In the coming era of budget cuts to education, distance learning could become the norm.
The temptation for those in charge of education budgets to trade teachers for technology could be so strong that they ignore
Those policy-makers are often fascinated by the latest technology in education and its potential to transform education overnight.
1. 说明问题；
2. 提出建议。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
参考词汇：线上课程online courses
Dear Tony,
I’m your student, Li Hua.
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Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
3 . As with most teaching methods, online learning also has its own negatives. Understanding them will help create strategies for more efficiently delivering the lessons, ensuring a good learning journey for students. So, what are the disadvantages of online learning?
For many students, one of the biggest challenges of online learning is the struggle with focusing on the screen for long periods of time. There’s a great chance for students to be easily attracted by social media or other sites. Therefore, it is vital for the teachers to keep their online classes interesting and interactive. It will help students stay focused on the lesson.
Technology issues
Sense of isolation
Students can learn a lot from being in the company of their peers.
Teacher training
Online learning requires teachers to have a basic understanding of using digital forms of learning.
| A．Screen time management |
| B．Inability to focus on screens |
| C．Yet this is not always the case. |
| D．This increase in screen time is one of the biggest concerns. |
| E．However, in an online class, there is little physical interaction. |
| F．Another key challenge of online classes is Internet connectivity. |
| G．This can include online messages, emails and video conferencing. |
4 . JENNIFER SALLS---A high school math teacher in Sparks, Nevada
It is possible to construct good online courses that would support mathematics learning with middle and high school students. However, these courses would not look like most current online courses.
When we imagine an online course, we think of a solitary (孤立的)process in which a student is holed up with his or her computer, watching PowerPoints, paging through screens of text and solving a whole bunch of problems. While learning may be occurring, I suspect that it’s short-term with little real understanding of mathematics. There are some students who learn well under these circumstances, but this is not true for the majority of students. A good online course would take advantage of the many interactive resources. For example, if students were learning to solve equations, they would be directed to solve a carefully arranged set of problems using an interactive program. They would reflect on the interaction and share their observations with others taking the course.
Eventually, the lesson would move students toward solving equations, using their experiences with the interactive program as the jumping-off point. Students could experience real-world problems through video and simulations and use a variety of computer-based tools to solve these problems. Notice that a course like this is not solitary, but highly interactive, and it builds both problem-solving skills and conceptual knowledge.
BRIGID BARRON-A psychologist at Stanford University’s School of Education
Whether or not any computing tool used in the classroom will interfere with or energize learning depends on how the teacher organizes its use.
When online courses are well designed, they offer learners and teachers wonderful opportunities. Hybrid models that combine classroom interaction with tools like blogs, podcasts, social networks and discussion forums can engage students in ways that traditional environments do not. When students are given challenging material, asked to carry out research and to create ways to share what they are learning with students from all over the world, engagement goes up.
There are other benefits. Assessment of student learning can be partly automated and designed to provide continuous feedback. When students need assistance, they can be directed to activities that will help them learn. Perhaps most importantly, online courses can help bridge gaps in course offerings within a school district. Many economically challenged schools don’t have the resources to provide specialized or advanced courses, but those courses could be offered online.
Many students are already using technology in their own time to learn and create, for their own purposes or for school assignments (作业). If they know where to look, they can access online communities that foster (促进)their imagination and offer informal mentorship (辅导). Instead of wondering whether teenagers are too easily distracted by computers, we should be figuring out how we can use digital media to sustain (维持) teenagers’ interest and their desire to learn.
1. According to Jennifer Salls, in most current online classes, ______.| A．students hardly learn anything |
| B．students are made to learn all on their own |
| C．students are led to improve their self-study abilities |
| D．students focus more on theories than on problem-solving skills |
| A．Online courses should try to make the most of interactive resources. |
| B．Schools today pay more attention to students, conceptual knowledge. |
| C．Students cannot learn mathematics effectively through online courses. |
| D．Thanks to online classes, teachers’ work load can be greatly decreased. |
| A．narrowing the gap between rich and poor |
| B．providing students with real-time feedback |
| C．teaching students how to exploit online resources |
| D．maintaining students’ interest throughout the course |
| A．good courses should combine advanced technology and online resources |
| B．teachers play an important role in ensuring the effectiveness of online classes |
| C．students should be able to learn effectively through well-designed online classes |
| D．online courses are more effective only when students are assigned challenging tasks |
