The Challenge of eLearning

on K-12 in Taiwan Chi-Syan Lin

Director, APEC Cyber Academy

Associate Professor, Institute of Computers and Information Education

National Tainan Teachers College

GSM: +886-932-830-451

linc@ipx.ntntc.edu.tw

1. The Educational Reform Efforts in K-12 in Taiwan

2. Two Significant Projects in Promoting eLearning

3. The Challenge on Pedagogy Shift

4. The Challenge on Design of eLearning Environments

5. The Challenge on Production of eLearning Content

6. The Challenge on Evaluation Issues

7. The Challenge on Roles Changes in Teachers, Students, and Parents

Outline

Demographic Data on K-12 of Taiwan

(Source：MOE, Taiwan； December, 2002)

Levels Number of Schools

Number of Teachers

Number of Staffs

Number of Classes

Number of Students

Elementary 2,611 103,501 7,114 63,172 1,925,491

Junior High 708 49,318 7,177 26,803 935,738

Senior High 473 49,291 10,413 17,952 748,711

Sum 3,792 202,110 24,704 107,927 3,609,940

Educational Reform

1. Implementation of the 9-year Integrated Curriculum Scheme

2. Abolishment of Entrance Exams of All Levels

3. Implementation of English Learning Environments

4. Implementation of Networked Learning Environments

Expected Abilities on Students

• Understanding and developing one’s potential • Ability to appreciate and innovate• Ability to express, communicate and share• Ability to show respect, care and work cooperatively• Learning of cultures and understanding of other

countries• Internet and information literacy• Ability to think independently and solve problems• Career planning and lifelong learning

Two Significant Projects in Promoting eLearning

1. The IT Stimulus Package in Schools

2. The eTaiwan Project

The IT Stimulus Package

• 1997, A Budget Increase of NTD 6.4723 Billion in Information Education

• Computer labs for All Elementary and Secondary Schools and One PC per Student with Internet Connections

• Information Literate Teachers: All Teachers Able to Use Computers

• ADSL Connection, Upload Bandwidth: 384K; Download: 1.544M, Monthly Fee: NTD 2,050 ; (NTD 1100, from April 2001)

Percentage of School Internet Connections

Levels 1998/7/1 1999/6/30

University 100% 100%

High School 100% 100%

Middle School 72% 100%

Elementary School 24% 100%

The Potential and Opportunity of Taiwan

Teachers’ Training in The Stimulus Package

• New Teaching and Learning models toward Information Society

• Basic Information Technology Training for All School Personnel

• Assist Teachers to Apply Information Technology in teaching

Teachers Training Workshop (1)

Teachers Training Workshop (2)

The Follow-up Agenda (2001)

• Environment: Interactive IT education implemented in All Classrooms

• Courses: 9-year Integrated Curriculum Design to Include Information Technology in All Disciplines

• Teacher: Information Literate

• Teaching Material: Enrichment of Digitized Materials (Network and CD-ROM)

The Goals of Agenda

• Merge into the essence of education– Information access everywhere– Learning actively and joyfully– Learning cooperatively and creatively– Lifelong Learning for knowledge accumulation

Strategies–I

• A superior IT education environment, every school has basic bandwidth connection

• Encourage teachers and students to purchase proper IT equipments and use properly.

• Apply IT in curriculum, innovate teaching and learning models, and develop local features in different cities.

Strategies–II

• Open resource and open platform to create integrated and exchangeable learning materials, to share the educational Intellectual Property.

• Training and supporting all teachers to use IT in classroom activities, and embed in pre-service teacher trainings.

• Set up “seed” schools to develop teaching and learning models, and encourage IT workgroups formed in every subject.

Strategies–III

• Create a learning community of parents, teachers and students by joining schools and community, and encourage enterprise involvement.

• Using IT to improve the administrative procedures and the IT literacy of all school members, so as to support teaching and administration mutually .

Expected Results

• Global Resource-sharing Through Internet

• Fast Dissemination and Exchange of Information and learning resources through Internet

• To Improve Traditional Teaching and the Quality of Education

• Unlimited Access to Knowledge to Provide Life-long Learning

• Business Opportunities for Industries

The eTaiwan Project in Education

• eGeneration Education

• Digital Content

2002-2008

Educational Sites Given Short Shrift by Students

USA TODAY 2/21/2000

Spending more time on fun and games

than schoolwork

The Challenges on Pedagogy Shift

Teacher-center vs. Learner-center

Instruction vs. Learning

Classroom Learning Community vs. Virtual Learning Community

The Objects in eLearning

C ontent

NetworkedL earning

C ommunity

1. People

2. Content

3. Learning Community

The community of learners are important resources and schools differ in their access to human intellectual resources.

The Shifts of Schooling

Internet technology makes it feasible to exponentially increase the community of people involved in education.

Students can spend time teaching and learning from people who could not visit their class.

Some of the most successful teachers use information technology in concert with a shift in the teacher's role from lecturer to mentor of student learning through inquiry.

The New Roles for Teachers

The Challenges to Teachers in eLearningThe Challenges to Teachers in eLearning

1. Create Digital Content

2. Design Networked Learning Activities

3. Provide Learning Supports and Coaching

4. Learning Evaluation

In the K-12 context, many observers feel it is important to engage parents more in their children's learning. The combination of increased information technology use in classroom settings and the desire to increase parental involvement suggests that there is a need to train parents better in learning technologies and to provide parents better access to the technologies. Shared use of information technology can also lead to closer and more frequent communication between teacher and parent.

The New Roles for Parents

The Challenges to Parents in eLearning

1. Learning Companions

2. Learning Assistants and Facilitators

3. Security Supervisors

The Challenges to Students in eLearningThe Challenges to Students in eLearning

1. Active Learners

2. Partners in Collaborative Learning

3. Tutors and Feedback Providers

1. Anytime

2. Anywhere

3. Anyway

4. Any people

eLearning Environments: The New Paradigm

Knowledge Hierarchy and Active Learning Activities

KnowledgeHierarchy

SemanticKnowledge

ConstructiveKnowledge

Procedural &Strategic

Knowledge

A c tive L earningA c tivities

Observation

DemoPresentationEvaluation

Meta-cognition

Navigation

Communication

OngoingAssessment

Interactive and Collaborative Learning Environments

Teachers

Students StudentsSociety

Schools

Teachers

Schools

Society

Students Students