What is RSS?
In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you want can be a drag.
Wouldn't it be better to have the latest news and features delivered directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site? Well now you can, thanks to a very clever service, RSS. There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but the majority plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. Put plainly, it allows you to identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to you. It takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by showing you the very latest information that you are interested in. Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity and many others, including the Guardian, New York Times and CNN do provid.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
Use of IT in our university---respond to week 8th reading assignment
In the university where I work, many teachers find that they have little or no choice about integrating IT into their language classrooms. For one thing, the classrooms where students have English classes are not equipped with multimedia machines; for another, many teachers don't see much use of incorporating IT into classroom activities or tasks and, therefore, don't bother to think hard about how to make IT an added value component in our language teaching and learning context.
However, some young teachers do prefer involving use of IT in their classrooms. Unfortunately, what they usually do in language labs is simply showing students English films and PPT slides, playing CDs, MP3s. Since use of IT should be matched to the students' learning needs and interests as well as requirments of specific teaching context, what these young teachers need to consider is how to make IT add value to teaching tasks and classroom activities, and thus make them more worthwhile. Considering the fact that teachers in our department get used to working within a structured learning environment where learning goals and objectives are highly predetermined, a considerable amount of practice and training would be required to help them to become digital languge educators who are capable of setting realistic goals with IT and using it effectively.
Saying from the students' point of view, although they are interested in new and high technology, they can easily lose interest in classroom tasks when they perceive that their needs are not being met. In addition, many students still believe they benefit most from closely regulated instruction system with low flexibility, in which time, place, curriculum and pacing are fixed in advance. Chinese students, esp. students from innerland provinces like Shanxi, tend to depend more on teachers. They lack learning autonomy and feel difficult to take charge of their own learning and be responsible for it.
Therefore, although flexibility (including time, place, curriculum, and pace) discussed in the book does offer the maximum opportunity to every possible learners, I'm afraid our students will have to take time to learn to monitor and assess their learning performance. What I mean is it would be quite impractical and impossible to incorporate tasks that are "liberated" or "free" into our teaching practice at present in Shanxi.
However, some young teachers do prefer involving use of IT in their classrooms. Unfortunately, what they usually do in language labs is simply showing students English films and PPT slides, playing CDs, MP3s. Since use of IT should be matched to the students' learning needs and interests as well as requirments of specific teaching context, what these young teachers need to consider is how to make IT add value to teaching tasks and classroom activities, and thus make them more worthwhile. Considering the fact that teachers in our department get used to working within a structured learning environment where learning goals and objectives are highly predetermined, a considerable amount of practice and training would be required to help them to become digital languge educators who are capable of setting realistic goals with IT and using it effectively.
Saying from the students' point of view, although they are interested in new and high technology, they can easily lose interest in classroom tasks when they perceive that their needs are not being met. In addition, many students still believe they benefit most from closely regulated instruction system with low flexibility, in which time, place, curriculum and pacing are fixed in advance. Chinese students, esp. students from innerland provinces like Shanxi, tend to depend more on teachers. They lack learning autonomy and feel difficult to take charge of their own learning and be responsible for it.
Therefore, although flexibility (including time, place, curriculum, and pace) discussed in the book does offer the maximum opportunity to every possible learners, I'm afraid our students will have to take time to learn to monitor and assess their learning performance. What I mean is it would be quite impractical and impossible to incorporate tasks that are "liberated" or "free" into our teaching practice at present in Shanxi.
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