Journalism - Feature Writing and Lead Writing

 

How books can open your mind by Lisa Bu

 

How books can open your mind

Lisa Bu·TED2013

What happens when a dream you've held since childhood ... doesn't come true?

As Lisa Bu adjusted to a new life in the United States, she turned to books to expand her mind and create a new path for herself. She shares her unique approach to reading in this lovely, personal talk about the magic of books.

Translated by Joseph Geni

Reviewed by Morton Bast

00:04

So I was trained to become a gymnast for two years in Hunan, China in the 1970s. When I was in the first grade, the government wanted to transfer me to a school for athletes, all expenses paid. But my tiger mother said, "No." My parents wanted me to become an engineer like them. After surviving the Cultural Revolution, they firmly believed there's only one sure way to happiness: a safe and well-paid job. It is not important if I like the job or not. 

00:36

But my dream was to become a Chinese opera singer. That is me playing my imaginary piano. An opera singer must start training young to learn acrobatics, so I tried everything I could to go to opera school. I even wrote to the school principal and the host of a radio show. But no adults liked the idea. No adults believed I was serious. Only my friends supported me, but they were kids, just as powerless as I was. So at age 15, I knew I was too old to be trained. My dream would never come true. I was afraid that for the rest of my life some second-class happiness would be the best I could hope for. 

01:26

But that's so unfair. So I was determined to find another calling. Nobody around to teach me? Fine. I turned to books. 

01:37

I satisfied my hunger for parental advice from this book by a family of writers and musicians.["Correspondence in the Family of Fou Lei"] 

01:45

I found my role model of an independent woman when Confucian tradition requires obedience.["Jane Eyre"] 

01:52

And I learned to be efficient from this book.["Cheaper by the Dozen"] 

01:56

And I was inspired to study abroad after reading these. 

02:00

["Complete Works of Sanmao" (aka Echo Chan)] ["Lessons From History" by Nan Huaijin] 

02:02

I came to the U.S. in 1995, so which books did I read here first? Books banned in China, of course. "The Good Earth" is about Chinese peasant life. That's just not convenient for propaganda. Got it. The Bible is interesting, but strange. (Laughter) That's a topic for a different day. But the fifth commandment gave me an epiphany: "You shall honor your father and mother." "Honor," I said. "That's so different, and better, than obey." So it becomes my tool to climb out of this Confucian guilt trap and to restart my relationship with my parents. 

02:49

Encountering a new culture also started my habit of comparative reading. It offers many insights. For example, I found this map out of place at first because this is what Chinese students grew up with. It had never occurred to me, China doesn't have to be at the center of the world. A map actually carries somebody's view. Comparative reading actually is nothing new. It's a standard practice in the academic world. There are even research fields such as comparative religion and comparative literature. 

03:25

Compare and contrast gives scholars a more complete understanding of a topic. So I thought, well, if comparative reading works for research, why not do it in daily life too? So I started reading books in pairs. So they can be about people -- ["Benjamin Franklin" by Walter Isaacson]["John Adams" by David McCullough] -- who are involved in the same event, or friends with shared experiences. ["Personal History" by Katharine Graham]["The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," by Alice Schroeder] I also compare the same stories in different genres -- (Laughter) [Holy Bible: King James Version]["Lamb" by Chrisopher Moore] -- or similar stories from different cultures, as Joseph Campbell did in his wonderful book.["The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell] For example, both the Christ and the Buddha went through three temptations. For the Christ, the temptations are economic, political and spiritual. For the Buddha, they are all psychological: lust, fear and social duty -- interesting. 

04:24

So if you know a foreign language, it's also fun to read your favorite books in two languages. ["The Way of Chuang Tzu" Thomas Merton]["Tao: The Watercourse Way" Alan Watts] Instead of lost in translation, I found there is much to gain. For example, it's through translation that I realized "happiness" in Chinese literally means "fast joy." Huh! "Bride" in Chinese literally means "new mother." Uh-oh. (Laughter) 

04:52

Books have given me a magic portal to connect with people of the past and the present. I know I shall never feel lonely or powerless again. Having a dream shattered really is nothing compared to what many others have suffered. I have come to believe that coming true is not the only purpose of a dream. Its most important purpose is to get us in touch with where dreams come from, where passion comes from, where happiness comes from. Even a shattered dream can do that for you. 

05:29

So because of books, I'm here today, happy, living again with a purpose and a clarity, most of the time. So may books be always with you. 

