Academic Technology Podcast - Episode 17

Kimberly: Hello and welcome to the seventeenth episode of the Academic Technology Podcast. I'm Kimberly Hayworth, the manager of Academic Computing's Consulting and Multimedia Services group.

Today's episode includes an interview with Sik Lee Denning about how she and her students use technology in her class. Sik Lee Denning is a lecturer in Cantonese Chinese and we’re going to be talking about how she uses technology in her courses. Sik Lee, how did you get started teaching with technology?

Sik Lee: Well first of all let me define what I think technology means. If we define technology as having something to do with the internet that I would say I started using technology in Spring 1998. I was very fortunate to have a student who majored in Computer Science, so he helped me set up my first class webpage. And after that I actually took a leave of absence for about three years and when I came back in 2001, CourseWork became available at Stanford, so I started using CourseWork. And this quarter I'm participating in a new version of CourseWork and I really feel that I have been very fortunate to be able to use CourseWork because it really has allowed me to do what I want to do with my classes.

Kimberly: That’s great. That sounds like a wonderful use of that technology. So what types of activities or projects do you do in your classes?

Sik Lee: I usually have a lot of role plays and discussions, and also have PowerPoint presentations, and also show a lot of movie clips. I sometimes show full length movies and I usually would show a segment each time, and then there would be a lot of discussion afterward and then the student would go home and do an assignment. In the assignment, very often I would make them watch a two to three minute segment of what they saw earlier during class and they have to answer questions about that segment, or sometimes I ask them to provide the subtitles to that segment or various kinds of activities. The whole idea is, I want them to be exposed to authentic language materials and also would be talking about things that have meaning to them. And when they are doing the assignment they have to take an in depth look at that piece of material that I provide to them.

Kimberly: Right, that makes all the difference in the world to have relevant, authentic examples of language. And as far as capturing these small two to three minute clips that you’re using, could you talk more about that process?

Sik Lee: Yes. And again I’m very fortunate because at Stanford we have a lab called the Academic Technology Lab, so I have been going to that lab since I started using CourseWork. And there are wonderful people there who have been helping me to use the software, how to capture video clips for movies. The advantage of being able to capture small clips like this is I can actually upload these video clips to CourseWork so that my student would have access to the clips and they can study they can watch the clips again. And many of my students have told me that at first when they watch an authentic clip like this, they can be very intimidated. They would say I don't understand a thing. But then after watching the clip a few times, they said "hey!" It started to make sense. So, repeated practice like this can really help students overcome the fear of having to do with authentic language materials and over time it really helped them improve in the language that they’re learning.

Kimberly: Yeah, and I was fortunate enough to attend one of the workshops you gave on teaching the technology specifically with respect to video. And you did a fantastic job of outlining your lesson plans, talking about the advanced organizers, letting the students know what to look for in the video clips, and talking about the culture as well as the language. You focused on what was happening in the background, the types of things that were being handled and their relevance within that culture. You were also great about talking about body language and how people interact. And also you asked student about their perceptions. So, it was a wonderful exercise that you put together that really made students think about how they were viewing the video rather than passively just sitting and watching a clip in class.

Sik Lee: Yes, I’m very glad to hear that. I enjoy using movies a lot because I like to watch movies myself and also sharing. Through movies I can teach a lot about life. And also a lot about history and culture.

Kimberly: And you do a fantastic job of brining that back into the classroom for discussion as well. And then students can relate those types of things to their own lives, which I think it’s incredibly important. So, what are the advantages of teaching with technology?

Sik Lee: I think the biggest advantage is it really allows me to be creative with how I want to I teach. When we look at typical language textbooks, most of them are very standardized at the lower level. They would talk about things like how to greet someone or how to make a phone call or how to order food. These topics are important, but since we’re teaching college students, our students do want to be stimulated and, so sometimes when I bring in movies, I can help them think about issues that concern the world that are about themselves, that concern them. For example, one of the topics that college students are interested in is dating, love, marriage. I think there are plenty of movies out there that can provide very rich materials for us to discuss these topics. And also video materials provide a lot of rich, visual input regarding, say, culture. And when we are learning about a foreign language, sometimes we forget that a language does not consist of just words. Also (-- like, talk about) culture, body language -- it's hard to study in a book. So, I think the ability to use visual materials really allows me to teach things that usually the regular textbooks do not have.

