. The site is the most salient demonstration for teachers who want to adopt the same approach to assist students' learning outside the classrooms. The site is extremely easy to navigate and updated constantly. Besides, it has another two important sections: Project-based Learning and Constructivist Pedagogy and Special Projects Web Pages. A project-based learning handbook is also available for teacher researchers (PBL handbook.pdf). Compared to other websites, it is the most practical, useful, relevant website for teachers. It definitely makes me tempted and willing to try it out with my own students.

• Midlink Magazine

This Award-Winning Magazine is a nonprofit educational project sponsored by: NC State University, and the University of Central Florida. The mission of MidLink Magazine is to highlight exemplary work from the most creative classrooms around the globe. Founded by Caroline McCullen in October, 1994, MidLink Magazine is the oldest children's publication on the web. MidLink's greatest contribution is undoubtedly the sharing of working models of technology integration. Students can participate in a variety of the latest projects: Hidden Stories, Everyday is Earth Day, Podcasts from the Heart, The Elenor Rigby Project, and teachers can benefit from the Teacher Learning Cybrary section, which contains Librarian-evaluated online resources for curriculum, technology integration, web publishing, professional development, pedagogy and other valuable teaching and learning resources. The greatest strength of this website is that it continues to be updated quarterly with projects in locations all over the world. The global perspective embedded in this website will be most appreciated by EFL college students in China.

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IT Educational Policies in Japan

• Values given to education and IT

According to Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, due to progress in the information technology revolution, a wide range of activities, from daily life to economic activities, are being influenced by the movement to a knowledge-based society driven by the forces of knowledge and information. Thus, there is a strong demand for the abilities to obtain and understand knowledge and information as well as the abilities to transmit information and to engage in communication. The Science and Technology Basic plan is drawn up based on the Science and Technology Basic Law every five year in Japan. There are two steps to draw up the basic plan. First, Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP) deliberates the basic policy about science and technology. Second, based on that, the government formulates and decides a basic plan. A full account of the 3rd Science and Technology Basic Plan (FY2006-FY2010) can be found in the following link:

Full Text (Provisional translation) (PDF) (English Translation was revised on September,2006)

• Role of teachers

Teachers are considered to be playing a major role in promoting the relevant IT educational policies in Japan. They believe cultivating "Japanese with English Abilities" is an extremely important issue for the future of their children and for the further development of their country. However, they also state that this issue will only be resolved when the relevant parties related to English education (such as relevant personnel in national, public, and private elementary, junior high, senior high schools, and universities as well as relevant personnel in local municipal bodies) seek to realize this goal by making improvements to the system from their respective positions. A detailed description is given in the following link:

Improving the teaching ability of English teachers and upgrading the teaching system

• Roles of students

Students are the real field players in the 21st century. Policies have made explicit requirements for English language abilities required for all Japanese people. With the progress of globalization, it is important, while focusing on speaking and listening communication abilities in the initial learning stages, to acquire comprehensive communication abilities in "istening," "speaking," "reading," and "writing," from the perspective of "English as a means for communication," in order to foster "Japanese with English Abilities." Through instruction, basic and practical communication abilities will be acquired so that the entire public can conduct daily conversation and exchange information in English. At the same time, personnel who need English for their work, such as for professional or research reasons, will acquire the English necessary for their fields by building on their basic English abilities. It is important for all Japanese people to aim at achieving a level of English commensurate with average world standards based on objective indicators such as STEP, TOEFL, and TOEIC.

Japan's Education at a Glance 2005

• Roles of language and language learning

English has played a central role as the common international language in linking people who have different mother tongues. For children living in the 21st century, it is essential for them to acquire communication abilities in English as a common international language. In addition, English abilities are important in terms of linking Japan with the rest of the world, obtaining the world’s understanding and trust, enhancing its international presence and further developing Japan. The following links are government documents concerning education reform plan in PDF forms:

The Education Reform Plan for the 21st Century---The Rainbow Plan---

White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2005

• Sources of information:

http://web-japan.org/links/government/ministries/ministry4.html
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/
http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-astrategy/04_link.html

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The Road Ahead

In Bill Gate's Information Highway", this man of vision successfully laid out the blueprint for today's four areas of education-related multimedia experiences – networks, classroom environment, digital white boards and multimedia. As a College English teacher in China, I reflect on my own classroom teaching experiences and find many similarities with as well as differences from Gate's prophecy.

First and foremost, the application of multimedia in common language classroom is growing wider than ever in my university. The traditional chalk-and-blackboard classrooms have been completely taken over by multimedia classrooms, which at least consist of a tape recorder, a computer and a projector. Hardcopy books are no longer the only course materials in the classrooms. Power-point slides, audio and video clips from the internet, CDs and DVDs are empowering language teachers with a wide variety of channels to present their lectures. Even students are quickly adapting to the new technology tool. They are able to create presentations with multimedia content in the individual or group projects.

Besides, networks are facilitating and promoting classroom teaching with more means of outside classroom communication between teachers and students. With the help of email and messenger service (Windows Live Messenger, for example), teacher's personal space, FTP, virtual alumni community, communication becomes more efficient and therefore, more frequent. Information sharing has become easier and faster than ever. Teachers are able to scaffold students in many ways that had never been dreamed of before.

However, the digital white board mentioned by Gates is still unavailable in my university. Due to the absence of the interactive whiteboard, my colleagues and I have to cope with the dilemma of combining the use of blackboard and projector at the same time. But the problem is once the PPT is done, we are not able to do any in-class changes according to the reactions of students. It is difficult for us to highlight any particular parts of our slides. So we are really looking forward to the "chalk-less" classroom, where the advantages of blackboard are incorporated into the interactive whiteboard as well.

And the large number of college students in every Chinese university is also posing a serious problem to language teachers in incorporating IT into their classroom. In NIE for example, the E-learning week is possible for every student enjoys the free access to computers and internet. But it is not so in China. Even the best Chinese university cannot guarantee every student has the free access to internet any time they want. If this problem cannot be solved, only those few who are rich enough to afford to have access to these sources are the real beneficiaries.

In sum, it is true that language teachers in my university are benefiting from the latest development of IT, but problems and challenges still exist. The Road Ahead is a promising one but a long one, too.

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