The challenge is
to find some effective ways of getting teachers to realize and
reflect upon the value of gaming in the classroom so that they can consider
ways to embed valuable educational games and some of the game features in their
future teaching.
2011年6月19日 星期日
2009年3月29日 星期日
E-learning 2.0 By Stephen Downes
http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1
E-learning 2.0
And now, e-learning is evolving with the World Wide Web as a whole and it's changing to a degree significant enough to warrant a new name: E-learning 2.0.
Where We Are Now
Before talking about where e-learning is going, it is worth spending a few words to describe here we are now.
When we think of learning content today, we probably think of a learning object. Originating in the world of computer-based delivery (CBT) systems, learning objects were depicted as being like lego blocks or atoms, little bits of content that could be put together or organized. Standards bodies have refined the concept of learning objects into a rigorous form and have provided specifications on how to sequence and organize these bits of content into courses and package them for delivery as though they were books or training manuals.
Today, e-learning mainly takes the form of online courses. From the resources distributed by MIT's OpenCourseware project to the design of learning materials in Rice's Connexions project to the offerings found from colleges and universities everywhere, the course is the basic unit of organization.
As a consequence, the dominant learning technology employed today is a type of system that organizes and delivers online courses—the learning management system (LMS). This piece of software has become almost ubiquitous in the learning environment; companies such as WebCT, Blackboard, and Desire2Learn have installed products at thousands of universities and colleges and are used by tens of thousands of instructors and students. The learning management system takes learning content and organizes it in a standard way, as a course divided into modules and lessons, supported with quizzes, tests and discussions, and in many systems today, integrated into the college or university's student information system.
In general, where we are now in the online world is where we were before the beginning of e-learning [1]. Traditional theories of distance learning, of (for example) transactional distance, as described by Michael G. Moore, have been adapted for the online world. Content is organized according to this traditional model and delivered either completely online or in conjunction with more traditional seminars, to cohorts of students, led by an instructor, following a specified curriculum to be completed at a predetermined pace.
Trends
As we approach the halfway mark of the new millennium's first decade, the nature of the Internet, and just as importantly, the people using the Internet, has begun to change. These changes are sweeping across entire industries as a whole and are not unique to education; indeed, in many ways education has lagged behind some of these trends and is just beginning to feel their wake.
One trend that has captured the attention of numerous pundits is the changing nature of Internet users themselves. Sometimes called "digital natives" and sometimes called "n-gen," these new users approach work, learning and play in new ways [2].
They absorb information quickly, in images and video as well as text, from multiple sources simultaneously. They operate at "twitch speed," expecting instant responses and feedback. They prefer random "on-demand" access to media, expect to be in constant communication with their friends (who may be next door or around the world), and they are as likely to create their own media (or download someone else's) as to purchase a book or a CD [3].
The manner in which this new generation of users is changing markets is captured evocatively in a document called The Cluetrain Manifesto. First posted online in April 1999, the document begins with the declaration that "markets are conversations" and continues with a redefinition of the relation between producer and consumer. "Markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized… People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors." Jay Cross, writing in the same vein, talks about the "augmented learner" and the "hyper-organization" [4].
In learning, these trends are manifest in what is sometimes called "learner-centered" or "student-centered" design. This is more than just adapting for different learning styles or allowing the user to change the font size and background color; it is the placing of the control of learning itself into the hands of the learner [5].
"The changing demographics of the student population and the more consumer/client-centered culture in today's society have provided a climate where the use of student-centered learning is thriving" [6]. Learning is characterized not only by greater autonomy for the learner, but also a greater emphasis on active learning, with creation, communication and participation playing key roles, and on changing roles for the teacher, indeed, even a collapse of the distinction between teacher and student altogether [7].
Taking this approach even further is George Siemens's Connectivism. "We derive our competence," writes Siemens, "from forming connections... Chaos is a new reality for knowledge workers... Unlike constructivism, which states that learners attempt to foster understanding by meaning-making tasks, chaos states that the meaning exists— the learner's challenge is to recognize the patterns which appear to be hidden. Meaning-making and forming connections between specialized communities are important activities." Readers of Douglas Rushkoff's Cyberia will recognize a similar theme as knowledge-working is no longer thought of as the gathering and accumulation of facts, but rather, the riding of waves in a dynamic environment [8].
The breaking down of barriers has led to many of the movements and issues we see on today's Internet. File-sharing, for example, evolves not of a sudden criminality among today's youth but rather in their pervasive belief that information is something meant to be shared. This belief is manifest in such things as free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses for content, and open access to scholarly and other works. Sharing content is not considered unethical; indeed, the hoarding of content is viewed as antisocial [9]. And open content is viewed not merely as nice to have but essential for the creation of the sort of learning network described by Siemens [10].
Numerous writers, even, have called for what is often referred to as the "open society." Tapscott, for example, writes about "the transparent burger" and "the naked corporation." Mougayar tells us that "the future organization is an "open corporation." And in a widely popular online essay Rob Paterson asked, "Is not the new "big idea" of our time to disintermediate the institutional middleman and to enable direct relationships? Are supermarkets eternal? Do we need factory universities to learn? Is our health dependent on a doctor? Is the news what we see on TV?" [11].
In short, the structures and organization that characterized life prior to the Internet are breaking down. Where intermediaries, such as public relations staff, journalists or professors, are not needed, they are disregarded. Consumers are talking directly to producers, and more often than not, demanding and getting new standards of accountability and transparency. Often, they inform the productive process itself, and in many cases, replace it altogether. Passive has become active. Disinterested has become engaged. The new Internet user may not vote, but that is only because the vote is irrelevant when you govern yourself.
The Web 2.0
The first sign that something was changing on the Web was the underground popularity of a site called LiveJournal and the very visible surge of interest in a site called Friendster. These sites, which came to be called "social networking sites," were rapidly emulated by such services as Tribe, LinkedIn, Google's Orkut, Flickr, and Yahoo 360. Writers conversant with the works of social network analysts, people like Duncan J. Watts and Mark Buchanan, for example, noticed that similar patterns existed in these online networks [12]. Something was happening here.
What was happening was that major parts of the World Wide Web were acquiring the properties of communications networks, the sorts of networks found to exist (albeit on a much smaller scale) in the physical world. And that the Web itself was being transformed from what was called "the Read Web" to the "Read-Write Web," in accordance with Tim Berners-Lee's original vision. Proponents of this new, evolving Web began calling it Web 2.0 and in short order the trend became a movement.
"Enter Web 2.0, a vision of the Web in which information is broken up into "microcontent" units that can be distributed over dozens of domains. The Web of documents has morphed into a Web of data. We are no longer just looking to the same old sources for information. Now we're looking to a new set of tools to aggregate and remix microcontent in new and useful ways" [13].
In a nutshell, what was happening was that the Web was shifting from being a medium, in which information was transmitted and consumed, into being a platform, in which content was created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along. And what people were doing with the Web was not merely reading books, listening to the radio or watching TV, but having a conversation, with a vocabulary consisting not just of words but of images, video, multimedia and whatever they could get their hands on. And this became, and looked like, and behaved like, a network.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the world of blogging. In a few short years the blog went from a few idiosyncratic Web sites to something used by millions of people empowered by content creation tools such as Blogger and Wordpress. Even more importantly, these blogs were connected to each other through the mechanism of RSS, a simple XML format that allows bloggers to send their content to a network of readers (called 'subscribers').
But it wasn't just blogging. Creating an online community became a snap with tools such as Plone and Drupal. Moreover, using a collaborative writing tool called the wiki Jimmy Wales and a few thousand of his friends created a site called Wikipedia, rendering Encyclopedia Britannica obsolete in the process. Others, using the free audio-recording tool Audacity, began recording their own talk and music; this, when combined with RSS, became podcasting, a rapidly rising phenomena that is transforming what we think about radio.
For all this technology, what is important to recognize is that the emergence of the Web 2.0 is not a technological revolution, it is a social revolution. "Here's my take on it: Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology. It's about enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services. By open I mean technically open with appropriate APIs but also, more importantly, socially open, with rights granted to use the content in new and exciting contexts" [14].
E-Learning 2.0
In the world of e-learning, the closest thing to a social network is a community of practice, articulated and promoted by people such as Etienne Wenger in the 1990s. According to Wenger, a community of practice is characterized by "a shared domain of interest" where "members interact and learn together" and "develop a shared repertoire of resources."
For the most part, though, what constituted "community" in online learning were artificial and often contrived "discussions" supported by learning management systems [15]. These communities were typically limited to a given group of learners, such as a university class, had a fixed start and end-point, and while substantially better than nothing, rarely approached Wenger's theory.
That's not to say no communities of practice were forming. There were some attempts to foster them, as for example MuniMall, directed toward the municipal governance sector, and PEGGasus, directed toward engineers and geophysicists. Moreover, as commentator Erin Brewer has noted, places on the Internet like Yahoo! Groups have become a locus for community learning activities. But in general, the uptake has been slow, and the support from traditional institutions almost nonexistent.
Educators began to notice something different happening when they began to use tools like wikis and blogs in the classroom a couple of years ago. All of a sudden, instead of discussing pre-assigned topics with their classmates, students found themselves discussing a wide range of topics with peers worldwide. Imagine the astonishment, for example, when, after writing a review of a circus she had viewed, a Grade 5 student received a response from one of the performers [16]. In a very short time, blogs were used for a wide variety of purposes in education; an educational bloggers' network formed and by this year thousands of teachers were encouraging their students to blog.
Blogging is very different from traditionally assigned learning content. It is much less formal. It is written from a personal point of view, in a personal voice. Students' blog posts are often about something from their own range of interests, rather than on a course topic or assigned project. More importantly, what happens when students blog, and read reach others' blogs, is that a network of interactions forms-much like a social network, and much like Wenger's community of practice.
It's not just blogging. Educators have also taken an interest in podcasting. Some have started broadcasting, such as at McMaster, where engineering professors now host an online show [17].
