Unit 5 : Education

1. Unit 5 : Education Education in Cyberspace

2. Unit 1: Part A • Pre-Reading Activities • Intensive Study • After-reading

3. Unit 1: Part A • Warm-up Questions • Wacth and Think • Word Web • Spot Dictation • Background Information

4. Pre-reading Activities: Warm-up Questions 1. What is your idea of an ideal university life? 2. How does education improve your life? 3. Can you feel the impact of modern technology on teaching and learning in your university? 4. How does cyber education benefit students? 5. How do students behave in cyber classrooms and traditional classrooms respectively?

5. Pre-reading Activities: Watch and Think Directions: Watch the following video and take notes. What’s the instructors’ opinion on online education? Do you agree that it has some advantages over the conventional/traditional education? schedule, twice amount of work, main differences, face-to-face

6. Pre-reading Activities: Watch and Think

7. Pre-reading Activities: Word Web Directions: What words will occur to you when we mention “Education.” teacher classroom master university knowledge doctor student lecture undergraduate study Education graduation school subject playground semester freshman discipline homework degree diploma bachelor

8. Pre-reading Activities: Spot Dictation Virtual Global University The Virtual Global University (VGU) is a private organization founded in 2001 by 17 professors of Business Informatics from 14 different universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The VGU brings together the ________________________ of people from different universities in one _______ organization. At the same time it is a ____ organization, according to German civil law ______________ "VGU Private Virtual Global University GmbH." knowledge and experience virtual real under the name

9. The focus of VGU’s study _________ is information technology (IT) and management — or Business Informatics as it is called in Central Europe. Students of Business Informatics (BI) are taught how to use IT ___________ to develop business solutions for __________________ . All courses offered by the VGU are based on the Internet as well as on commonly ___________________and communication technology. Courses are conducted in English and are given ________, or are substantially supported, by means of ________________. offerings effectively global challenges available information entirely electronic media

10. Pre-reading Activities: Background Information Vicky Phillips: a pioneer in adult education and distance learning, and founder and CEO of “Geteducated.com.” She is the author of the well-known book Never Too Late to Learn: The Adult Student’s Guide to College.

11. Pre-reading Activities: Background Information Isaac Pitman (1813 ~1893) English inventor of phonographic shorthand (留声速记). He set forth a shorthand system based on phonetic (语音的) rather than orthographic (拼写的) principles. It became one of the most-used systems in the world then. He published many manuals (手册), journals, and books about shorthand through his own publishing house.

12. Pre-reading Activities: Background Information Plato (427 ~ 347BC): An ancient Greek philosopher. He had a very great influence on European philosophy. He explained his ideas in the form of written conversation. His teacher was Socrates (苏格拉底) and after Socrates’ death he established a school called the Academy, where Aristotle was one of his students. His most famous work is The Republic (《理想国》), which is about the perfect state and form of government.

13. Intensive Study • Structure of the Text • Main Idea • Intensive Study • Difficult sentences • Key words, phrases & usages • Comprehension exercises

14. Part I 1~3 I teach in cyberspace. As a virtual professor, I teach without personally meeting my students. Part II 4~9 Being a Guide on the Side, I have succeeded in getting my students to communicate their ideas actively and think critically, which is something I find hard to achieve in traditional campus education. Part III 10~17 Cyber-teaching reflects the nature of a true liberal education as is defined by Plato, and it is well received by the participants. Part IV 18~20

15. Mankind hopes for a better world to live in. T_ t___ e__, man has to confront the inevitable conflicts that the future holds i_ s____. Since education lays an i____________ role in managing those conflicts, the following four pillars of education are proposed. Learning to live together c____ f__ an understanding of others and the awareness of the d________, similarities and interdependence of all people so that people can i________ joint projects. I_ a_________ w___ the global changes brought about by scientific o his nd n tore ndispensable alls or iversity mplement n ccordance ith

16. progress, the e_______ in learning to know should be put on c________ a broad general education and the opportunity to study a small number of subjects i_ d____. Associated with the issue of occupational training, learning to do aims to e____ people to cope with various situations and work in teams. The fourth pillar is learning to be, which focuses on the complete development of one’s potentials when he g___ a____ an independent, critical way of thinking and judgement. Given the comventient a_____ to knowledge in the information era, everyone mphasis ombining n epth quip oes fter ccess

17. Main idea longs for a way to g__ the most o__ o_ their own specific educational environment. These four interrelated pillars can help us make the best out of education and attain our future ideals. et ut f

18. Intensive Study Campus teaching is the conventional style of education that has been practiced for centuries. Vicky Phillips, however, does not think highly ofthis form of teaching. As a cyber professor, she talks about the decline of the American campus and the rise of the American educational mind.