So I think the biggest advantage is that it allows me to be very creative with how I want to teach. It allows me to go beyond, you know, what's in the text book. And also, it's actually very convenient, because now I can have everything on CourseWork. Yeah, everything that I have created, I've put on CourseWork. Now, it's like, if I want to create a new unit, I just go to CourseWork, look at all the previous courses that I've created because they're all there and I just, it's like I'm pulling out these drawers, and I can very quickly put together a new unit. And there's another way that makes things convenient is that I don't have to carry like 20 or 30 audio tapes anymore, because now very often I send my students to CourseWork and they can record directly onto CourseWork. And with the new feature called "Drop Box" in the new version of CourseWork, students can actually do the recording on their own computer and then just drop the voice file onto CourseWork. So, it has become extremely convenient to my students and also myself. And also I feel that, since now I can create material so easily and make them accessible to my students, it allows me to take care of individual differences. Even within the same class, students actually do have different amounts of exposure to the language but with the availability of CourseWork, I can provide a lot of links and supplementary materials for students, say, who are a little more advanced who want to do more. Or supplementary materials for students who are not as advanced, then they can do a little bit more tutorial on their own. So, for instructors to take care of individual differences, and for students, to become an independent learner, I think technology really has been very helpful in this way.

Kimberly: I definitely agree. You had mentioned using film clips as a way to display culture, and it's something that I think is incredibly relevant as well. Did you want to talk a little bit about the International Film Project?

Sik Lee: Oh, that -- that is a lot of fun, yes. You were talking about the workshop. And at the workshop we found that quite a lot of instructors were interested in using film clips, so we decided to work together because we feel that that would save us time. So, we decided to use marriage and custom, or marriage and culture as our first theme. So different instructors have contributed film clips from their culture. And we had a meeting the other day and we talked about establishing some kind of framework first, so that we'll be able to create lesson plans that are comparable. So, first of all, we'll have a more focused theme, and also secondly, it'll be easier to adapt each other's lesson plans. So, even right now we have about 5 to 6 clips from different cultures, and I already have thought of a number of things that I can do. For example, I didn't realize until the meeting that in Japanese culture, it's the bride's family who is responsible for driving the bride to the groom's house, whereas in Chinese culture, the groom actually has to come with the Best Man and quite a number of his good friends to the bride's home, and then they will have to try to negotiate with the bride's good friends in order to gain access to the bride, before they can enter, take the bride and then drive the bride to the groom's house. So, that was very interesting to me because Chinese and Japanese culture historically have influenced each other a lot, but yet for something so important, which is wedding -- that marks the beginning of a marriage -- our customs could be so different. So, I'm thinking that I can use these two clips to teach my classes, and one of my questions for them is: why is it so different and what is behind this difference? If you want to hear more? Another thing that fascinates me is the Eastern Orthodox wedding. So I got a video clip from a famous Russian movie "Anna Karenina", and so there's this beautiful wedding scene, and so I found out that actually the bride and the groom would be crowned during the wedding ceremony. So that reminded me that in Chinese culture, the groom is always perceived as a dragon, and the bride perceived as a phoenix. So you see the motif of the dragon and the phoenix quite often at a Chinese wedding. So again, you know, the dragon and the phoenix traditionally are symbols of the king and the queen. In Chinese culture, the groom and the bride are elevated to the status of being a king and a queen. That's on the surface, it seems like there's some similarity between the Eastern Orthodox wedding and one of the traditional ways that we Chinese think about weddings. But, then I know that underneath actually there are differences. So, I can already use these two themes to stimulate my students to think about these things, and then they can go out and do more research and then come back and see what we can learn by comparing wedding ceremonies in different cultures; through these comparisons see how people in different parts of the world conceptualize weddings and also marriage.

Kimberly: Well, that sounds like a wonderful exercise. I can't wait to hear what comes out of it. So, we discussed the advantages of teaching with technology. What are some of the challenges?

Sik Lee: I think the biggest challenge when I started out was what was actually to learn what's out there and how to use it, and a first glance, it could be intimidating. It seems like technology grows at such a rapid pace, and I remember in 1998 when I had my first website, and then I was gone for three years and then when I came back, my students, after the very first class, were already asking me questions like, "Can I submit an MP3 file instead of giving you an audio tape?" "Do you have the class website already set up?'' I had the feeling that within those three years, things already had changed a lot, and I think in recent years technology has been evolving at an even more rapid pace. And since were not technologists -- we're really language instructors -- so just trying to keep up with all the change and trying to find out what is out there, what we can accomplish with what is out there can seem intimidating at first. But, I want to reassure instructors who would like to try technology that actually we don't have to be intimidated, because there is really a lot of help at Stanford that can help us get started. And I think two best places to start are number one go to talk to the Technology Specialist within your department, and also go to ATL -- the Academic Technology Lab. There's really wonderful support there that can help you get started. The people that I work with there would literally sit down with you, take you through things step-by-step. And when you come back again, do the same thing over again -- if you have forgotten anything, they will take you through the process again until you are really comfortable with it.