"We're talking to the download generation," said Peter Smith, associate dean, Faculty of Engineering. "Why not have the option to download information about education and careers the same way you can download music? It untethers content from the Web and lets students access us at their convenience." Moreover, using an online service such as Odeo, Blogomatrix Sparks, or even simply off-the-shelf software, students can create their own podcasts.
What happens when online learning ceases to be like a medium, and becomes more like a platform? What happens when online learning software ceases to be a type of content-consumption tool, where learning is "delivered," and becomes more like a content-authoring tool, where learning is created? The model of e-learning as being a type of content, produced by publishers, organized and structured into courses, and consumed by students, is turned on its head. Insofar as there is content, it is used rather than read— and is, in any case, more likely to be produced by students than courseware authors. And insofar as there is structure, it is more likely to resemble a language or a conversation rather than a book or a manual.
The e-learning application, therefore, begins to look very much like a blogging tool. It represents one node in a web of content, connected to other nodes and content creation services used by other students. It becomes, not an institutional or corporate application, but a personal learning center, where content is reused and remixed according to the student's own needs and interests. It becomes, indeed, not a single application, but a collection of interoperating applications—an environment rather than a system.
It also begins to look like a personal portfolio tool [18]. The idea here is that students will have their own personal place to create and showcase their own work. Some e-portfolio applications, such as ELGG, have already been created. IMS Global as put together an e-portfolio specification [19]. "The portfolio can provide an opportunity to demonstrate one's ability to collect, organize, interpret and reflect on documents and sources of information. It is also a tool for continuing professional development, encouraging individuals to take responsibility for and demonstrate the results of their own learning" [20].
This approach to learning means that learning content is created and distributed in a very different manner. Rather than being composed, organized and packaged, e-learning content is syndicated, much like a blog post or podcast. It is aggregated by students, using their own personal RSS reader or some similar application. From there, it is remixed and repurposed with the student's own individual application in mind, the finished product being fed forward to become fodder for some other student's reading and use.
More formally, instead of using enterprise learning-management systems, educational institutions expect to use an interlocking set of open-source applications. Work on such a set of applications has begun in a number of quarters, with the E-Learning Framework defining a set of common applications and the newly formed e-Framework for Education and Research drawing on an international collaboration. While there is still an element of content delivery in these systems, there is also an increasing recognition that learning is becoming a creative activity and that the appropriate venue is a platform rather than an application.
In the future it will be more widely recognized that the learning comes not from the design of learning content but in how it is used. Most e-learning theorists are already there, and are exploring how learning content-whether professionally authored or created by students— can be used as the basis for learning activities rather than the conduit for learning content.
A great amount of work is being done, for example, in educational gaming and simulations. Theorists such as
Papert writes, "The most important learning skills that I see children getting from games are those that support the empowering sense of taking charge of their own learning. And the learner taking charge of learning is antithetical to the dominant ideology of curriculum design" [21]. This is most evidenced when learners engage not only in playing, but in the design, of games. In the gaming world this practice is widely recognized and encouraged—game "modding" allows players to make the game their own. [22].
Where games encourage learning is through the provision of what a student needs to know in a context where it will be immediately used. As Gee recommends, "Words are only meaningful when they can be related to experiences," said Gee. If I say "I spilled the coffee," this has a different meaning depending on whether I ask for a broom or a mop. You cannot create that context ahead of time— it has to be part of the experience. And in just the same way, the science text doesn't make any sense to someone who has not done any science (though it makes a great deal of sense to an experienced scientist)" [23].
A similar motivation underlies the rapidly rising domain of mobile learning [24]—for after all, were the context in which learning occurs not important, it would not be useful or necessary to make learning mobile. Mobile learning offers not only new opportunities to create but also to connect. As Ellen Wagner and Bryan Alexander note, mobile learning "define(s) new relationships and behaviors among learners, information, personal computing devices, and the world at large" [25].
As this trend progresses, we find ourselves in a world characterized by the phrase "ubiquitous computing." "Where virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world, ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in the world with people" [26]. The "Father of ubiquitous computing," Mark Weiser, compares computing of the future to writing. "Today this technology is ubiquitous in industrialized countries. Not only do books, magazines and newspapers convey written information, but so do street signs, billboards, shop signs and even graffiti" [27].
In the world of learning, what this means is having learning available no matter what you are doing. Jay Cross captures this idea in the concept of "workflow learning." Sam Adkins writes, workflow learning is "a deep integration with enterprise applications assembled from Web Services into composite applications" with "task and work support fused into the aggregated business processes that make up the real-time workflow" and supported by "contextual collaboration with people and systems" and "design and modification achieved by modeling and simulation" [28].
Of course, there is no reason to expect that this form of learning would be restricted to the workplace. Learning integrates into every aspect of our lives, from daily household chores to arts and culture. Learning and living, it could be said, will eventually merge. The challenge will not be in how to learn, but in how to use learning to create something more, to communicate.
About the Author
Stephen Downes is a senior researcher with the National Research Council of Canada based in Moncton, New Brunswick at the Institute for Information Technology's e-Learning Research Group. Stephen is a leading voice in the areas of learning objects and metadata, as well as the emerging fields of weblogs in education and content syndication and is perhaps best known for his daily research newsletter, OLDaily. His work also includes the development of educational content syndication systems and the design of a digital rights management system for learning resources. Stephen is a member of the eLearn editorial advisory board and also frequently gives seminars and lectures on the field of online learning, including the notable Buntine Oration delivered in Perth, Australia, in October 2004.
2009年3月26日 星期四
What Is Web 2.0 ? Ideas, Technologies and Implications for Education
Stephen Downes comments on a Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC - a UK body promoting the use of ICT in teaching, learning and research) report by Paul Anderson:
If you are new to Web 2.0, this is an excellent introduction. The author depicts Web 2.0 not simply as a new set of technologies but also as the emergence of six major ideas: individual production and user generated content, harness the power of the crowd, data on an epic scale, architecture of participation, network effects, and openness. The author gets into the details quite well - there is, for example, a nice outline of AJAX, an informed discussion of SOAP vs REST, and a good sketch of the issues between Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web.The report can be found here [pdf]. It's quite a read, so if you need to zoom in, read Chapters 3 (Big ideas behind Web 2.0) and 5 (Implications in Education - stop at 5.4.1, unless you want to get into a lengthy discussion about archiving).
