The Use of Technology to Enhance English Language Learning — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:07Education technology is not only providing important tools to make teaching more effective
3. 0:12but it’s also an expectation of the students.
4. 0:16Key skills for instructors include the ability to facilitate learning in cyber space
5. 0:21by being able to utilize digital repositories and web resources
6. 0:26in preparing quality educational materials that aid teaching.
7. 0:31Being a university with a vision, we’re able to catch this trend,
8. 0:35putting effort on integrating teaching materials with various mobile devices and online platforms to enhance teaching and learning.
9. 0:43In my case, I created a blended learning environment,
10. 0:47tailor-made to support local Hong Kong students to learn English both inside and outside of the classroom.
11. 0:55Using public speaking class as an example,
12. 0:58in addition to asking all the students in the class to provide instant feedback to each speech through Twitter,
13. 1:04the speech is also video-taped and uploaded onto a private YouTube channel
14. 1:09in which each presenter must first review
15. 1:12and provide a self-evaluation in front of the entire class in an another short mini presentation,
16. 1:19commenting both on the presentation skill sets and making their own recommendations for improvement.
17. 1:26Students not only learn more efficiently and effectively by doing so,
18. 1:31they also learn from their own mistakes – what I call "self-awareness".
19. 1:37In addition, students can revisit the lecture by watching lecture-capture after the class if they need.
20. 1:44As students have different abilities and strengths, they have their own pace in learning.
21. 1:48This tool is especially useful for students who cannot catch up in class
22. 1:53and are willing to put more effort during their leisure time.
23. 1:56Apart form that, we have adapted different technologies into teaching.
24. 2:01The presentation of traditional books are limited by visuals such as texts and pictures.
25. 2:06However, eBooks are able to break through this limit.
26. 2:09We are using tailor-made eBooks for three English language core courses.
27. 2:14Besides integrating all multimedia,
28. 2:17we also created a range of widgets to allow students to highlight, annotate and make notes within the eBook itself
29. 2:24or even draw out ideas on a mind map via the interactive digital white board.
30. 2:29By providing students with everything they need,
31. 2:32the instructor achieves greater flexibility in delivering course materials.
32. 2:37With these eBooks, classes are flipped.
33. 2:40Readings and comprehension exercises are completed by the students on their own time
34. 2:44which in turn results in classes that are more engaging and communicative
35. 2:49since they focus more on demonstration and communication - "productive skills" - to ensure understanding.
36. 2:56We hope students can extend their learning experiences from the classroom
37. 3:00to their daily life through independent study.
38. 3:04We have developed online English enhancement videos on YouTube
39. 3:08for students to learn different aspects of English such as grammar and slangs
40. 3:12and problems which they often come across in daily English.
41. 3:17Some of the videos were created specifically to support course materials
42. 3:21and help students improve their understanding and comprehension.
43. 3:26In addition, students can also practise their English on online learning materials repository
44. 3:33which was developed from an Inter-institutional Collaborative Online Self-Access project called ICOSA.
45. 3:39Again, some of the exercises there have been incorporated into the course curriculum.
46. 3:45Students are required to complete these exercises in Moodle as part of their assessment.
47. 3:51Technology has changed the educational landscape forever.
48. 3:56It’s important that we as educators take a look at how we can utilize this technology,
49. 4:01Identify which aspects will improve our teaching and thus enhance the student learning experience.