IT and ELT: A Look into the Future

1. IT and ELT: A Look into the Future Zhou Haixin

2. Table of Contents • IT: The latest trends and developments in China • Measures taken by the state • Distance Education Providers • Make sense out of the bewildering IT • Inside the walls • Wall-less and boundary-less campus • Impacts on ELT in particular

3. IT: the latest trends and developmentsMeasures taken by the State • Satellite Highway: 3 satellites owned by the MEd • The Underground Highway: CATV national networks • The Cernet with higher capacity • CETV, now 4 channels, • Forthcoming: ETV at the provincial level ---11 • ETV at the district level ---over 100 • University LAN: campus networks

4. Distance Education Providers • The MEd: 31 universities were very recently authorized to set up NetCollege. Take BFSU for example --- BeiWai Online • The MEd: leave for tender 200 online coursewares as sharewares for everyone • China Telecom Distance Education Scheme • Beijing Teamsun Technology Co. Ltd • Distance Learning and Sun Microsystems • Legend FM365

5. Make sense out of the bewildering IT Inside the Walls • The pattern of a classroom a teacher to be replaced by that of many classrooms a teacher? • Students-a-teacher relation to be replaced by students-a-computer relation? • A library for books to be replaced by a library of global resources? • The function of students’ dormitory: a place for bed or for internet? • In-class vs. outside-class: where is the division line?

6. Make sense out of the bewildering IT A more profound “threat”: what makes someone qualified as a teacher meaning the person who teaches others things they don’t know?

7. Wall-less and boundary-less campus • IT knocking down all the campus walls, the regional walls, and the national boundaries • The life pattern of education/degree first and work for the rest of life after gone for ever • Student-vs-non-student to be replaced by student-plus ---: e.g. teacher-student, professor-student, etc. • Local and less prestigious universities/institutions face fierce competition from the well-established and prestigious ones who come cracking down as if from nowhere. • Home education faces challenges from abroad • NetCollege is like a supermarket with shelves of shelves of coursewares for learners to choose. • The role of educationalists/professors is to give advice and work out a package for individual learners --- individualized and life-long education

8. Its Impacts on ELT in Particular • multi-media resources/presentations • self-access centre that integrates CALL, print/audio/video materials • internet ELT resources • testing through the internet • conferencing/seminars/panel discussions • internet chat • internet pair work/group work • new “textbooks” that integrate print/audio/video/internet/resources • listening/speaking materials updated every day/week/month

9. Its Impacts on ELT in Particular • too much to be useful? • too expensive? • Mr. Computer-teacher vs. Mr. Neville Grant • Mother-tongue plus internet-translator vs. foreign language teaching • Humanized IT vs. IT-rized human