2009年3月8日 星期日
E-learning Conferences Worldwide
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E-learning Conferences Worldwide
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E-learning Conferences Worldwide
Upcoming events in internet-based education, educational technology and related fields
Conference Alerts - Academic conferences worldwide
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2009年3月7日 星期六
華語文創新營運帶來網路學習新商機
http://tw.echinesenet.com/story/web-learning-commerce
全球風行中文熱潮下，華語文學習已經成為一門顯學，隨著龐大市場引爆的商機，除了傳統語言學習通路外，採用Web 2.0社群語言學習方法，或許是一項創新營運模式，更可能帶來爆發性的收入，因此我們來介紹幾個可能有機會出線的網站，看看這幾個新興網站的特色與價值。
www.chinesepod.com
Chinesepod是Praxis Language公司於2005年在上海創設，以外國人學華語文的角度來設計內容與服務，利用iPod平台傳送免費內容，線上提供800多門課程依難易度分六個層級。
網站至2007年已經有25萬人定期收聽，數千人支付與老師一對一談話的學費，且大多支付的顧客住在美國。Praxis Language公司目前也正和中國的漢辦合作，成立線上孔子學院(www.confuciusinstitute.net/)，主要提供線上教材資源庫。
www.livemocha.com
Livemocha 是2007年9月正式上線，會員來自200個國家共20個萬會員，目前有約有160小時的免費初級、中級課程，課程包含六種語言：漢語、英語、德語、法語、西班牙語、北印度語，介面則有英文、簡體中文、日文、西班牙文、葡萄牙文、韓文六種版本。
網站的主要特色是「語言學習媒合平台」。在註冊成為會員時，系統會詢問你的母語，以及你想學習的語言及目前程度，只要登入網站，就媒合雙方透過平臺即時通訊功能進行線上聊天，達成社群語言學習的目的。還可把練習後的結果，提交給社群中的朋友，請他幫你批改或給予建議。目前還沒有營利的機制，既沒收會員費，也沒有廣告在網站上。
www.activechinese.com
ActiveChinese 是在2005年成立的，公司總部位於美國加州的舊金山，並與位於上海的研發聯盟合作，營運模式比較像是傳統的數位內容公司，是以銷售內容CD為主，和少部分online access，他們是以flash的教學影片來教授中文，達到學習和互動的效果。
在youtube上也分享許多免費試讀課程，在Second Life 也成立特別的島嶼來做宣傳與使用者交流，課程強調以多媒體的方式呈現教學內容為主，它的課程含蓋面算是蠻完整的，並且對於不同的對象有不同的內容，並有參加各種主流市場展覽，另外強調課程內容符合ACTL、HSK 標準。
www.echineselearning.com
2006年創設於北京，是中國目前營運最好的一家網路華語文教學機構，對華語文師資的篩選嚴格，皆為北大或北師大本科學歷或研究生學歷的師資才能錄取，且echineselearning機構 是CLASS全美中小學中文教師協會與CLTA全美中文教師協會的成員。
網站除了提供一對一中文線上視訊學習之外，更提供了在上課前24小時可線上預約機制，其課程主要是透過Video視訊與學生連線教授華語，如學員對授課的華語文老師有不滿意的地方，可向客服反應更換老師，另有老師的評比制度與學員退費制度來控制其華語課程的品質。且在每階段課程結束後都會提供給學員一個Personnal plan顯示每個階段的學習紀錄與成果。
收取費用方面，招收對象包含成人、青少年、兒童、企業與學校，學員在登入註冊後，echineselearning機構透過電話聯繫再次確認學員華語文的程度與需求後，方有不同的收費標準出現。
www.guavatalk.com
Guavatalk是一個開放的平台，結合moodle、google calendar、blog等服務，主要提供免費同步課程的網站。
目前剛開始營運，線上僅有8個老師，主要讓北京與美國的學生連線，作網路同步課程學習。老師先在網站上預約上課時段，提供免費同步課程給任意想來參加的人。老師可透過網站做出自己的知名度，然後再到1on1mandarin網站，採用收費方式，經營1對1的同步課程。
www.gochinese.net
GoChinese，是一個網路華語文教學平台，結合現代語言學，強調語音和詞基的方法。
其經營模式是賣軟體與教材。軟體特色強調快速製作屬於自己的教材，可隨便複製一段文章，即可馬上成為自己想學的教材。另外在網站平台上學生可以開啟導師編制的教材或學生自備文件，聆聽流暢的華語文發音，學習漢語詞及其拼音。目前網站有點鬆散，產品單價從20美元-160美元都有，以技術應用觀點，是一個利基市場。
綜合6家華語文新興網站服務層面，主要融合了社群、非母語情境學習，也加入Immersive、Collaborative、Social Computing的新興科技，讓華語文網路學習邁向e-Learning 2.0的途徑，企圖在競爭激烈的華語文市場上創造藍海策略。
從創新服務的軌跡來看，大家都已經知道Web 2.0所帶來的效應與影響，所以大家紛紛投入web2.0的營運策略，誰能夠勝出，是需要等時間的諈練與證明；然而華語文web2.0學習趨勢是已經存在，不知你準備好了嗎？
全球風行中文熱潮下，華語文學習已經成為一門顯學，隨著龐大市場引爆的商機，除了傳統語言學習通路外，採用Web 2.0社群語言學習方法，或許是一項創新營運模式，更可能帶來爆發性的收入，因此我們來介紹幾個可能有機會出線的網站，看看這幾個新興網站的特色與價值。
www.chinesepod.com
Chinesepod是Praxis Language公司於2005年在上海創設，以外國人學華語文的角度來設計內容與服務，利用iPod平台傳送免費內容，線上提供800多門課程依難易度分六個層級。
網站至2007年已經有25萬人定期收聽，數千人支付與老師一對一談話的學費，且大多支付的顧客住在美國。Praxis Language公司目前也正和中國的漢辦合作，成立線上孔子學院(www.confuciusinstitute.net/)，主要提供線上教材資源庫。
www.livemocha.com
Livemocha 是2007年9月正式上線，會員來自200個國家共20個萬會員，目前有約有160小時的免費初級、中級課程，課程包含六種語言：漢語、英語、德語、法語、西班牙語、北印度語，介面則有英文、簡體中文、日文、西班牙文、葡萄牙文、韓文六種版本。
網站的主要特色是「語言學習媒合平台」。在註冊成為會員時，系統會詢問你的母語，以及你想學習的語言及目前程度，只要登入網站，就媒合雙方透過平臺即時通訊功能進行線上聊天，達成社群語言學習的目的。還可把練習後的結果，提交給社群中的朋友，請他幫你批改或給予建議。目前還沒有營利的機制，既沒收會員費，也沒有廣告在網站上。
www.activechinese.com
ActiveChinese 是在2005年成立的，公司總部位於美國加州的舊金山，並與位於上海的研發聯盟合作，營運模式比較像是傳統的數位內容公司，是以銷售內容CD為主，和少部分online access，他們是以flash的教學影片來教授中文，達到學習和互動的效果。
在youtube上也分享許多免費試讀課程，在Second Life 也成立特別的島嶼來做宣傳與使用者交流，課程強調以多媒體的方式呈現教學內容為主，它的課程含蓋面算是蠻完整的，並且對於不同的對象有不同的內容，並有參加各種主流市場展覽，另外強調課程內容符合ACTL、HSK 標準。
www.echineselearning.com
2006年創設於北京，是中國目前營運最好的一家網路華語文教學機構，對華語文師資的篩選嚴格，皆為北大或北師大本科學歷或研究生學歷的師資才能錄取，且echineselearning機構 是CLASS全美中小學中文教師協會與CLTA全美中文教師協會的成員。
網站除了提供一對一中文線上視訊學習之外，更提供了在上課前24小時可線上預約機制，其課程主要是透過Video視訊與學生連線教授華語，如學員對授課的華語文老師有不滿意的地方，可向客服反應更換老師，另有老師的評比制度與學員退費制度來控制其華語課程的品質。且在每階段課程結束後都會提供給學員一個Personnal plan顯示每個階段的學習紀錄與成果。
收取費用方面，招收對象包含成人、青少年、兒童、企業與學校，學員在登入註冊後，echineselearning機構透過電話聯繫再次確認學員華語文的程度與需求後，方有不同的收費標準出現。
www.guavatalk.com
Guavatalk是一個開放的平台，結合moodle、google calendar、blog等服務，主要提供免費同步課程的網站。
目前剛開始營運，線上僅有8個老師，主要讓北京與美國的學生連線，作網路同步課程學習。老師先在網站上預約上課時段，提供免費同步課程給任意想來參加的人。老師可透過網站做出自己的知名度，然後再到1on1mandarin網站，採用收費方式，經營1對1的同步課程。
www.gochinese.net
GoChinese，是一個網路華語文教學平台，結合現代語言學，強調語音和詞基的方法。
其經營模式是賣軟體與教材。軟體特色強調快速製作屬於自己的教材，可隨便複製一段文章，即可馬上成為自己想學的教材。另外在網站平台上學生可以開啟導師編制的教材或學生自備文件，聆聽流暢的華語文發音，學習漢語詞及其拼音。目前網站有點鬆散，產品單價從20美元-160美元都有，以技術應用觀點，是一個利基市場。
綜合6家華語文新興網站服務層面，主要融合了社群、非母語情境學習，也加入Immersive、Collaborative、Social Computing的新興科技，讓華語文網路學習邁向e-Learning 2.0的途徑，企圖在競爭激烈的華語文市場上創造藍海策略。
從創新服務的軌跡來看，大家都已經知道Web 2.0所帶來的效應與影響，所以大家紛紛投入web2.0的營運策略，誰能夠勝出，是需要等時間的諈練與證明；然而華語文web2.0學習趨勢是已經存在，不知你準備好了嗎？
2009年3月1日 星期日
iTunes U Proves Better than Going to Class
研究全文刊登在Computers & Education 52 (2009) 617–623
http://www.fredonia.edu/department/psychology/pdf/CAE1263.pdf
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/itunes_u_proves_better_than_class.php
Written by Sarah Perez / February 25, 2009 7:01 AM / 17 Comments
Skip the lecture, download the podcast. That's probably not what university professors tell their students, but perhaps they should. New psychological research conducted by Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York in Fredonia, shows that students who only listened to podcasts of lectures achieved substantially higher exam results than those who attended class in person.
To find out how much students can learn from a podcast, McKinney's team created one for a lecture from an introductory psychology course. The podcast contained both audio and video of the slides used in class.
Half the students (32 of 64) skipped the class and listened to the podcast only. The other half attended in person, where they also received a printed handout. A week later, the students were tested on the material.
Podcast Listeners Did Better
The students who downloaded the podcast alone averaged a C (71 out of 100) but those who attended class averaged a D. And those who listened to the podcast and took notes did even better - their average was 77.
Before university classrooms empty out, it's important to note that this is only preliminary research. McKinney's study involved only a single lecture. Also, motivation may have come into play as well. Her experiment didn't count for class credit, so students were encouraged to participate with iTunes gift cards. The high scorer from each group was awarded a $15 gift certificate for use in the online store.
McKinney now plans to further study podcasts in the classroom over the course of an entire semester, instead of just one class. She wonders if students might find podcasts more useful early on in a class, when the material is still new. Still, McKinney is a big believer in the power of technology and its impact on education. "I do think it's a tool," she says. "I think that these kids are programmed differently than kids 20 years ago."
http://www.fredonia.edu/department/psychology/pdf/CAE1263.pdf
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/itunes_u_proves_better_than_class.php
Written by Sarah Perez / February 25, 2009 7:01 AM / 17 Comments
Skip the lecture, download the podcast. That's probably not what university professors tell their students, but perhaps they should. New psychological research conducted by Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York in Fredonia, shows that students who only listened to podcasts of lectures achieved substantially higher exam results than those who attended class in person.
To find out how much students can learn from a podcast, McKinney's team created one for a lecture from an introductory psychology course. The podcast contained both audio and video of the slides used in class.
Half the students (32 of 64) skipped the class and listened to the podcast only. The other half attended in person, where they also received a printed handout. A week later, the students were tested on the material.
Podcast Listeners Did Better
The students who downloaded the podcast alone averaged a C (71 out of 100) but those who attended class averaged a D. And those who listened to the podcast and took notes did even better - their average was 77.
Before university classrooms empty out, it's important to note that this is only preliminary research. McKinney's study involved only a single lecture. Also, motivation may have come into play as well. Her experiment didn't count for class credit, so students were encouraged to participate with iTunes gift cards. The high scorer from each group was awarded a $15 gift certificate for use in the online store.