05:41

Thank you. 

05:42

(Applause) 

05:44

Thank you. (Applause) 

05:47

Thank you. (Applause)

CALL- Multimedia - Teaching through Technology

 

Hello friends, 

Welcome to my blog. In this blog i have given the content about how technology can help us into the teaching process. Because normally people believe that technology will distract the mind of learner. The effective use of Teaching through technology will help us to learn faster than the other way of learning.  Because the effective use of photos,  animation, audio-visuals etc...will be beneficial to learners and Teachers to interact with each other. 

Here, I have attached power point Presentation. It is based on the Teaching through technology that how various 2.0 web tools are useful in the teaching. Inthis activity i prepared lesson plan. Only click on the next button they can do various exercises and also get the answer key. In below give ppt i have used 2.0 web tools like 

• Google Slides 
• Google Docs 
• You Tube 
• Google Quiz 
• Ted Talk 
• Blog

To watch the video and read the transcript 👇

Click here 

Teaching Through Technology Powerpoint, Video, Web Tools 2.0 by Dharti Makwana on Scribd

After completing the activity you can appear in the Quiz based on lesson. 👇

        QUIZ 

Thank you. ...

Web 2.0 Tools

 

What are 2.0 web tools? 

These tools are internet tools that allow the user to go beyond just receiving information through the web. The user is expected to interact and to create content with others. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are examples of Web 2.0 tools. Web tools can be used to enhance teaching and collaboration among teachers and students as well as increase professional collaboration between educators.

Some free Web 2.0 type tools that can be used by teachers who are interested in using technology in language teaching. The tools presented here are just the tip of the iceberg and this should not be considered in any way conclusive or even the ʻbest ofʼ Web 2.0 tools. 

Every time we have new tools to learn and emerging all the time, many not originally intended for education, but which can be put to good use by students and teachers alike to extend opportunities, enhance learning potential and develop the level of digital literacy that students will need for the 21st century.

How Web 2.0 came into Existence?

The name came into existence from a software Industry, where each new software program is named using some numeric value. Web 2.0 was coined out in the year 2004 by Darcy DiNucci; an information architecture consultant, in her article named – “Fragmented Future”, and was popularized by Tim O’Reilly and Media Live International.

Features of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 uses the approach of “guide on the Side” rather than implementing “top-down” approach i.e dynamically change or edit the content rather then simply reading.

It changed the concept of “mostly read only web” to “widely read and write” over web.

Web 2.0 provides a perfect platform base for effective user interaction that was not available before. It changed the idea from passive consumption and delivery of content, to actively participating in creation, sharing, and collaboration.

It is subjected to be a powerful lure for an Enterprise; that fetch more employees into accounts at a lower cost for greater participation in projects and idea sharing.

Moodle

Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.

History of CALL and MALL

 

History of CALL and MALL

Technology possesses an ever-changing nature and holds visible effects in the field of education as is the case with many other realms of life. Related with technology in language teaching and learning, it can be easily observed that some acronyms like TELL, CALL, and MALL are broadly used. 

Out of these three, CALL turns out to be the most known as it has been a term in use as of 1960s and 70s. MALL is a quite novel and popular term and may be traced back to a decade ago, or two decades at most. TELL here can be regarded as an umbrella term for the use of technology in language learning in general. 

Here I have discuss the following questions on the link between CALL and MALL: 

Is MALL replacing CALL? Which term is more popular among researchers? 

What are their pros and cons? Which one is more practical and advantageous for language learners? 

Which one is more likely to be involved in the future of language learning and teaching? 

Are CALL and MALL replacing the live language teacher? 

By seeking satisfactory answers for the questions, we aim to shed light upon the dichotomy of CALL or MALL and contribute to the existing literature.

Warschauer (1996) divides the evolution of CALL into three phases: 

• Behaviouristic CALL (1960s-1970s) 

• Communicative CALL (1970s-1980s)

• Integrative CALL (1990s-)

The phase valid today is Integrative CALL. It is mostly web-based and gives computers and the Internet a facilitator role. As Bax (2003) stresses, CALL has gone through considerable changes  over  time.  With  the  transfer  of  computer  functions  to  mobile  devices  like smartphones and  tablets, a  new dimension  emerged in the  field of  language teaching  and learning: MALL. 

