Cindy魔法ABC教室

師大蕭顯勝教授「教育雲端科技的現況分享」之心得省思，
他還讚美了富安國小好多次！謝謝！
Reflection (May 29, 2012) 
I met Prof. Hsiao two years ago when interactive whiteboard company SMART Board had a winter camp in the southern Taiwan. In this semester, Taipei Municipal Fuan Elementary School was chosen to be the experimental school of using the so-called ‘e-schoolbag’ in English learning. Fortunately, Prof. Hsiao monitored the whole project and his research team had visited and had in-class observation at Fuan elementary school for several times. Thanks for their assistance and cooperation, I did learn a lot after doing the fifth-grade digital storytelling (DST) experimental project by using tablet PCs across three months. I hope I could share my teaching experiences about the processes and outcomes students produced with more and more teachers who are interested in or who are going to using tablet PCs in language classrooms. 

I do appreciate Prof. Hsiao’s speech because he started from introducing the historical background to the current trend of educational technology. He said it is the year of mobile learning, such as using multiple online cloud service. The service by definition includes online email, document storage and sharing, file storage, personal learning diagnosis, and improvement of curricula and materials. But in the following two to three years, it will be the age of augmented reality (AR) in the classroom. Furthermore, four to five years later, it will be a gesture-based computing age. The proliferation of games and devices that incorporate intuitive and rapid gestural interactions will bring a new era of user interface design that moves well beyond the keyboard and mouse. In the field of education, the realization and significance of gesture-based computing cannot be underestimated, particularly for a new generation of students who are accustomed to tapping, touching, swiping, moving, and jumping as a means of engaging with information. Thanks Prof. Hsiao for telling us in advance so that I could keep track on the trend of technology in teaching and research. For example, in the near future, I would like to investigate strategic approaches in integrating augmented reality and digital games for language learning. 

‘Educating today, for tomorrow!’ is a slogan that Prof. Hsiao likes. I believe a teacher is central to successful use of technology in the classrooms. Without teacher’s profession in strategic instruction, any high-tech programs or facilities are still useless. Teachers should be the leader to embrace the technology. As for me, I think it is really worth to make a great effort in learning new technology or teaching skills even though I have to spend lots of times in getting familiar with the system and also developing many creative learning materials. There is no doubt that more needs to be learned about integrating technology in language classroom as a teaching and learning tool. The field is undergoing a tremendous growth spurt in education as more educators are learning about it. It is hoped that my digitally savvy students can really benefit a lot from doing the technology-based language learning tasks.

In Prof. Hsiao’s studies, his participants are different ages of learners, from college students to the elementary school students. Now he is also working on using technologies in remedial instruction, i.e., technology is used for special-needs students or low achievers’ better learning and concentration. He really makes great efforts in technological education. Moreover, I agree with Prof. Hsiao’s viewpoints that compared to college students, elementary school students need more guidance and instruction while using the tablet PC, so teachers need to use various strategies to meet students’ needs, learning styles and proficiencies.

In brief, I enjoyed Prof. Hsiao’s wonderful speech and I was also inspired and encouraged by Prof. Lin to do relevant researches and practical teaching activities by using state-of-the-art facilities.