McKinney now plans to further study podcasts in the classroom over the course of an entire semester, instead of just one class. She wonders if students might find podcasts more useful early on in a class, when the material is still new. Still, McKinney is a big believer in the power of technology and its impact on education. "I do think it's a tool," she says. "I think that these kids are programmed differently than kids 20 years ago."
iTunes University
http://itunes.stanford.edu/
http://itunes.berkeley.edu/
http://web.mit.edu/itunesu/
蘋果展開iTunes U計畫＿蘋果日報 March 4,2006
陳宜君╱綜合外電報導】
美國蘋果電腦公司憑其iPod數位影音播放器和iTunes音樂網站，稱霸數位影音市場，現在又展開擴大版圖最新行動，廣邀全美各大學與教育機構加入其iTunes U服務，將課程講授內容的podcast聲音檔案及其他教育資料，上傳到各校在iTunes的子網站，供人下載。
蘋果2001年推出iPod至目前，已售出逾4千萬台。該公司1年多前就和史丹福等6所美國大學合作，展開iTunes U（U為大學university的縮寫）計劃。學校利用網路教學，並非創舉，不過隨著數位影音檔案下載的普及，將手持式影音播放器應用於教育，已成為數位時代的新潮流。
為各校量身訂做網站
將教師授課內容數位化供學生下載，有助複習課業，但部分教授擔心，這會讓學生產生鬆懈心理，導致缺課率越來越高。
蘋果提供針對各校量身訂做的軟體與子網站，方便各校師生將podcast、有聲書和影像檔案等資料，上傳到由蘋果負責維護的伺服器內儲存，並讓各校將過去使用的系統與iTunes子網站整合，俾便師生沿用原有的身分識別代號與密碼登入專屬iTunes子網站。校方可自行決定各檔案是否限定特定人士下載，抑或對一般大眾開放。
學生可隨時隨地複習
密蘇里大學新聞學院去年夏季加入iTunes U之前，就已開放師生透過校內網站上傳或下載課程的podcast檔和其他教育資料；加入該計劃後，其師生可利用蘋果提供的免費軟體與服務，連結至該學院的專屬iTunes子網站，下載需要的資料。密大新聞學院表示，多數學生早已熟悉iTunes的使用介面，應用成效良好。
密西根大學牙醫學院去年秋季加入iTunes U計劃。該學院副教授強森（Lynn Johnson）表示，將課程內容數位化的構想來自學生，錄下教師授課內容並製作成數位檔案的工作也由志願負責的學生一手包辦，計劃推出至今相當成功，學生可隨時隨地複習上課內容。
iTunes U服務
●費用→免費
●對象→與蘋果電腦合作的全美各大學或教育機構，目前已有6所大學，包括︰
◎布朗大學
◎史丹福大學
◎杜克大學
◎威斯康辛大學麥迪遜分校
◎密西根大學安納堡分校牙醫學院
◎密蘇里大學哥倫比亞分校新聞學院
●內容→參加學校可設置各校的iTunes網站，將課程內容的podcast數位聲音檔案及其 他影音檔，上傳至各校網站，並決定檔案是否有下載資格限制。各校師生可透過蘋果電腦的免費軟體，連結自校iTunes網站下載檔案。
資料來源：綜合外電、蘋果電腦www.apple.com
http://itunes.berkeley.edu/
http://web.mit.edu/itunesu/
蘋果展開iTunes U計畫＿蘋果日報 March 4,2006
陳宜君╱綜合外電報導】
美國蘋果電腦公司憑其iPod數位影音播放器和iTunes音樂網站，稱霸數位影音市場，現在又展開擴大版圖最新行動，廣邀全美各大學與教育機構加入其iTunes U服務，將課程講授內容的podcast聲音檔案及其他教育資料，上傳到各校在iTunes的子網站，供人下載。
蘋果2001年推出iPod至目前，已售出逾4千萬台。該公司1年多前就和史丹福等6所美國大學合作，展開iTunes U（U為大學university的縮寫）計劃。學校利用網路教學，並非創舉，不過隨著數位影音檔案下載的普及，將手持式影音播放器應用於教育，已成為數位時代的新潮流。
為各校量身訂做網站
將教師授課內容數位化供學生下載，有助複習課業，但部分教授擔心，這會讓學生產生鬆懈心理，導致缺課率越來越高。
蘋果提供針對各校量身訂做的軟體與子網站，方便各校師生將podcast、有聲書和影像檔案等資料，上傳到由蘋果負責維護的伺服器內儲存，並讓各校將過去使用的系統與iTunes子網站整合，俾便師生沿用原有的身分識別代號與密碼登入專屬iTunes子網站。校方可自行決定各檔案是否限定特定人士下載，抑或對一般大眾開放。
學生可隨時隨地複習
密蘇里大學新聞學院去年夏季加入iTunes U之前，就已開放師生透過校內網站上傳或下載課程的podcast檔和其他教育資料；加入該計劃後，其師生可利用蘋果提供的免費軟體與服務，連結至該學院的專屬iTunes子網站，下載需要的資料。密大新聞學院表示，多數學生早已熟悉iTunes的使用介面，應用成效良好。
密西根大學牙醫學院去年秋季加入iTunes U計劃。該學院副教授強森（Lynn Johnson）表示，將課程內容數位化的構想來自學生，錄下教師授課內容並製作成數位檔案的工作也由志願負責的學生一手包辦，計劃推出至今相當成功，學生可隨時隨地複習上課內容。
iTunes U服務
●費用→免費
●對象→與蘋果電腦合作的全美各大學或教育機構，目前已有6所大學，包括︰
◎布朗大學
◎史丹福大學
◎杜克大學
◎威斯康辛大學麥迪遜分校
◎密西根大學安納堡分校牙醫學院
◎密蘇里大學哥倫比亞分校新聞學院
●內容→參加學校可設置各校的iTunes網站，將課程內容的podcast數位聲音檔案及其 他影音檔，上傳至各校網站，並決定檔案是否有下載資格限制。各校師生可透過蘋果電腦的免費軟體，連結自校iTunes網站下載檔案。
資料來源：綜合外電、蘋果電腦www.apple.com
7 Things You Should Know About....
http://www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495
The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) 7 Things You Should Know About... series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:
The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) 7 Things You Should Know About... series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:
- What it is
- How it works
- Where it is going
- Why it matters to teaching and learning
Use ELI's 7 Things You Should Know About... briefs to:
- Enhance faculty development activities
- Open a dialogue with senior administrators about emerging technologies and their implications for your institution
- Stay up-to-date on emerging technologies
7 Things You Should Know About...pieces provide quick, no-jargon overviews of emerging technologies and related practices that have demonstrated or may demonstrate positive learning impacts. Any time you need to explain a new learning technology or practice quickly and clearly, look for a 7 Things You Should Know About... brief from ELI.
2009年2月25日 星期三
Michael Wesch - 2008全美年度教授
http://libraryviews.blogsome.com/2009/02/25/792/
提到 Michael Wesch 相信許多人不會陌生才對，至少應該都有看過他放在 Youtube 上的影片才對，例如 2007年的 Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us 至今已被觀看超過 800萬多次了。查了一下LV，我也曾在 2007年11月提到過 Michael Wesch 教授的另二個影片。如果你對 Michael Wesch 的影片有興趣的話，可以至他的 Youtube 網頁去看看。
本文不是要介紹他所製作的影片，而是他本人。這位來自 Kansas State University的文化人類學教授相當的年輕，才34歲 (1975年出生)，在 2008年底獲選為全美年度教授 (U.S. Professors of the Year)。
除了他的研究和那些短片外，Michael Wesch 是一位 “anti-teaching” 的提倡者，他認為老師並不是直接給學生解答，而是要啟發學生問問題，問對的問題。底下是自全美年度教授獎 的 Passion for Teaching Statement 網頁所節錄的部分內容：
I have read and heard a great deal of advice on how to ask good questions of students, but nobody has ever told me how to get students to ask good questions. Since all good thinking begins with a good question, it strikes me that if we are ultimately trying to create “active lifelong learners” with “critical thinking skills” and an ability to “think outside the box,” it might be best to start by getting students to ask better questions.
The best questions force students to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions and see their own underlying biases. Oftentimes, the answer to a good question is irrelevant—the question is an insight in itself. The only answer to the best questions is another good question. The best questions send students on rich and meaningful lifelong quests, question after question after question.
Unfortunately, such great questions are rarely asked by students, especially in large introductory courses, such as my 400-student “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.” Much more common are questions such as, “What do we need to know for this test?” This may be the worst question of all. It makes education into a relatively meaningless game of grades rather than a meaningful exploration of the world.
對 “anti-teaching” 有興趣的人可以看看他這篇文章 － Anti-Teaching – Confronting The Crisis Of Significance。另外，或許可以從底下二段影片聽聽他的說法：
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBmDgMFAZTI
另一段訪談：談我們要如何學習、anti-teaching
http://blip.tv/file/1537085/
老頑童們的筆記 － 極力推薦Michael Wesch教授在YouTube上一系列的影片!
過去曾在YouTube中找到一系列的”Did You Know”影片，看完影片中的一些統計數據後，常讓我背脊感到一陣chilling，身處在這資訊科技快速發展與變動、資訊量持續倍增的資訊社會中，深怕自身與下一代淹沒在這一片資訊海中，如果2010年所出現的job是不曾存在於2004年的，那麼我們現在要教導下一代的能力是什麼? 恐怕是自學與適應變動的能力吧!
此外， Michael Wesch教授所製作的一系列影片，同樣是很棒的Video，The Machine is Us/ing Us，短短幾分鐘的影片讓我們瞭解到Web 2.0與資訊科技進展是怎樣的影響了我們的生活；A Vision of Students Today 則是描敘了現在學生對於School與Learning的想法、權威式與傳統的教室教學或許需要再思考新的模式，需要提供更多的討論與互動，因為資訊科技早已改變了學生們學習的方式，他們更習慣從社群中取得資訊...。
Michael Wesch教授是Kansas State University的文化人類學教授，他的研究著重在於數位媒體與科技如何影響與改變人們之間的溝通與學習方式(其研究主題網頁為Digital Ethnography)。在YouTube中有關Michael Wesch教授所提供的影片都十分有深度且發人醒思，建議大家若對資訊科技如何改變我們生活這類主題有興趣者，可以訂閱Michael Wesch教授的channel。
The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)
提到 Michael Wesch 相信許多人不會陌生才對，至少應該都有看過他放在 Youtube 上的影片才對，例如 2007年的 Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us 至今已被觀看超過 800萬多次了。查了一下LV，我也曾在 2007年11月提到過 Michael Wesch 教授的另二個影片。如果你對 Michael Wesch 的影片有興趣的話，可以至他的 Youtube 網頁去看看。
本文不是要介紹他所製作的影片，而是他本人。這位來自 Kansas State University的文化人類學教授相當的年輕，才34歲 (1975年出生)，在 2008年底獲選為全美年度教授 (U.S. Professors of the Year)。
除了他的研究和那些短片外，Michael Wesch 是一位 “anti-teaching” 的提倡者，他認為老師並不是直接給學生解答，而是要啟發學生問問題，問對的問題。底下是自全美年度教授獎 的 Passion for Teaching Statement 網頁所節錄的部分內容：
I have read and heard a great deal of advice on how to ask good questions of students, but nobody has ever told me how to get students to ask good questions. Since all good thinking begins with a good question, it strikes me that if we are ultimately trying to create “active lifelong learners” with “critical thinking skills” and an ability to “think outside the box,” it might be best to start by getting students to ask better questions.
