Coinciding with Teachers’ Day yesterday, the National Science Council (NSC) held a press conference to discuss future trends in learning through advanced technology such as virtual reality, enhanced reality and other interactive human-computer interfaces, all of which will be shown at the Science Season Technologies of the Future exhibition next month.
The exhibition’s “Future Education” section features innovations in e-learning that extend learning beyond the traditional classroom setting of students reading textbooks and listening to the teachers’ lectures.
National Taiwan University’s Science Education Center chief director Chang Chun-yen (張俊彥) and his team showed virtual reality field trips that allow users to get a real sense of being in a place and walking through different scenes.
While standing in a virtual classroom, users can interact with computer-programmed avatars, which ask questions about things learned during the field trip.
Enhanced reality learning methods using portable devices such as smartphones were also shown, allowing users to scan objects for additional information.
Hwang Gwo-jen (黃國禎), section convener and chair professor at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, said that the team devised experiments to demonstrate that enhanced reality learning allowed students to develop a deeper impression of what they observed and learned.
Hwang said that while on traditional field trips a teacher could neglect the needs of a few students when teaching the whole class, enhanced reality allowed students to repeat and focus on the parts they are interested in or have trouble understanding.
Another team led by National Central University’s Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering professor Su Mu-chun (蘇木春) focused on students having fun while they learn and showed learning systems that were based on motion control.
Su said the “Singing-and--dancing Bear,” a teddy bear that can imitate the user’s movement from a sensor and link with real-time Internet-based communication software applications, could be used to accompany children when learning at home, especially given that families are much smaller than they used to be and there are now fewer children in each family on average.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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