I joined teachers at my school for a meeting to evaluate the results of using mobile learning in Nantou County, and I am glad I did. It allowed me to see the willingness of teachers from 17 elementary and junior-high schools in the county to try to teach using tablet devices to give students a more diversified learning experience.
Nevertheless, no teaching method and no teaching aid offers a magical solution to every problem; they are all restricted in various ways when it comes to outcomes or suitability.
At the meeting, each school gave a short 10-minute presentation of their experience, and the evaluation committee was given 10 minutes for questions. The focus was on whether students’ results and learning abilities had improved, and whether their interaction with fellow students had increased. It was almost all positive.
Is this in line with reality? The Chinese-language CommonWealth Magazine recently reported on educational changes in Sydney, Australia.
According to the article, teachers there have noticed that when tablets are used in the classroom, students are easily distracted and have problems concentrating, and it is affecting their reading comprehension. As a result, many schools are now returning to printed text books and making students take written notes.
Educational reform in Taiwan generally follows in the footsteps of Europe and the US, and when the Ministry of Education makes big budget allocations for schools to buy electronic devices, it is following the same general attitude and way of thinking.
Electronic devices should not be used in education for their own sake, they should be used because they are needed. In addition, an effort should be made to understand whether these electronic devices help or hurt teaching, and if they affect the well-being of students.
For example, the experience in Sydney schools is something that is likely to be encountered here in Taiwan as well. As so many schools have received the ministry’s subsidies and so many academics and experts have participated in evaluation committees to review these subsidies, they do not only consider the practical benefits, they also feel obliged to say something nice and help defend the ministry’s policy.
As a result, not a single school at the meeting evaluating the use of mobile devices as a teaching aid had discovered that tablets in the classroom could have a negative affect on students’ learning, nor did they suggest any practical teaching restrictions.
The result of this policy is that the autonomy that teachers should enjoy is circumscribed by a wave of technological teaching aids. Teachers who do not use tablets as a teaching aid are seen as a group that do not understand the need to develop teaching methodology.
As it has now become almost taken for granted that schools should obtain funds to buy electronic devices for use as teaching aids, doing so has also become a benchmark defining conscientious teaching, while no one says anything about the restrictions of electronic devices as a teaching aid or the potential negative effect on student learning.
This is not a good thing, and it is something that the ministry and teachers and students at all levels should discuss further.
Chen Chi-nung is principal of Shuili Junior High School in Nantou County.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Why is Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not a “happy camper” these days regarding Taiwan? Taiwanese have not become more “CCP friendly” in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) use of spies and graft by the United Front Work Department, intimidation conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Armed Police/Coast Guard, and endless subversive political warfare measures, including cyber-attacks, economic coercion, and diplomatic isolation. The percentage of Taiwanese that prefer the status quo or prefer moving towards independence continues to rise — 76 percent as of December last year. According to National Chengchi University (NCCU) polling, the Taiwanese
It would be absurd to claim to see a silver lining behind every US President Donald Trump cloud. Those clouds are too many, too dark and too dangerous. All the same, viewed from a domestic political perspective, there is a clear emerging UK upside to Trump’s efforts at crashing the post-Cold War order. It might even get a boost from Thursday’s Washington visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In July last year, when Starmer became prime minister, the Labour Party was rigidly on the defensive about Europe. Brexit was seen as an electorally unstable issue for a party whose priority
US President Donald Trump is systematically dismantling the network of multilateral institutions, organizations and agreements that have helped prevent a third world war for more than 70 years. Yet many governments are twisting themselves into knots trying to downplay his actions, insisting that things are not as they seem and that even if they are, confronting the menace in the White House simply is not an option. Disagreement must be carefully disguised to avoid provoking his wrath. For the British political establishment, the convenient excuse is the need to preserve the UK’s “special relationship” with the US. Following their White House
US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought renewed scrutiny to the Taiwan-US semiconductor relationship with his claim that Taiwan “stole” the US chip business and threats of 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made processors. For Taiwanese and industry leaders, understanding those developments in their full context is crucial while maintaining a clear vision of Taiwan’s role in the global technology ecosystem. The assertion that Taiwan “stole” the US’ semiconductor industry fundamentally misunderstands the evolution of global technology manufacturing. Over the past four decades, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), has grown through legitimate means
RSS