The best questions force students to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions and see their own underlying biases. Oftentimes, the answer to a good question is irrelevant—the question is an insight in itself. The only answer to the best questions is another good question. The best questions send students on rich and meaningful lifelong quests, question after question after question.
Unfortunately, such great questions are rarely asked by students, especially in large introductory courses, such as my 400-student “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.” Much more common are questions such as, “What do we need to know for this test?” This may be the worst question of all. It makes education into a relatively meaningless game of grades rather than a meaningful exploration of the world.
對 “anti-teaching” 有興趣的人可以看看他這篇文章 － Anti-Teaching – Confronting The Crisis Of Significance。另外，或許可以從底下二段影片聽聽他的說法：
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBmDgMFAZTI
另一段訪談：談我們要如何學習、anti-teaching
http://blip.tv/file/1537085/
老頑童們的筆記 － 極力推薦Michael Wesch教授在YouTube上一系列的影片!
過去曾在YouTube中找到一系列的”Did You Know”影片，看完影片中的一些統計數據後，常讓我背脊感到一陣chilling，身處在這資訊科技快速發展與變動、資訊量持續倍增的資訊社會中，深怕自身與下一代淹沒在這一片資訊海中，如果2010年所出現的job是不曾存在於2004年的，那麼我們現在要教導下一代的能力是什麼? 恐怕是自學與適應變動的能力吧!
此外， Michael Wesch教授所製作的一系列影片，同樣是很棒的Video，The Machine is Us/ing Us，短短幾分鐘的影片讓我們瞭解到Web 2.0與資訊科技進展是怎樣的影響了我們的生活；A Vision of Students Today 則是描敘了現在學生對於School與Learning的想法、權威式與傳統的教室教學或許需要再思考新的模式，需要提供更多的討論與互動，因為資訊科技早已改變了學生們學習的方式，他們更習慣從社群中取得資訊...。
Michael Wesch教授是Kansas State University的文化人類學教授，他的研究著重在於數位媒體與科技如何影響與改變人們之間的溝通與學習方式(其研究主題網頁為Digital Ethnography)。在YouTube中有關Michael Wesch教授所提供的影片都十分有深度且發人醒思，建議大家若對資訊科技如何改變我們生活這類主題有興趣者，可以訂閱Michael Wesch教授的channel。
The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)
Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=119
This video was created by me and the 200 students enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Spring 2007. It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in. We created a Google Document to facilitate the brainstorming exercise, which began with the following instructions:
… the basic idea is to create a 3 minute video highlighting the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. We already know some things from previous research (and if you know of any interesting statistics, please list them along with the source). Others we will need to find out by doing a class survey. Please add whatever you want to know or present.
Over the course of the next week, 367 edits were made to the document. Students wrote the script, and made suggestions for survey questions to ask the entire class. The survey was administered the following week.
I then took all of the information from the survey and the Google Document and organized it into the final script portrayed in the video which was all filmed in one 75 minute class period.
The introduction was filmed by myself a month later. It is inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s ideas as they apply to education, especially as they have been used by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in Teaching as a Subversive Activity.
How we gathered the numbers:
133 out of 200 students responded to the survey which yielded the results. Further explanation of the data is posted below:
My average class size is 115.
Survey: What is your average class size? Average: 115.0602
18% of my teachers know my name.
Survey: What percentage of teachers you have had in college would be able to recognize you and call you by name? Average: 18.2
Only 26% … relative to my life
Survey: Not including this class, what percentage of assigned readings do you find relevant to your life? Average: 25.95
I will read 8 books this year.
Survey: How many books have you read this year? Average 8.03 (ranging from 0-200)
We discovered later that there was some disagreement about whether this question referred to a semester, the past year, or the year starting as of January 1st (this survey took place in April – roughly equal to one semester). To make the ratio to web page and Facebook reading more accurate we assumed this statistic to relate to one semester rather than one calendar year.
2300 web pages
Survey: On average, how many web pages do you read each day? Average 21.51(We then multiplied this by 105 - roughly the number of days in a semester - and rounded to 2300.)
and 1281 facebook profiles
Survey: On average, how many Facebook profiles do you view each day? Average 12.2 (multiplied by 105 = 1281)
"I will write 42 pages for class this semester."
Survey: On average, how many pages do you write for your classes each semester?
Average: 41.96
“And over 500 pages of email”
Survey: On average, how many pages of e-mails will you write in a single day?
Average: 4.96 (*105 days/semester = over 500)
Jerry's blog: A Vision of Students Today
Jerry's" blog: Michael Wesch - 2008全美年度教授
This video was created by me and the 200 students enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Spring 2007. It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in. We created a Google Document to facilitate the brainstorming exercise, which began with the following instructions:
… the basic idea is to create a 3 minute video highlighting the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. We already know some things from previous research (and if you know of any interesting statistics, please list them along with the source). Others we will need to find out by doing a class survey. Please add whatever you want to know or present.
Over the course of the next week, 367 edits were made to the document. Students wrote the script, and made suggestions for survey questions to ask the entire class. The survey was administered the following week.
I then took all of the information from the survey and the Google Document and organized it into the final script portrayed in the video which was all filmed in one 75 minute class period.
The introduction was filmed by myself a month later. It is inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s ideas as they apply to education, especially as they have been used by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in Teaching as a Subversive Activity.
How we gathered the numbers:
133 out of 200 students responded to the survey which yielded the results. Further explanation of the data is posted below:
My average class size is 115.
Survey: What is your average class size? Average: 115.0602
18% of my teachers know my name.
Survey: What percentage of teachers you have had in college would be able to recognize you and call you by name? Average: 18.2
Only 26% … relative to my life
Survey: Not including this class, what percentage of assigned readings do you find relevant to your life? Average: 25.95
I will read 8 books this year.
Survey: How many books have you read this year? Average 8.03 (ranging from 0-200)
We discovered later that there was some disagreement about whether this question referred to a semester, the past year, or the year starting as of January 1st (this survey took place in April – roughly equal to one semester). To make the ratio to web page and Facebook reading more accurate we assumed this statistic to relate to one semester rather than one calendar year.
2300 web pages
Survey: On average, how many web pages do you read each day? Average 21.51(We then multiplied this by 105 - roughly the number of days in a semester - and rounded to 2300.)
and 1281 facebook profiles
Survey: On average, how many Facebook profiles do you view each day? Average 12.2 (multiplied by 105 = 1281)
"I will write 42 pages for class this semester."
Survey: On average, how many pages do you write for your classes each semester?
Average: 41.96
“And over 500 pages of email”
Survey: On average, how many pages of e-mails will you write in a single day?
Average: 4.96 (*105 days/semester = over 500)
Jerry's blog: A Vision of Students Today
Jerry's" blog: Michael Wesch - 2008全美年度教授
Best Web 2.0 Applications for Elementary School
http://langwitches.org/blog/2007/12/22/best-web-20-applications-for-elementary-school/
Thanks to an amazing list of “The Best Web 2.o Application for Education-2007” from Larry Ferlazzo’s Website, I decided to create my own list of the applications that have been the most useful or promising in the Elementary School scene.
Maybe I even make a meme out of it to encourage other elementary school techies to create their own lists and publish them on their blog. The list does not have to be in any particular order. Great if you write a short sentence about what the tool does.
Thanks to an amazing list of “The Best Web 2.o Application for Education-2007” from Larry Ferlazzo’s Website, I decided to create my own list of the applications that have been the most useful or promising in the Elementary School scene.
Maybe I even make a meme out of it to encourage other elementary school techies to create their own lists and publish them on their blog. The list does not have to be in any particular order. Great if you write a short sentence about what the tool does.
- AnimotoCreate your own music video, simply by uploading your own images and selecting music. + Students LOVED seeing themselves on the video. - Limit of 30 seconds
- Slide.comCreate your own slideshow, then embed in your classroom blog.
- SlideshareUpload your students’ or your own powerpoint files in order to embed them on your classroom blog
- LunapicWeb based image editor. Great effecs and animations.
- VoicethreadUpload your images, record your voice over each image, invite others to collaborate, embed in your blog, collaborative storytelling
- NingCreate your own social network place for your students. Ning will even remove the ads, if you write to them that they are for elementary school students. Great potential to teach our younger students about social networkign in a safe environment.
- Google Earth & MapsTake a virtual tour around the world, create placemarks, add your own images or videos. Have students add their own descriptions. Save and share placemarks and virutal tours on your blog. Embed Google Maps on your classroom blog.
- FlickrTHE best photosharing site. Especially love the many other sites, that mash-up and integrate with Flickr. Once your photos are uploaded to Flickr, there is no need to upload again and you can use the URL provided for different sizes for other applications as well
- MixbookGreat potential for collaborative classroom creation, editing and publishing of books. Great variety of layouts, including text AND images.
WordpressBlogging platform (Free). Can be hosted by Wordpress or your own server. I especially like the widget features, plug-ins and theme varieties available.
Here are your simple meme instructions:
Write down your favorite web 2.0 applications, add a sentence or two of explanation and tag a few other elementary school teachers.
Kim Cofino, Melanie Hartsman, Tim Lauer, Anna Adams, Helen Mowers, Elizabeth Helfant
When you have published your list, please leave a comment with a link to your post. (Somehow my trackbacks don’t seem to work on my blog) If you are an elementary school teacher and you were not tagged and would like to add a list as well, feel free to leave your blog post URL here too.
2009年2月24日 星期二
Edublogs
http://edublogs.org/
Edublogs hosts hundreds of thousands of blogs for teachers, students, researchers, professors, librarians, administrators and anyone and everyone else involved in education.