19. Intensive Study Education in Cyberspace 1 On a recent business trip a man asked me what I did for a living. I replied that I wrote and taught college courses. 2. “Oh?” he said. “Where do you teach?” 3.A peculiarly honest answer came out of my mouth before I could think.“Nowhere,” I said.

20. Intensive Study 4It’s true. Since 1990 I have taught and counseled for what a friend of mine calls “keyboard colleges” —distance-learning degree programs. Where I teach is inside that electrically charged space that lies between my phone jack and the home computers of a group of generally older-than-average college students.

21. Intensive Study 5 In 1990, I designed America’s first online counseling center for distance learners. Since then I’ve worked with more than 7,000 learners online. I’ve flunked a few of them. I’ve never personally met any of them. 6For want ofa clearer explanation of my career situation, I told the man who inquired that I teach in cyberspace. “I’m a virtual professor,” I tried explaining. “Distance learning ... online degree programs ... virtual universities.”

22. Intensive Study 7 The man’s face remained as blank as a clear summer sky.I couldn’t tell whether he was silent out of respect or keen confusion. I imagined both to be the case, so I settled in to explain what I have to explain frequently these days: the decline of the American college campus and the rise of the American educational mind — as I see it.

23. Intensive Study 8 Distance learning, or educational programs where pupil and professor never meet face-to-face, are nothing new. Sir Isaac Pitman of Bath, England, hit uponthe idea of having ruralresidentslearn secretarial skills by translating the Bible into shorthand, then mailing these translations back to him for grading. He began doing this in 1840. And he made mounds of money doing it.

24. Intensive Study 9 I don’t teach shorthand; I teach psychology and career development. I write many of my own lessons, though, just as Sir Isaac had to do. My post is the World Wide Web. I post assignments to electronic bulletin boards and send graded papers across the international phone lines in tariff-free e-mail packets. I convene classes and give lectures in online chat rooms when need be.

25. Intensive Study 10 Is this any way to dispense with a real college education? Can people learn without sitting in neat rows in a lecture room listening to the professor — the Sage on the Stage? 11 Yes, absolutely. Why not? In fact, while many people find it hard to imagine a college with no campus, I nowadays find it hard to imagine teaching anywhere other than in the liberal freedom that is cyberspace.

26. Intensive Study 12 In cyberspace, I listen, read, comment and reflect on what my students have to say — each of them in turn. What they know, they must communicate to me in words.They cannot sit passively in the back row twiddling their mental thumbs as the clock ticks away. They must think; and horror of horrors, they must write. Thinking and writing: Aren’t these the hallmarks of a classically educated mind?

27. Intensive Study 13 I know my students not by their faces or their seat position in a vast lecture auditorium; I know them by the words and ideas they express in their weekly assignments, which everyone reads online. 14 I am not a Sage on the Stage — I am more a Guide on the Side. Often what the students “say” or write to one another, or the way they incorporate their work and career ideas into their papers and debates with each other, is more practically inspiring than any help I could provide them with.

28. Intensive Study 15My average college “kid” is 40 years old. More than a few are in their 50s or 60s. They are telecommuting to campus because they could not, or would not, uproot their careers and kids or grandkids to move to a college campus — an entity modeled after the learning monasteries of medieval times.

29. Intensive Study 16 Many of them know what they are talking about. Even more so, they know why they came back to college to learn. A cyber-education suits them because it respects their abilities to define for themselves what knowledge is and to go afterit. It encourages them to argue their points and their perspectives without the interference of a professor, who might be tempted to step into “calm down” or “refocus” an otherwise wonderfully enlightening classroom debate.

30. Intensive Study 17 They are experiencing something very different from the traditional factory model of American education, in which everyone on the assembly line is delivered the same standardized units of information (lectures and textbooks) and then must pass the same quality inspection (objective exams).

31. Intensive Study This factory model — where students sit in neat rows, holding up their hands for permission to speak, clock-watching their way through textbooks and lectures that are broken into discrete bits of knowledge — has never been shown to be an effective way to learn. It has, however, been proven to be a convenient way for colleges to record on transcripts that a standard body of knowledge has been duly delivered.

32. Intensive Study 18 Maybe teaching a liberal arts curriculum via a virtual environment makes more sense to me because it brings me backto what I learned to be a true liberal arts education. Studying philosophy in Athens, Greece, I was taught that to learn anything, one had to throw away textbooks and notebooks — mere memory tools — and instead rely on one’s native ability to think critically.

33. Intensive Study 19 While my cyber-students do have textbooks, the books are learning aids; they are not the only pool of knowledge the students will drink from. Instead, they will learn also from the collaborative efforts of online debates, conferences and papers. They will think about what they have to say, and they will come to class each week amazingly prepared to argue and type their way toward insight.