It can be briefly said that MALL “differs from CALL in its use of personal, portable devices that enable new ways of learning, emphasising continuity or spontaneity of access across different  contexts  of  use”  (Kukulska-Hulme & Shields, 2008, p. 273). In the past, mobile devices included casette players, MP3/4 players, etc. Their functions were rather limited with no internet access. However, with the advent of mobile devices with advanced functions, their broad use in language learning has become viable. 

Mobile-assisted  Language  Learning  (MALL).  

MALL encompasses the use of mobile devices like cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, pads, and pods for language learning purposes. Especially with the advent of smartphones  and  interactive  mobile 2.0  technologies  MALL  began  to  gain  a  remarkable momentum. It makes a clear comment as to the borders of MALL by stating: “computer assisted mobile learning uses lightweight devices such as personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular mobile phones, and so on”. This elaboration obviously excludes even laptops from the coverage of MALL. Accordingly, such developments have led to a CALL Participatory Educational Research. 

David Crystal: English language and ELT

 

Video 6: David Crystal: The Effect of New Technologies on English:  

It is true that technology has the ability to change and create new languages and develop the way in which we speak. Crystal mentions how we speak differently when we text rather than speak, as the shortage of characters we are given, for example on twitter means that we have to be more creative in the way we talk to each other to get our message across which is why we use abbreviations and non standard english. 

He also puts forward that when twitter first began it urged people to tweet in first person by posing the question "what are you doing?" and later changed it to "what is happening?" which changes the language to third person. This is a clear example of how technology and especially twitter has changed the way we speak and talk to each other in real life and online and I personally think it is a good thing that we have technology that gives us the ability to change the english language and make it more exciting.

Crystal's observations about the influence on language of a particular technological medium are very interesting, and also the idea of how a very minor change in a question, or sentence expecting a response, can so very dramatically influence the response itself and the language used. 

It is also noteworthy what Crystal says about the timescale of observing the influence of technologies like the internet, and how it will take a very long time for us to actually see any prominent changes to the structure of the language- that it could be a relatively temporary phenomenon, but that we will not know for certain for a long time.

Video 7: David Crystal: The Biggest Challenge for English Language Teachers in the times of Internet:  

The English as a foreign language should be taught as a consequence of English becoming a global language and its being spoken in different parts of the world. David Crystal’s statement that the ‘the greatest challenge for the teachers’ is that ‘they must keep pace with the language change, given that languages change so fast’, it is studied and used everywhere in the world, and the need to eliminate the mismatch between the language taught in the classroom and the language spoken by natives or in professional environments. The present study is focused on the discussion of textbooks, the variety of English to be taught, cultural background, and pronunciation issues.

David Crystal recognized that even the best teaching materials provide learners with texts which are far from the real, informal kind of English, which is used very much more than any other during a normal speaking lifetime.

This is the greatest challenge faced by teachers as they must ’keep pace with it and expose the learners to it’. According to Crystal, the fast language change is the result of two reasons: the first reason is represented by the internet, which is fostering new varieties of language and experiences, thus exposing the learners to language varieties which are more frequently used or which the learners prefer. These varieties are not controlled by any grammatical correctness filter and thus generate new word forms or uses which may not necessarily conform to accepted grammar rules. 

The second reason which accounts for the fast language change is the globalization of English. This phenomenon has also had many effects on language teaching. Thus, amid this phenomenon the teachers may be confused and overwhelmed and the question they may ask themselves is ‘What is the language variety that should be taught?’ The answer to the question was given by Crystal in his speech on ‘English as a global language’. 

Video 8: David Crystal: Texting is 'Good' for English Language

Video Resources: Technology in Education

 Video-1

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Paradigm

_

 

Human Intelligence is Richer and More Dynamic than we have been led to believe by formal academic education. 

-Ken Robinson 

Changing Education Paradigms is a narrative from Sir Ken Robinson that provides an inspirational insight and overview of the current worldwide education structure, the effects that it is having on our school kids and society, and an invitation to consider what it would take to shift the current industrial concept of schooling to a more sustainable one.

Reforming Public Education 

There are two reasons for it. For that

• Economic 

• Cultural 

Economic 

The first of them is economic. People are trying to work out 

• “How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century”? 

• How do we do that, given that we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week as the recent turmoil is demonstrating? 

• How do we do that?

Cultural 

The second, though, is cultural. Every country on earth is trying to figure out 

• How do we educate our children so they have a sense of cultural identity and so that we can pass on the cultural genes of our communities while being part of the process of globalization?

• How do we square that circle? 