Edublogs are completely free, and come with 20MB of free upload space (easily extended to 5 GB as a Supporter) and a heap of great features
We also cater for schools and universities looking to create, manage and control blogs at their own domain, with all the features of Edublogs. We call it Edublogs Campus.
So, please feel welcome to sign up for a free Edublog or get in touch with us to talk about Edublogs Campus. We’d love to hear from you!
Edublogs hosts hundreds of thousands of blogs for teachers, students, researchers, professors, librarians, administrators and anyone and everyone else involved in education.
Edublogs are completely free, and come with 20MB of free upload space (easily extended to 5 GB as a Supporter) and a heap of great features
We also cater for schools and universities looking to create, manage and control blogs at their own domain, with all the features of Edublogs. We call it Edublogs Campus.
So, please feel welcome to sign up for a free Edublog or get in touch with us to talk about Edublogs Campus. We’d love to hear from you!
Sakai vs. Moodle | Zacker.org
http://www.zacker.org/sakai-project-vs-moodle
For IT directors at schools debating whether to use Sakai or Moodle as a course management solution, here is a side by side comparison. All signs point strongly towards Moodle kicking Sakai's butt and to the Mellon Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and Sakai Partners wasting $6.6M.
在此篇的分析顯示，Moodle 遠遠勝過於 Sakai，但在這篇文章的回應上有各種不同看法，值得一看。
For IT directors at schools debating whether to use Sakai or Moodle as a course management solution, here is a side by side comparison. All signs point strongly towards Moodle kicking Sakai's butt and to the Mellon Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and Sakai Partners wasting $6.6M.
在此篇的分析顯示，Moodle 遠遠勝過於 Sakai，但在這篇文章的回應上有各種不同看法，值得一看。
Sakai
Sakai is a set of software tools designed to help instructors, researchers, and students create websites for collaboration. Using a web browser, users choose from a set of features to create a site that meets their needs.
Here are some examples of websites possible to create using Sakai software:
Here are some examples of websites possible to create using Sakai software:
- A project director can create a website to make announcements and share resources, such as documents or links to other resources on the web.
- An instructor can create a website that serves as an online discussion board for students to collaborate on an assignment.
- A student can create a class website to work on and submit assignments electronically.
Sakai software is part of the Sakai Project (www.sakaiproject.org), a community source effort for creating open source collaborative tools for use in learning, research, and other types of distributed group work.
ELGG vs. Moodle - defusing a false dichotomy
http://www.edtechpost.ca/wordpress/2005/11/21/ELGG-vs.-Moodle---defusing-a-false-dichotomy/
http://www.unisa.edu.au/odlaaconference/PPDF2s/13%20odlaa%20-%20Anderson.pdf
I’ve had a few people come up to me at conferences recently and ask me to compare ELGG and Moodle, and choose between them as if they were somehow mutually exclusive. Indeed, even within the Moodle community itself there seems to be a bit of dismissiveness about what ELGG does, and the notion that with just a couple of twists of code Moddle can easily replicate its functionality.
Well maybe, but this is what excited me so much about the paper linked to above by Terry Anderson and the work he describes taking place at Athabasca University. I had the pleasure of seeing Terry present on this recently and wish I could link to those powerpoints as I think the illustrate the point I’m trying to make better than the article does, but what is exciting for me is that Terry and Athabasca are putting together a large, production environment in which Moodle and ELGG will seemingly co-exist quite nicely, thank you very much, and take care of different problems. Hopefully I am not going to mangle this too much, but as I understood it, Moodle was being positioned to handle conventional ‘course management’ problems like the delivery of content, assessments, discussions. In Athabasca’s case (and I’d argue in all of our cases, but that’s another post) they also have to deal with a continuous uptake model, where instead of cohort-based programs they also have very much self-paced programs with differing start times. Thus they are using ELGG as one of the ways to build community “between” the space of courses, community that is formed not because of one’s membership in a pre-ordained group or cohort but out of your interests. Sounds to me like a job for social software!
Can Moodle support similar ad-hoc community formation across course (and even institutional) boundaries? Maybe, and it sounds like we will find out fairly soon through upcoming releases. And bully for them if they can. But what I love about ELGG is that it is built from the groud up around the user and their connections as they key focus, rather than on ‘courses’ or ‘content’ (I’m not trying to levy a criticism at Moodle here as I like it very much as well). Far from being only a ‘blogging’ tool or a ‘eportfolio’ tool, what excites me about ELGG is that it is becoming a social networking ‘framework’ (o.k. you can dispute that term as much as you like) that while it has initially focused on tools to create blog posts and share files, isn’t interested in restricting you to only its blogging tool (and why would it? RSS anyone?) and is looking at a whole set of other interesting apps (Calendaring? Synchronous tools?) that are also of intrinsic value but become even more useful if people can use them with other semantically related users.
Should elearning providers be looking to one single tool to provide all of these aspects and more? Maybe. Right now though, the best bet seems like trying to get the best solution possible through a set of provisional measures. Personally, I’m more interested in making these and others co-exist, and seeing if we can get the integration between them to be more than lame-ass ‘pointing to their URLS’ or simple single sign-on; if instead we see if we can get shared identity happening across a number of these services in a way that takes identity mean more than your username and password. - SWL
http://www.unisa.edu.au/odlaaconference/PPDF2s/13%20odlaa%20-%20Anderson.pdf
I’ve had a few people come up to me at conferences recently and ask me to compare ELGG and Moodle, and choose between them as if they were somehow mutually exclusive. Indeed, even within the Moodle community itself there seems to be a bit of dismissiveness about what ELGG does, and the notion that with just a couple of twists of code Moddle can easily replicate its functionality.
Well maybe, but this is what excited me so much about the paper linked to above by Terry Anderson and the work he describes taking place at Athabasca University. I had the pleasure of seeing Terry present on this recently and wish I could link to those powerpoints as I think the illustrate the point I’m trying to make better than the article does, but what is exciting for me is that Terry and Athabasca are putting together a large, production environment in which Moodle and ELGG will seemingly co-exist quite nicely, thank you very much, and take care of different problems. Hopefully I am not going to mangle this too much, but as I understood it, Moodle was being positioned to handle conventional ‘course management’ problems like the delivery of content, assessments, discussions. In Athabasca’s case (and I’d argue in all of our cases, but that’s another post) they also have to deal with a continuous uptake model, where instead of cohort-based programs they also have very much self-paced programs with differing start times. Thus they are using ELGG as one of the ways to build community “between” the space of courses, community that is formed not because of one’s membership in a pre-ordained group or cohort but out of your interests. Sounds to me like a job for social software!
Can Moodle support similar ad-hoc community formation across course (and even institutional) boundaries? Maybe, and it sounds like we will find out fairly soon through upcoming releases. And bully for them if they can. But what I love about ELGG is that it is built from the groud up around the user and their connections as they key focus, rather than on ‘courses’ or ‘content’ (I’m not trying to levy a criticism at Moodle here as I like it very much as well). Far from being only a ‘blogging’ tool or a ‘eportfolio’ tool, what excites me about ELGG is that it is becoming a social networking ‘framework’ (o.k. you can dispute that term as much as you like) that while it has initially focused on tools to create blog posts and share files, isn’t interested in restricting you to only its blogging tool (and why would it? RSS anyone?) and is looking at a whole set of other interesting apps (Calendaring? Synchronous tools?) that are also of intrinsic value but become even more useful if people can use them with other semantically related users.
Should elearning providers be looking to one single tool to provide all of these aspects and more? Maybe. Right now though, the best bet seems like trying to get the best solution possible through a set of provisional measures. Personally, I’m more interested in making these and others co-exist, and seeing if we can get the integration between them to be more than lame-ass ‘pointing to their URLS’ or simple single sign-on; if instead we see if we can get shared identity happening across a number of these services in a way that takes identity mean more than your username and password. - SWL
2009年2月20日 星期五
23 Things on Web 2.0
http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/#progress
23 Things Recording Progress
Listed below are 23 Things (or small exercises) that you can do on the web to explore and expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0. Staff are encouraged to complete all 23 items on this list by October 31st in order to to receive a free USB/MP3 player. Those staff that complete all items by October 6th will also qualify for the laptop drawing and other prizes that will be awarded on All Staff Day.
23 Learning 2.0 Things*
(Note: Details about each task will be activated every week with posts related to each item)
Week 1: Introduction ( official start of week August 7th)
23 Things Recording Progress
Listed below are 23 Things (or small exercises) that you can do on the web to explore and expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0. Staff are encouraged to complete all 23 items on this list by October 31st in order to to receive a free USB/MP3 player. Those staff that complete all items by October 6th will also qualify for the laptop drawing and other prizes that will be awarded on All Staff Day.
23 Learning 2.0 Things*
(Note: Details about each task will be activated every week with posts related to each item)
Week 1: Introduction ( official start of week August 7th)
- Read this blog & find out about the program.
- Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners and learn how to nurture your own learning process.
Week 2: Blogging - Set up your own blog & add your first post.
- Register your blog on PLCMC Central and begin your Learning 2.0 journey.
Week 3: Photos & Images - Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site.
- Have some Flickr fun and discover some Flickr mashups & 3rd party sites.
- Create a blog post about anything technology related that interests you this week.
Week 4: RSS & Newsreaders - Learn about RSS feeds and setup your own Bloglines newsreader account.
- Locate a few useful library related blogs and/or news feeds.
Week 5: Play Week - Play around with an online image generator.
- Take a look at LibraryThing and catalog some of your favorite books.
- Roll your own search tool with Rollyo.
Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati - Learn about tagging and discover a Del.icio.us (a social bookmaking site)
- Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.
- Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.
Week 7: Wikis - Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them.
- Add an entry to the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki.
Week 8: Online Applications & Tools - Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools.
- Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it and write a blog post about your findings.
Week 9: Podcasts, Video & Downloadable audio - Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos.
- Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts.
- Take a look at the titles available on NetLibrary and learn how to download audiobooks.
- Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog.
* This list of "things" can also be found on the 43Things website. Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).
Recording progress for PLCMC staff in the L2 Tracking Log found on PLCMC Central is as easy as cut-n-paste.