34. Intensive Study 20 The virtual university: Oddly enough, it’s just what a classical philosopher like Plato would have practiced — had there been an Internet way back then. Me? I’m in favor of less learning taking place on a campus and more that happens in the minds of the participants.

35. A peculiarly honest answer came out of my mouth before I could think. 1. Paraphrase this sentence. Without thinking, I answered him frankly. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 我不假思索，老老实实地答道。 peculiarly

36. Where I teach is inside that electrically charged space that lies between my phone jack and the home computers of a group of generally older-than-average college students. 1. Paraphrase this sentence. My students are generally older than the average college students. I teach them not in the traditional lecture rooms, but on the Internet where I am linked with them via their home phone lines and modems.

37. Where I teach is inside that electrically charged space that lies between my phone jack and the home computers of a group of generally older-than-average college students. 2. Translate this part into Chinese. 我的课堂是在充满电荷的空间里，一端连着我的电话插座，另一端连着一群年龄偏大的大学生家里的电脑。

38. The man’s face remained as blank as a clear summer sky. 1. What figure of speech is used here? Simile. More examples: …sing like an angel …sleep as sound as a log …be as brave as a lion 2. Translate this part into Chinese. 那人的脸上仍旧一片茫然。

39. …the Sage on the Stage… 1. What does “the Sage on the Stage” mean? This is a term commonly used in the teaching research field to refer to the teacher who plays a dominant role in the classroom. Its opposite term is “the Guide on the Side,” which suggests a learner-centred teaching approach. 2. Translate this part into Chinese. 讲坛上的圣人。/课堂教学的支配者。

40. What they know, they must communicate to me in words. What’s the grammatical function of “What they know” ? “What they know,” which serves as the object of the verb “communicate,” is put at the beginning of the sentence to achieve emphasis.

41. They cannot sit passively in the back row twiddling their mental thumbs as the clock ticks away. 1. What does “twiddling their mental thumbs” mean? to do little or nothing; be idle 2. What can we infer from the sentence? Studying online is different from that in the conventional classroom. Students should do something actively instead of sitting in the back idling.

42. They cannot sit passively in the back row twiddling their mental thumbs as the clock ticks away. 3. Translate this part into Chinese. 他们不能坐在后排座位上，无所事事地打发时光。

43. …who might be tempted to step in to “calm down” or “refocus” an otherwise wonderfully enlightening classroom debate. 1. Paraphrase this sentence. …who might feel like interfering with the students’ debate to make them calm down or to change the focus of the debate. In that case, the classroom debate might no longer be so enlightening as it should be.

44. …who might be tempted to step in to “calm down” or “refocus” an otherwise wonderfully enlightening classroom debate. 2. Translate this part into Chinese. ……可能会情不自禁地介入他们的争论，把原本很有启发性的课堂讨论“平息”或者“引到别的话题上去”。

45. think highly of: to have a good opinion of someone or sth. She thinks very highly of her boss. 我们极其欣赏王教授的意见。? We think very highlyof Professor Wang’s opinion. think highly of 对……极其赞赏 speak highly of 对……极为称 颂，非常赞同

46. peculiarly: adv. especially; strangely The streets were peculiarly quiet for the time of day. 他奇怪地看着我. ? He looked at me most peculiarly.

47. counsel: v. to give advice, especially on social or personal problems The police have provided experts to counsel local people affected by the tragedy. 听从长辈的劝告吧。? Listen to the counsel of your elders.

48. CF: counsel, advise, caution, warn 这些动词均有“劝告”，“忠告”，“警告”之意。 正式用词，语气比advise强一些，侧重指对重要问题提出的劝告、建议或咨询。 普通用词，泛指劝告，不涉及对方是否听从劝告。 主要指针对潜在危险而提出的警告，含告诫别人小心从事的意味。 含义与caution相同，但语气较重，尤指就某个严重的后果给人警告。 counsel advise caution warn

49. 1. Put that ball down and come over here, Laura — I’m _______ you. 2. They’re _________ that children be kept out of the sun altogether. 3. My job involves __________ unemployed people on/about how to find work. 4. I’d ______ waiting until tomorrow. 5. The newspaper _________ its readers against buying shares without getting good advice first. 6. We were ______ not to eat the fish which might give us a slight stomach upset. warning advising counseling advise cautioned warned

50. flunk: v. (infml) especially AmE to give someone low marks on a test so that they fail it; fail (an examination or study course) I flunked my second year exams and was lucky not to be thrown out of college. Her not following the instructions flunked her. flunk out 除名，退学