Many of our Chinese teachers share the same childhood memory from their school days: Every morning, they would sit in the classroom together and recite ancient Chinese poetry with or without understanding the meaning. This poetry enriched their childhood, but as children, they didn’t have the knowledge and skills to understand the aesthetic context.Those beautiful ancient Chinese poems were passed on in the oral tradition over generations, then they were written in scrolls, then printed on paper, then published in books, and now they are shared and accessible to the whole world on the internet. But after surviving four massive media revolutions that have ushered in this modern Information Age, can technology really impact how we learn and understand Chinese literature, especially ancient Chinese poetry? We decided to further explore this topic with our Lower Secondary students, getting some of their feedback. Our Year 7 CFL students started their new adventure of studying “Ancient Chinese poetry” with Ms. Ni and Ms. Chen in August. This week, we interviewed the teachers and several Y7 students. Here is some of what they learned “in their own words.”
“For most of the younger generation, studying ancient poems takes too much time and it is hard see to see the applicable value immediately. So we are aiming to save students’ time and make their studying more effective and meaningful.” Ms. Ni and Ms. Chen considered the difficulties students encounter with ancient poetry and set the goal to use iPads in Chinese classes to “Enhance Understanding” of these ancient poems. Using Microsoft OneNote to provide preview materials to introduce and contextualize the topic, pushing images via Classroom App to support understanding of the situations the poetry is describing, facilitating collaborative learning via Microsoft OneNote and Teams, and encouraging students’ creative thinking on ancient poetry, the teachers and students began to shake off the traditional mode of learning ancient Chinese poems and create new meaningful connections. “iPad帮我们节省了时间，我们在中文课上能做很多互动活动，比如当场点评别人的想法。而且，以前我们想看别人的佳作和学习资源这种东西都要在电脑上登入Blog才能看到。现在，有了iPad就能几秒钟内看到这些，大大激发了我的学习欲望。”—陈逸林 CHEN Yilin (Year 7 CFL class)“iPad让学习中文离我们更近了一步，因为我们可以通过互联网来学习以及加深我们对于中国文化的理解，从而提升并保持对文化的兴趣。”—熊逸杭 XIONG Yi Hang“iPad让中文学习更加有趣，因为用iPads很便利，它体积小巧，方便携带，当我们需要同时参考很多资料时，不需要打印出来，而是直接可以分享给他人一起参考。” —张慧琳 Chong Hui Lim“用iPad学习中文让我们不仅可以节省纸张，还可以更好的做小组活动。用iPad还可以完成更多类型的作业，像录音和点评。它让我们不仅在课内来完成纸上完成练习，也让我们在课外的任何时间、任何地点持续地学习。”—赵翰飞 ZHAO HanfeiOne of the important reasons why ancient poems are still relevant in modern times is because they express the most common human emotions—and these are timeless. Hence, facilitating collaborative learning, arousing empathy and sympathy among students, allowing them to engage the ideas and make emotional connections, are the keys to deeper understanding. iPads help this happen as they enhance the learning experience, bringing this engagement with poetry inside and outside of the classrooms. This current media revolution offers us tools like the iPad that help us engage material and enhance our understanding as we make meaning, which is essential for learning.“iPad讓我們能更方便地做活動。現在很多時候，不管是在課堂上還是回家時，我們都會在OneNote上一起做些小練習。有了這個我們也可以互相學習，因為有一個區域叫做Collaboration Space，是大家可以一起在上面寫，而且当时就能看見大家互相之間寫的东西。通過这种方式，我们能即时了解每个同学的想法，有時候老師會讓我們互相點評，是個很不錯的鍛鍊及學習。以前學古詩，我只會把它當成必須要做的事情，而且只會背，然後默寫。因為沒有認真對待，以前學的，現在基本上都忘了。但是現在，我們學古詩，比以前更進一步了，我們能理解它要表达的意思，和作者的写作意图。”—罗希一 LO Tiffany “iPad帮我们节省了时间，我们在中文课上能做很多互动活动，比如当场点评别人的想法。而且，以前我们想看别人的佳作和学习资源这种东西都要在电脑上登入Blog才能看到。现在，有了iPad就能几秒钟内看到这些，大大激发了我的学习欲望。”—陈逸林 CHEN Yilin – Collabrative Learning via OneNote“《宿建德江》这首诗歌的学习过程中，我们做了一个有趣的活动，每个人都认领了一个字来解读，并且通过OneNote的信息分享，找到另一位同学对另一个字的分析诗来做联系。你要充分地解释为什么作者要用这些字来写这首古诗。通过这样的学习，我们了解了作者仅仅用20个字来表达了如此深远的意境，令人印象深刻。”—陈予晴 CHEN Yu Ching Besides the collaborative learning opportunities that our students mentioned, they also had opportunities to publish their own poetry recitations of ancient poems in a Podcast. Later on, Year 7 CFL students will move on to learning Modern Chinese Poetry and will have chances to write, edit and publish their own poems via iPad apps. We are looking forward to their amazing works!
– Collabrative Learning via OneNote