The problem is, they’re trying to meet the future by doing what they did in the past, like any one has done their schooling. They have better opportunities to got Collage degree.

Problem of Education system 

The system was was designed and conceived and constructed for a different age.It was conceived in the intellectual culture of the enlightenment and in the economic circumstances of the industrial revolution. They think that "They’re incapable of learning to read and write, and why are we spending time on this?”

Twin pillars: economic and intellectual

This model has caused chaos in many people’s lives. It’s been great for some and most people have not. it’s as fictitious: this is the plague of ADHD. Now this is a map of the instance of ADHD in America or prescriptions for ADHD.

Therefore he first talked about to think differently about human capacity. We have to get over this old conception of academic, non-academic, abstract, theoretical, vocational… and see it for what it is, a myth. 

Second is that we have to recognize that most great learning happens in groups, that collaboration is the stuff of growth and separate them and judge them separately, we should have disjunction between them and their natural learning environment.

Thirdly it’s crucially about the culture of our institutions, the habits of institution and the habitats that they occupy.

Video 2:Sugata Mitra: School in the cloud- SOLE

He starts with the question like What is going to be the future of learning? To look at present-day schooling the way it is, it's quite easy to figure out where it came from. It's called the bureaucratic administrative machine. The schools would produce the people who would then become parts of the bureaucratic administrative machine. They must know three things: 

• They must have good handwriting, because the data is handwritten

• They must be able to read and multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in their head. 

• They must be so identical 

 

They're there in thousands in every office. And you have people who guide those computers to do their clerical jobs. Those people don't need to be able to write beautifully, multiply numbers,or read. In fact, they need to be able to read discerningly. 

How is present-day schooling going to prepare them for that world? 

He talked about an experiment of Delhi into a really remote village There was no place to stay, he stuck his computer in, when he came back after a couple of months, found kids playing games on it. "We want a faster processor and a better mouse." 

"How on Earth do you know all this?" 

"You've given us a machine that works only in English, so we had to teach ourselves English in order to use it." that he had heard the word "teach ourselves".

"Hole in the wall film - 1999" 

An eight-year-old telling his elder sister what to do. And finally a girl explaining in Marathi what it is, and said, "There's a processor inside." 

He started experimenting with other subjects, There's one community of children in southern India whose English pronunciation is really bad, and they needed good pronunciation because that would improve their jobs. He has given text to write and "Keep talking into it until it types what you say." They did that. He has elaborated ideas about different languages and different places, how the students are using different methods of learning and actually they are learning through technology very fast.

Video 3: Sugata Mitra: Future of Learning

He started with the question : What is the future of learning? The teacher as the “Sage on the Stage” and the book as the ultimate authority was how the world should be. The teacher is the fount of all knowledge. Now students are more involved in setting the course and pace of their learning. Some examples of this are project based learning programs and inquiry based learning programs.

The above mentioned teaching and learning models: they emphasize reaching beyond the classroom and giving students more control to develop their innate curiosity, creativity and find the answers themselves. Mitra’s premise is that schools are still operating on a 19th century factory model designed to spit out workers with the same skills. He encourages teachers and parents to break free of that model and do a better job at sparking children’s curiosity and agency.Mitra has launched a SOLE toolkit to help parents and teachers do that.

Video 4:Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

In this TEDTalk Salman Khan, the founder of the Khan Academy, talks about the need to create alternative access to classroom content and how videos can be used to flip a classroom. While showing the power of interactive exercises, Salman argues for a change in the teaching paradigm: Using technology to "humanize" the classroom by flipping the traditional classroom script — give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher as a facilitator, coach and mentor.

Video 5: Marc Prensky: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants  

As proclaimed by Prensky, people who were not born in the digital era and later adopted the new technology are named as “digital immigrants” whereas people who were born during or after the digital era are dubbed “digital natives”. Digital era begins in 1980. As such, based on Prensky’s definition, the adults aged 40 and above were categorised as “digital immigrants”.

He said that “Is it just that I’m getting older? I find myself having trouble keeping up with technology… I have been swamped with the choice and variety of technology.” They possibly learn it all. Sometimes we  can’t even learn the ones that might actually be helpful to us. Middle-aged adults are digital immigrants. The way they perceive technology is different from a digital native. How different they are? Because there is the difference.

Video 6: David Crystal: The Effect of New Technologies on English:  

Video 7: David Crystal: The Biggest Challenge for English Language Teachers in the times of Internet:  

Video 8: David Crystal: Texting is 'Good' for English Language