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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