First you'll need to register your blog. This will be covered in the directions the second week for item #4.
Once you start recording your discoveries through your own blog, you will need to check-off the item and enter the permanent link to the individual blog post that covers the exercise or "thing."
Depending upon the Blogger template that you selected, the "permanent link" for each individual post can be found either through the post’s title or through a link in the posts footer area the contains the date.
To record progress for an individual item in the Tracking Log:
- Click on the permanent link for the individual post.Example: Here is where you would find the perma link for this sample blog post:
- Select the "permanent link" url from the address bar at the top of your browser and right click. Select Copy.
- Open the Learning 2.0 Tracking log and locate the item number that you've just completed.
- Right click on the address line for the item and select Paste.Here's how you would record it in the L2 Log:
See, it's as easy and copy-n-paste. To keep up with recording your progress, II would suggest that you make a habit of recording your progress weekly.
PS: If you’re not a PLCMC staff member, you can follow along as well. Just use the list discovery items found on the 43Things website to record your progress. Alas I’m sorry that I can’t include any MP3 players or laptop as incentives. For you, I hope just the fun of following along is enough. :)
A Vision of Students Today
http://elearning.iiiedu.org.tw/blog/term/20080930/171
美國Kansas State University大學由200個學生自行剪接了367個訊息完成的一段影片”A vision of students today”，在Youtube上受到廣大重視(http://www.masieweb.com/students20)，在場的每個學生都發表了對當前學習的看法與意見，「我完成49%所指定的作業，其中只有26%和我的生活相關」、「我今年會讀8本書、但會看2300個網頁、1281個Facebook profile」、「我這學期會寫42頁的作業、但會寫500頁email」、「我一天要有26.5小時、因此我必需是個多工作業者」…，這些心聲充分反應出現代學子的學習方式，已迥異於過去傳統教室的教學。
學習的內容也在轉變，由學習者產生的內容正顛覆著過去一言堂的方式，我們看見很多使用像blog, Wiki, podcast, videocast, Facebook等工具於教學的成功案例，如夏令營的小朋友製作podcast，讓每位小朋友對全世界講3分鐘話、美國畢業生在畢業前各錄一段youtube影片、用podcast學中文(Chinespod)、用個人blog寫作業或用班級部落格討論功課、有.edu帳號者才可參予的college blog network、還有引導如何應用21世紀新興學習工具的Wiki、各大學的大傳及新聞等系所相繼開辦social media的相關課程，以及其他許多社交網站、社交書籤、RSS等等，把今日之學習逐漸引領向由學生參予、學生創作、與學生主導之方式，應用的領域與類別也不斷的推陳出新。
學習的外在環境、學習者、學習的內容、學習的方式、以及新興的學習工具正在快速轉變中，在21世紀，我們可能必須放棄以前的學習方式(unLearn)，重新學習在新的世代如何去學習，因此國外已有專家大聲疾呼「學習如何學習」(Learn how to learn)將是當前重要的課題。身為教學者，也身為學習者，我想這也是我們刻不容緩應思考及去面對的議題。
美國Kansas State University大學由200個學生自行剪接了367個訊息完成的一段影片”A vision of students today”，在Youtube上受到廣大重視(http://www.masieweb.com/students20)，在場的每個學生都發表了對當前學習的看法與意見，「我完成49%所指定的作業，其中只有26%和我的生活相關」、「我今年會讀8本書、但會看2300個網頁、1281個Facebook profile」、「我這學期會寫42頁的作業、但會寫500頁email」、「我一天要有26.5小時、因此我必需是個多工作業者」…，這些心聲充分反應出現代學子的學習方式，已迥異於過去傳統教室的教學。
學習的內容也在轉變，由學習者產生的內容正顛覆著過去一言堂的方式，我們看見很多使用像blog, Wiki, podcast, videocast, Facebook等工具於教學的成功案例，如夏令營的小朋友製作podcast，讓每位小朋友對全世界講3分鐘話、美國畢業生在畢業前各錄一段youtube影片、用podcast學中文(Chinespod)、用個人blog寫作業或用班級部落格討論功課、有.edu帳號者才可參予的college blog network、還有引導如何應用21世紀新興學習工具的Wiki、各大學的大傳及新聞等系所相繼開辦social media的相關課程，以及其他許多社交網站、社交書籤、RSS等等，把今日之學習逐漸引領向由學生參予、學生創作、與學生主導之方式，應用的領域與類別也不斷的推陳出新。
學習的外在環境、學習者、學習的內容、學習的方式、以及新興的學習工具正在快速轉變中，在21世紀，我們可能必須放棄以前的學習方式(unLearn)，重新學習在新的世代如何去學習，因此國外已有專家大聲疾呼「學習如何學習」(Learn how to learn)將是當前重要的課題。身為教學者，也身為學習者，我想這也是我們刻不容緩應思考及去面對的議題。
2009年2月17日 星期二
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
http://www.amazon.com/Blogs-Wikis-Podcasts-Powerful-Classrooms/dp/1412927676/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
在Amazon屬於4.5顆星
今天終於收到書了，沒想像中的厚。
快速瀏覽一下，基本上寫得淺顯易懂，適合初步了解Blog, Wiki, Podcast在教學上的運用。
在Amazon屬於4.5顆星
今天終於收到書了，沒想像中的厚。
快速瀏覽一下，基本上寫得淺顯易懂，適合初步了解Blog, Wiki, Podcast在教學上的運用。
2009年2月11日 星期三
資訊融入英語教學實務（一）──語音電子郵件的應用
http://www.cavesbooks.com.tw/e_magazine/e_magazine_article.aspx?language1=0&sn=231
韋金龍 2005/02/28
前言
「溝通式教學」雖然已成為英語教學的主流，國內多數英語教師也都能接受這種理念，但也許是受到語言環境的限制及考試領導教學的影響，各級學校的英語教學實際上多半還是以傳統或聽講（Audio-lingual）教學為主，偏重語言知識及語文用法（usage）的傳授與練習，比較輕忽「溝通式教學」的重要特徵—語用（use of the language）的教學；為了應付考試，課堂時間多數被用來進行「接受性」（receptive）的語言技能（如：聽與讀）教學，「產出性」（productive）的語言技能（如：講與寫）教學活動較不受重視，長此以往，大家可以明顯感受到學生的學習態度是被動消極且急功近利的，幾乎很少有人對自己的英文能力有信心，因為應付考試的學習模式會造成只學習死知識、枯燥無味，且臨時抱佛腳、考完即忘，無法有效提昇語文溝通能力，學習成就普遍低落。
當然，語文知識是語言使用的基礎，不但不可忽視，而且還得認真教導學習才行，但是如果課堂上「太過偏重」語文知識的傳授，「過度強調」所謂正確的語文用法，教學活動往往會畫地自限，很難跨進「語用」的殿堂。少了語用的英語教學只會讓人有半調子的感覺，語言學習的重要目標──溝通──根本不易達成。因此，我們如果想增強學生的英語溝通能力，強調「語用」的教學活動就相當關鍵且重要了，因為讓學生從「用」中學（learning by using）的最直接感覺就是非常受用，學習動機應該會比較高，學習態度也會變得較主動且積極，而他們在語用的過程中，為了要達成溝通的目的，不但需要活用習得的英文知識，甚至更得進一步探索並學習課外的英文，學習的範圍不受教科書的限制，這種全方位宏觀式的學習模式，可促使他們不斷重覆思考操練所習得的語文知能，學習保留率（retention rate）自然提昇，學習成就感也比較高，英語溝通能力（competence）就可以慢慢培養起來，一旦語文溝通能力強，應付標準化測驗時，只需事前稍加練習熟悉題型，考試成績應該不致太差，因此，強調語用的教學應該是我們努力的方向。
然而，電腦網路發明之前，國內英語教師要兼顧「語法」及「語用」的教學，進而落實溝通式的教學理念，坦白說並不容易，而且是個相當艱鉅的任務。而今，藉由結合網路傳輸應用，英語教師要引導學生活用語文知能並非難事，網路多媒體已成為落實「溝通式英語教學」值得期待的利器。
藉網路多媒體落實溝通式教學法
值此二十一世紀資訊科技（Information Technology）時代，教學媒體除了傳統的器材如錄音帶、錄影帶、電視等之外，網際網路應該是英語教師的首選，因為藉由結合多媒體電腦網路的英語教學，教師可以把課室活動設計得更新奇、更活潑、更多樣，而學生也可以透過網路平臺跨出教室，活用課堂習得的英語知能與外界直接且真實的互動溝通，讓英語教學及英語知能「活」起來。國內外已有許多研究及專家指出多媒體網路對溝通式英語教學有正面的助益（Beauvois, 1994; Chiu, 1998; Chun, 1994; Huang, 1998; Kern, 1995; Liaw, 1998; Liou, 1997; Warschauer, 1996 & 1997; Yan, 1998），所以資訊融入英語教學應是值得大力推動的。然而，就筆者和基層英語教師接觸的經驗，發現有些教師往往自謙是電腦白痴或患了電腦恐懼症，不願也不敢使用電腦科技，或有些教師雖已具備電腦與網路基本操作知能，如：文書處理、試算表、簡報系統、電子郵件、上網等，但對有效融入英語教學的可行模式卻所知有限，再加上教學時數不足、趕進度、設備不齊、影響考試、雜務繁忙等藉口，使得資訊融入英語教學在各級學校幾乎僅止於喊口號，無法真正落實，相當可惜。因此，筆者將過去到各校演講分享的研究及教學心得整理成文字，在此提供給求新求變、有意將資訊融入英語教學的老師們參考。資訊融入英語教學的可行模式相當多，筆者首先要介紹的是「語音電子郵件」（voice email）在「英語口語溝通教學」上的應用。
「語音電子郵件」融入英語教學
「語音電子郵件」的傳送是指利用電子郵件發送預先錄製好的語音檔案。任何人只要會利用電子郵件傳送附加檔案，語音電子郵件的發送及接收應該不成問題。而其融入英語教學的關鍵之處，則是語音檔的製作及教案設計，以下筆者分別將設備需求、語音錄製與傳送及可行之教學活動設計做簡要說明：
一、 設備需求：
多媒體電腦、寬頻網路傳輸、耳機或喇叭、麥克風、視窗作業系統、電子郵件軟體、錄音軟體。
二、 語音錄製與傳送：
1.將耳機及麥克風插入電腦音效卡的插孔（通常音效卡上會有圖示或標以不同顏色）。
2.開機並啟動視窗作業系統中的「音量控制」程式（開啟程序及方式參見下一步驟），點選錄音功能，並調整音量（錄音過程中仍可持續調整）。