Kimberly: Yeah, your Academic Technology Specialist Joseph Kautz is also wonderful. We've worked with him directly. And as far as getting a hold of folks at the ATL?

Sik Lee: Oh, that is so easy! You just go to the ATL website and then there is the online scheduler, so you just book a time, you can reserve a work station, or you can reserve one of the consultants. And I've been working with Kim, who's interviewing me, and she really has been tremendously supportive. And one thing that's really special about her is that she usually would respond to me within a very short period of time. It makes me feel special, because it makes me feel that what I'm doing is important. So I can feel that she is trying to support my efforts the best way that she can, which really has made it easy for me to do what I want to do.

Kimberly: Well, thanks. And we do know that your time is valuable, and there's so many things going on in a faculty member's life that you just want to make sure that you can help them in any way and support what they're doing. And the things that you're doing are really innovative.

Sik Lee: Thank you. I'm glad to hear that.

Kimberly: So, it's so exciting to help you with these types of projects.

Sik Lee: I think the most important thing is that I enjoy it. I feel that I'm learning and it's fun. It's that I feel like I'm being stimulated all the time. If you want to ask me any advice for instructors who want to play with technology is that it's really fun. And if they have the attitude that they're going to be supported, they're going open up a whole new wide world in which the instructor and the students are going to have a lot of fun, I think that would be my advice.

Kimberly: Yeah, that's great advice. And you are also fortunate to be able to work at Wallenberg Hall and...

Sik Lee: Oh, that's correct.

Kimberly: And Eric Grant, the Academic Technology Specialist there is fantastic as well.

Sik Lee: I think it was really wonderful that I had the opportunity to work at Wallenberg Hall. I started a year ago, and I think, like the first quarter I was teaching at Wallenberg Hall, I just felt that being surrounded by all the facilities there -- that presence of all the equipment, things that I can do, I think make me feel wanting to explore more, to experiment more. Yeah, I think it would really encourage other instructors to try teaching in those rooms, in those technology rooms -- it's the whole atmosphere, I think, that sort of opens you up. And the students enjoy it, too. Sometimes, even very small things that you can do -- for example, when they are having discussions, you ask them to write down the keywords on these whiteboards, and then tell them to take the whiteboards to the camera outside to take a picture of the keywords that they have written, and then they can go online to retrieve the file. So even little things like that are impressive to them. And I think that by doing something like that it makes the students feel that you are in touch with their generation. And also they appreciate it -- they know you are trying your best to make teaching interesting. I think our generation of students is so used to multimedia materials that they sort of expect to see that in the classroom and when it's available, they pay more attention, they find it more interesting, and they also, I think, somehow feel closer to the instructor.

Kimberly: The couple of times that I was actually in your class, the students seemed incredibly engaged and really supportive of one another. I think it fosters a sense of community.

Sik Lee: Yeah, that is true, actually, yes.

Kimberly: So, as technology specialists, we really enjoy seeing instructors who get out there work with their students and really reap the benefits of this type of technology for not just using the technology for its sake, but really bringing something more to the class. And I've seen your students with you, and they absolutely love you. So, I can't tell you how wonderful it's been this experience working with you.

Well, if you want more information about contacting folks at the Academic Technology Lab, that URL is academiccomputing.stanford.edu/atl, and for the Academic Technology Specialist Program, you can go to ats.stanford.edu. Thanks so much Sik Lee for coming in today and talking with us.

Sik Lee: You're welcome.

Kimberly: Well, that's it for Academic Technology podcast, episode 17. Thanks for listening. Episode 18 will include an interview with Phyllis Kayten, a reference librarian at the Green Library Information Center, and Jocelyn Jiao, a student in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, and winner of the Boothe Prize about the research process involved in writing Jocelyn's award-winning essay.

Links to information discussed in this podcast and other show notes are available online at http://acomp.stanford.edu/cams Just click the Academic Technology Podcast link. You'll also find a link to our blog if you'd like to provide feedback or suggest topics for future podcasts.