Using ICT in Teaching the Chinese Language: Practices and Reflections from Singapore
The twenty-first century is the era of communication and knowledge construction, so information communications technology (ICT) literacy has become a critical twenty-first-century skill that enables students to engage in computer-assisted language learnin
- PDF / 252,343 Bytes
- 19 Pages / 439.37 x 666.14 pts Page_size
- 12 Downloads / 254 Views
Using ICT in Teaching the Chinese Language: Practices and Reflections from Singapore Cheelay Tan and May Liu
Overview: Information Communication Technology Literacy as a Twenty-First-Century Skill The twenty-first century is the era of communication and knowledge construction, especially with the rapid advancement of information technology. In this quickly evolving ICT era, society and education face new changes. Students need to develop new skills and dispositions to handle new challenges beyond school. In 1996, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report (Delors et al. 1996) noted that the key characteristic of the twenty-first-century education was learning how to learn. Jacques Delors et al. suggested four pillars of developing a student’s learning abilities: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be. In 2007, the partnership for the twenty-firstcentury skills proposed a learning framework that concretely explains knowledge and skill standards required for the twenty-first-century life. It suggests a complete support system (including standards, assessment, curricula and teaching, professional development for teachers and learning environments) and a learning design that integrates these skills (Partnership For 21st Century Skills 2011). The report proposes that the twenty-first-century learning outcomes should include the following knowledge and skills: (1) core subjects and important twenty-first-century issues, (2) skills for learning and creativity and (3) news, media, technology, life and career skills. Out of the numerous twenty-first-century skills listed in the report, ICT literacy gains importance by the day. Teaching in the traditional classroom mainly comprises textbook-based lecturing, with teachers presenting and teaching in a linear order. Each country’s
C. Tan (*) • M. Liu Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, Singapore, Singapore e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 K. Soh (ed.), Teaching Chinese Language in Singapore, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0123-9_4
45
46
C. Tan and M. Liu
discussions on the twenty-first-century skills and education have different foci but agree that the twenty-first-century learning environments should differ significantly from traditional ones. Information technology promotes these changes and has become both necessary for students to master and also the main channel for students to nurture other twenty-first-century skills. For example, network technology has broken traditional learning boundaries and promoted the creation of a global online learning community. This change requires students to have Internet skills and to be able to use the Internet to develop other skills such as cultural skills, communication and cooperation, problem-solving skills and self-directed learning and development abilities. Hence, with the rapid development of multimedia technology and computer and device usage, ICT literacy becomes a critical necessity as more visual resour
Data Loading...