3.啟動「錄音機」程式（「音量控制」及「錄音機」程式可經由視窗作業系統的[開始]→[程式集]→[附屬應用程式]→[娛樂]分別啟動），開啟後螢幕上會出現一個錄音機的圖示面板（如圖一），面板上的配置類似傳統錄音機按鍵之按鈕，其操作方式也和傳統錄音機雷同。最右邊的圓點按鈕即為錄音鍵，按下錄音鍵即可對著麥克風講話錄音。錄音過程中，面板上會顯示聲紋及錄音的時間或長度，按下黑色方形按鈕即停止錄音，錄完後可以按快速回帶及播放按鈕試聽錄製效果，不滿意可重錄，直到滿意後存檔。這種語音檔案是 *.wav格式，佔記憶體空間較大，因而限制了每次錄音的長度。市面上另外有些免費試用的mp3錄音軟體，也可下載安裝做為錄音的工具（如：圖二CooolSoft http://www.cooolsoft.com/mp3rec.htm；圖三 Goldwave http://www.goldwave.com/release.html/）。
韋金龍 2005/02/28
前言
「溝通式教學」雖然已成為英語教學的主流，國內多數英語教師也都能接受這種理念，但也許是受到語言環境的限制及考試領導教學的影響，各級學校的英語教學實際上多半還是以傳統或聽講（Audio-lingual）教學為主，偏重語言知識及語文用法（usage）的傳授與練習，比較輕忽「溝通式教學」的重要特徵—語用（use of the language）的教學；為了應付考試，課堂時間多數被用來進行「接受性」（receptive）的語言技能（如：聽與讀）教學，「產出性」（productive）的語言技能（如：講與寫）教學活動較不受重視，長此以往，大家可以明顯感受到學生的學習態度是被動消極且急功近利的，幾乎很少有人對自己的英文能力有信心，因為應付考試的學習模式會造成只學習死知識、枯燥無味，且臨時抱佛腳、考完即忘，無法有效提昇語文溝通能力，學習成就普遍低落。
當然，語文知識是語言使用的基礎，不但不可忽視，而且還得認真教導學習才行，但是如果課堂上「太過偏重」語文知識的傳授，「過度強調」所謂正確的語文用法，教學活動往往會畫地自限，很難跨進「語用」的殿堂。少了語用的英語教學只會讓人有半調子的感覺，語言學習的重要目標──溝通──根本不易達成。因此，我們如果想增強學生的英語溝通能力，強調「語用」的教學活動就相當關鍵且重要了，因為讓學生從「用」中學（learning by using）的最直接感覺就是非常受用，學習動機應該會比較高，學習態度也會變得較主動且積極，而他們在語用的過程中，為了要達成溝通的目的，不但需要活用習得的英文知識，甚至更得進一步探索並學習課外的英文，學習的範圍不受教科書的限制，這種全方位宏觀式的學習模式，可促使他們不斷重覆思考操練所習得的語文知能，學習保留率（retention rate）自然提昇，學習成就感也比較高，英語溝通能力（competence）就可以慢慢培養起來，一旦語文溝通能力強，應付標準化測驗時，只需事前稍加練習熟悉題型，考試成績應該不致太差，因此，強調語用的教學應該是我們努力的方向。
然而，電腦網路發明之前，國內英語教師要兼顧「語法」及「語用」的教學，進而落實溝通式的教學理念，坦白說並不容易，而且是個相當艱鉅的任務。而今，藉由結合網路傳輸應用，英語教師要引導學生活用語文知能並非難事，網路多媒體已成為落實「溝通式英語教學」值得期待的利器。
藉網路多媒體落實溝通式教學法
值此二十一世紀資訊科技（Information Technology）時代，教學媒體除了傳統的器材如錄音帶、錄影帶、電視等之外，網際網路應該是英語教師的首選，因為藉由結合多媒體電腦網路的英語教學，教師可以把課室活動設計得更新奇、更活潑、更多樣，而學生也可以透過網路平臺跨出教室，活用課堂習得的英語知能與外界直接且真實的互動溝通，讓英語教學及英語知能「活」起來。國內外已有許多研究及專家指出多媒體網路對溝通式英語教學有正面的助益（Beauvois, 1994; Chiu, 1998; Chun, 1994; Huang, 1998; Kern, 1995; Liaw, 1998; Liou, 1997; Warschauer, 1996 & 1997; Yan, 1998），所以資訊融入英語教學應是值得大力推動的。然而，就筆者和基層英語教師接觸的經驗，發現有些教師往往自謙是電腦白痴或患了電腦恐懼症，不願也不敢使用電腦科技，或有些教師雖已具備電腦與網路基本操作知能，如：文書處理、試算表、簡報系統、電子郵件、上網等，但對有效融入英語教學的可行模式卻所知有限，再加上教學時數不足、趕進度、設備不齊、影響考試、雜務繁忙等藉口，使得資訊融入英語教學在各級學校幾乎僅止於喊口號，無法真正落實，相當可惜。因此，筆者將過去到各校演講分享的研究及教學心得整理成文字，在此提供給求新求變、有意將資訊融入英語教學的老師們參考。資訊融入英語教學的可行模式相當多，筆者首先要介紹的是「語音電子郵件」（voice email）在「英語口語溝通教學」上的應用。
「語音電子郵件」融入英語教學
「語音電子郵件」的傳送是指利用電子郵件發送預先錄製好的語音檔案。任何人只要會利用電子郵件傳送附加檔案，語音電子郵件的發送及接收應該不成問題。而其融入英語教學的關鍵之處，則是語音檔的製作及教案設計，以下筆者分別將設備需求、語音錄製與傳送及可行之教學活動設計做簡要說明：
一、 設備需求：
多媒體電腦、寬頻網路傳輸、耳機或喇叭、麥克風、視窗作業系統、電子郵件軟體、錄音軟體。
二、 語音錄製與傳送：
1.將耳機及麥克風插入電腦音效卡的插孔（通常音效卡上會有圖示或標以不同顏色）。
2.開機並啟動視窗作業系統中的「音量控制」程式（開啟程序及方式參見下一步驟），點選錄音功能，並調整音量（錄音過程中仍可持續調整）。
3.啟動「錄音機」程式（「音量控制」及「錄音機」程式可經由視窗作業系統的[開始]→[程式集]→[附屬應用程式]→[娛樂]分別啟動），開啟後螢幕上會出現一個錄音機的圖示面板（如圖一），面板上的配置類似傳統錄音機按鍵之按鈕，其操作方式也和傳統錄音機雷同。最右邊的圓點按鈕即為錄音鍵，按下錄音鍵即可對著麥克風講話錄音。錄音過程中，面板上會顯示聲紋及錄音的時間或長度，按下黑色方形按鈕即停止錄音，錄完後可以按快速回帶及播放按鈕試聽錄製效果，不滿意可重錄，直到滿意後存檔。這種語音檔案是 *.wav格式，佔記憶體空間較大，因而限制了每次錄音的長度。市面上另外有些免費試用的mp3錄音軟體，也可下載安裝做為錄音的工具（如：圖二CooolSoft http://www.cooolsoft.com/mp3rec.htm；圖三 Goldwave http://www.goldwave.com/release.html/）。
2009年2月8日 星期日
Language Exchange Online via Skype on the Mixxer
http://www.language-exchanges.org/
DICKINSON COLLEGE
The Mixxer is a free educational community for language learners and teachers to find a language partner for a language exchange. The language partner is someone who speaks the language you study as their native language and is studying your native language. As a member of the Mixxer community, you can communicate with your language partner via Skype to practice speaking. You can also submit documents and ask native speakers to correct your writing.
Total number of Individuals looking for a language exchange : 24972
Total number of Teachers looking for a language exchange for a class : 464
Teachers can also find other classes interested in doing language exchanges with their students.
The program most commonly used among Mixxer language partners for speaking is Skype. Skype is a program that allows you to call other people using Skype for free. The program is free, provides excellent sound quality and is available for download at www.skype.com. Of course, once you've found a language partner, you are free to communicate however you wish whether by email, instant message, or Skype calls.
Each user receives their own document page once their account is created. The document is a wiki page, created with Wetpaint's Injected technology that will allow native speakers to correct your document and allow you to view changes. Those who are more technically inclined can find more information here.
Get started by creating an Individual Profile or Teacher Profile.
Still have questions? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page.
DICKINSON COLLEGE
The Mixxer is a free educational community for language learners and teachers to find a language partner for a language exchange. The language partner is someone who speaks the language you study as their native language and is studying your native language. As a member of the Mixxer community, you can communicate with your language partner via Skype to practice speaking. You can also submit documents and ask native speakers to correct your writing.
Total number of Individuals looking for a language exchange : 24972
Total number of Teachers looking for a language exchange for a class : 464
Teachers can also find other classes interested in doing language exchanges with their students.
The program most commonly used among Mixxer language partners for speaking is Skype. Skype is a program that allows you to call other people using Skype for free. The program is free, provides excellent sound quality and is available for download at www.skype.com. Of course, once you've found a language partner, you are free to communicate however you wish whether by email, instant message, or Skype calls.
Each user receives their own document page once their account is created. The document is a wiki page, created with Wetpaint's Injected technology that will allow native speakers to correct your document and allow you to view changes. Those who are more technically inclined can find more information here.
Get started by creating an Individual Profile or Teacher Profile.
Still have questions? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page.
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