Happy Children’s Day!
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Examination teaser
Last week I decided to do something to motivate my primary 6 pupils. There is this banner hanging out school all the while. It’s a typical achievement summary table which shows the number of As for respective subjects.
I took a picture of it a month ago, wanting to create something fun. So I did a bit of editing using Paint 
Closing in…
My pupils smiled and laughed. That was the target set on the first day of school.
I hope they still believe in themselves 
Web Search Strategies in Plain English
Latest production by Common Craft. Neat as usual.
Tikatok: Publish a book virtually (and for real!)
Just discovered a great writing tool, Tikatok. Strange name but cool idea.
Tikatok is a free creative community for kids under 13 where they can write, illustrate, and share their original stories, and have them printed out into real hardcover and paperback books. It was developed by two mothers to encourage the imagination and creativity of their children and children everywhere.
How it works
These are some of the ways Tikatok helps children unleash their creativity:
- Kick-start the imagination – Explore a fun collection of interactive story templates called StorySparks™.
- Build a book – Easily save your words and drawings with a book editor that opens right in the website. No extra software to download or install!
- Get social – Safely add friends, share favorites, and collaborate with other kids.
- Show off – See your books on the front page, email them to friends, send them to Tikatok book clubs, and even put them on your blog.
- Get real – Order any book as a real hardcover or paperback, even single copies! Now you’re a published author.
One lesser known but key feature: It supports Chinese characters! Hurray! 
Insights of education technology and Chinese language teaching/learning by Cornelius C. Kubler
Excerpts From Lianhe Zaobao,
…“有关华语语法、发音的说明，课本都有英文翻译，学生可以自己了解，不需要老师在课堂多费唇舌，浪费时间。上课的时间应该用来进行沟通式教学：包括口语、阅读、写字的练习。华人传统说teach是‘教书’，意思是teach the book。过去是这样，现在不应如此。我们现在以学生为中心，上课是‘教学生’，不再是‘教书’。”
担心老师迷恋电脑教学科技
最近15年，教学科技越来越发达，这本是可喜现象，顾百里却忧心忡忡。他说：“在美国有部分老师爱上电脑，把原来用在备课的时间，用在电脑上，喜欢发展很多新的软件。这些软件部分有用，部分未必有用。我认为，教师应该以学生为重，备课为先。设计一个像样的软件要花上几百几千个小时，我经常建议老师先搞清楚在中国大陆、台湾、香港、新加坡，有没有同行在研发类似的软件，尽可能避免不必要的重复。
“近年来有很多年轻老师爱上新的科技，很多卡通人物、漫画等等可爱小东西，这些其实都不是太重要，应该紧记一切以教学为重。有好的教学软件，不妨采用，但是不可以盲目跟风。”
My translation:
Traditionally, the literal Chinese meaning of ‘teach’ is ‘teach the book’. Now, in a learner centered environment, teachers should ‘teach learners’ instead of ‘teach the book’.
Kubler is worried of educators getting obsessed with education technology. He said in recent years younger teachers love technology, cartoons, comics and other little cute stuff. In fact, these things are not important. We must remind ourselves teaching and learning come before everything. If there are good educational software, give them a try. However we must not blindly follow suit.
I agree with most of Kubler’s view. In fact Mr 高极登 expressed similar concerns in this article. Both articles are very insightful.
However, since we are talking about learner centeredness, educators must rethink about how learning takes place today. We must also rethink on how technology can add value to teaching Chinese language. Most importantly, we must always keep an open mind on ways to engage students in learning Chinese language, without compromising the quality of teaching and language proficiency of students.
My dog ate my homework!
From CHEW ON IT!
Prediction: Future Joy #11
Text books and homework are all on DVDs –
spelling an end to heavy school bags.
LOL!
Multitouch desks!
From Engadget,
Researchers at Durham University in the UK are working hard to ensure that the academic sector isn’t left out of the multi-touch craze. The still-unnamed “interactive multi-touch desk” is a major part of the SynergyNet framework, an interactive classroom environment they’re building based on a gaming engine called jMonkey. There’s no word on how soon SynergyNet will change the world, but when it does the software will be open source — allowing anyone to get into the code and tweak it to their liking. In the meantime, schools looking for a “high tech initiative” of their own will have to be content with throwing laptops at their students. Stunning video demonstration after the break!
Read about it here.
From I observed in many shopping malls, kids love those multitouch games on the floors. It would be amazing to have them in classrooms. Imagine using multitouch in Chinese character writing. No chalk, no marker pens and no styluses even!
On the same note, let’s look forward to having Microsoft Surface technology in future classrooms!
Blog ranting, Cyberbullying and Freedom of Expression
Today I faced a situation I never handled before.
I happened to read a pupil’s blog about her daily rantings. Basically it is ‘dedicated’ to two anonymous classmates whom she deemed as bullies. I will not reveal the blog address but here are 2 excerpts:
“…since you have no true friends….And please, don’t insult people’s taste of books. We are not like you, who read all those sophisticated books and text and not even get the top in class for Composition…And you don’t have to act so arrogant and pround when ask about your percentage for the examinations.”
“Well, then, should I call you a rapist the next time you hit me hard for no rhyme or reason? And anyway, if I was the most hated girl in school, then explain how more then 80% of the school coghort either not know who I am or is my very good friend? You are not any good guy all right, get this clear!”
Here’s my advice to her tagboard.
Well, anonymous personal attacks on others online reflect badly on oneself as well.
She didn’t respond to the message. Instead another reader defended her with a series of messages. I shall quote most of them here:
“completely disagree. a blog is an outlet of expression. you should be allowed to post what you want.”
“with responsibility, yes. but look at the attacks. they are harmless and aren’t vulgar.”
“she did not superficially write abt her them by calling them names or making unreasonable comments.”
“in fact, she was just expressing the injustice she felt , and perhaps get their understanding.”
“if, in a blog, she is not given the basic right of expressing her feelings, then, there’s no point.”
“and by feelings i mean her emotions. cos this is an online diary.”
I did engaged in a small debate with this reader who happened to be an ex-pupil of my school in the tagboard and later on MSN.
It did not turn ugly anyway, as he held strongly to his opinions on freedom of expression in blogs. I did gave him a scenario of permanency in information online, but the pupil was not convinced.
I ended the conversation in quite an amicable fashion (at least i felt) by saying his views were thought provoking and I had learnt more about digital citizenship, from the perspective of a pupil
My thoughts:
1. Pupils blog to express themselves. Unfortunately, most inspirations came from the negatives of their school lives. While we can encourage pupils to blog the positives, negatives are inevitable.
2. How to strike a balance between freedom of expression and responsible blogging?
3. What if Cyberbullying is a form of retaliation of real-life bullying? In other words, how can we advise pupils who made online personal attacks on real-life bullies?
4. Are rantings about classmates considered Cyberbullying? Even they have little or no ill intentions?
Any comments? Have I done anything right or wrong?
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