News

2008.0121

FEATURE: E-Classrooms Make Learning Process More Interesting And Fun

By Doremi Wang Campus Reporter The electronic devices-initiated classrooms (e-classrooms) on National Taiwan Normal University’s (NTNU) three campuses were highlighted because they made teachers’ life a lot easier and students would be able to enjoy various ways of learning as well. The Division of Computing Service established e-classrooms on the main campus on Dec. 4, 2006, Gongguan campus and Linkou campus in June 2007.  The division said that the purpose for the “e-classroom project” is to help teachers teach and it was also designed to become an important facility for teachers during the teaching process.  In the meantime, the end goal for this project is to make every classroom at NTNU an “e-classroom” so every teacher and every student would be able to take advantage of the state-of-the-art facility while learning. Wang Yao-hua (汪耀華), head of the Digital Media Division support the teachers in using of technology in the classrooms, explained that an “e-classroom” means a classroom with computerized devices that teachers or students would be able to use it for operating projectors or carrying out a slide show in class or even a power point transparency demonstration or briefing.  Wang said that teachers are also able to simply hook up their laptops to these electronic devices to show the class whatever they want to share with students during a class session. “Some teachers prefer their own laptops since they have everything in their own machines.  Well, the equipment also fits their needs,” Wang said. To maintain these e-classrooms, Wang said that the division hired 16 counselors, who are actually NTNU students from different departments, to help resolve any potential related problems at these e-classrooms.  He said that glitches will take place every now and then since they are “electronic devices” so these 16 counselors would be standing by for providing first-aide services upon requests.  Also, these counselors are responsible for inspecting the e-classroom every time before a class is carried out. Jian Sao-yu (簡卲瑜), a geography major student, said that she enjoyed the convenience of the facility a lot since as a geography major, she needs to demonstrate maps in class all the time. “With the e-classroom facility, I do not need to check out projectors anymore.  In addition, the facility at the e-classroom provides better quality in terms of the image that is displayed through a projector,” she said. English Assistant Professor Lin Hsiu-ling (林秀玲) also affirmed the e-classroom facilities.  She said that the facilities made her job a lot easier but she was not too satisfied with the microphones of an e-classroom. “For some reasons, there is always interference from the speakers whenever I am using the microphones,” Lin said. In response to professors’ complaints, these 16 counselors must know how to shoot professors’ trouble in class and interact with them from time to time. “The bottom line is to fix the problems,” said Hong Li-xing (洪立新), an e-classroom counselor.  “Sometimes we also have to assist professors through the class to make sure that nothing will go wrong.  We continue to improve our service quality anyway.”