A “White Box” Digital Transition Model for Education

Liu Xinsheng, a student in a rural school in Zibo, Shandong province,     1     the English teaching resources are limited, has been learning English through a small terminal (终端机) on a     2     (day) basis.     3     textbook-sized smart terminal, nicknamed “white box”, has become the most important tool for improving Liu’s English-speaking skills.

Technology enhances education and     4     (bridge) the gap effectively in educational resources between rural and urban areas. Students in the school can not only correct their     5     (pronounce) but also receive real-time feedback. Additionally, after submitting assignments through the device, they immediately receive corrections for certain tasks.

The AI-enabled rural education in Linzi district is just an example of how Zibo is     6     (true) promoting a digital transition in its education sector. By the end of last year, 97 percent of primary and secondary schools in Zibo     7     (complete) the digital transformation, with 295 schools establishing smart campuses     8     (equip) with multimedia classrooms.

Sun Yingtao, head of the Zibo Bureau of Education, said that     9     (ensure) that children enjoy high-quality education is the original intention of promoting digital education. “Digital education in Zibo has just begun and there are still many new situations, problems and challenges to deal     10    . In the future, we will accelerate the innovation of digital education application prospects and make every effort to strengthen the city’s digital education ecosystem,” Sun said.

4 . Two authors, Kylen Ribeiro and Michelle Zofrea, have written a children’s book Henry’s Tech-Free Trip to explore why parents want kids to limit screen time.

The authors said they have seen many news stories and studies in recent years warning parents about monitoring (监视) both the quality of the content and the amount of time their kids spent with tablets, phones and smart watches. But they didn’t see any books that were written for kids on the topic.

“We hope that it will help kids connect the topic,” Zofrea said. She said it reminded her that her mother warned her not to overdo it on Halloween candy. She didn’t follow the advice and wolfed down all her treat and felt sick later. “Like with food, we can set rules and lecture kids. It’ll be more effective if they start to notice how they feel,” Zofrea said.

The authors both work for DefenderShield, a Tampa-based company that sells products to block electromagnetic field radiation (电磁辐射) from laptops, cell phones and tablets. Their work there is what inspired the book, though they know it can be a heated topic because of the debate over the science of radiation’s effects.

While concerns are rising about the amount of time kids spend online, parents always remain on their phones at home. “I’ve always said children learn from what we do and not what we say,” said Pam Patranella, a doctor who reviewed the book and liked the idea of taking the screen time lesson to kids.

The book’s authors said parents need to be reminded that their kids have grown up in a different world, one that has had computers and tablets since the day they were born. “We want to bring up the concept (观念) of digital wellness for families and children,” Ribeiro said.

It can be easy for some of teenagers to form bad habits. These bad habits, if     1     (leave) unchecked, could lead to more serious ones when they become adults. To prevent harmful habits like these from     2     (支配) a teenager’s life is essential. To change bad habits is never easy, even with many     3     (attempt). Aristotle once said: “We are     4     we repeatedly do.” We make a choice to do something, and then we repeat     5     over and over again. Soon that choice becomes automatic and forms a habit. The good news is that we can change by understanding how habits work. we must first learn about the “habit cycle”, which works like this: Firstly, a “cue”, an action, event, or situation. Then a “routine”, the regular action you take     6     response to the cue. Thirdly, there is the “reward”.

    7     (facilitate) a positive change in our bad habits, we must first examine our bad habit cycles and then try to adapt them. Many of us try to change bad habits quickly, and if we are not successful, we often become     8     (悲观的) and give up. In fact, the most successful way to change is not suddenly, but over a period of time. As the Chinese philosopher Lao Zi wrote, “A journey of a thousand miles     9     (begin) with a single step.” To reach the goal of change, a person must show some d     10     . After all, it is not easy to break bad habits.

7 . Waking up at the crack of dawn and going for a run might feel intimidating when you start trying to make it a habit. Weaving a significant new activity such as this into your regular routine obviously takes determination and time — but how much time is really needed to make that habit stick?

One popular idea suggests that it takes 21 days to solidify a habit. The “three-week theory” originated from the 1960 self-help book Psycho-Cybernetics, in which plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz observed that it took his patients about 21 days to get used to their new appearance after surgery. Even without much solid research, the 21-day myth became widely accepted. It likely persisted because it seems like such a reasonable amount of time, Colin Camerer, a behavioral economist at the California Institute of Technology who has conducted research on habit formation, explains.

Almost a half century later, researchers finally gathered strong evidence that countered this idea. A significant 2009 study on habit creation found that habits developed in a range of 18 to 254 days; participants reported taking an average of about 66 days to reliably incorporate one of three new daily activities — eating a piece of fruit with lunch, drinking a bottle of water with lunch or running for 15 minutes before dinner. Consistent daily repetition was the biggest factor influencing whether a behavior would become part of an automatic daily routine, says Lally, who was the first author on the study.

The type of activity is also a factor. Last year a study conducted by Camerer and his colleagues showed that creating a handwashing habit took a few weeks, compared with the half year it took for people to develop an exercise habit. Handwashing, the study noted, is less complex than exercising and offers more opportunities to practice. The researchers also suggested that habit formation depends on the effort that a person puts into practicing an activity and on the presence of environmental cues that would remind them to carry out the behavior.

8 . Ask any parents of young children whether they’ve ever felt overwhelmed (不堪重负的), and the answer will probably be — yes. Even in the most relaxed households there can be days when things seem to be out of control, leaving parents exhausted and annoyed. Kids often don’t have an off button or a quiet voice.

Common as this feeling is, there’s a personality trait (特点) that can make everyday family life more overwhelming for some parents. Roughly 20%-30% of the population are classed as being a highly sensitive person, according to a 2018 research. People who have it may find it hard to cope with bright lights and loud noise, and feel very stressful. It can also involve a stronger understanding of other people’s feelings — empathy (同情).

According to the psychologists, being highly sensitive is not a disorder but a personality trait — a way of responding to one’s environment. “Generally, highly sensitive people tend to react particularly strongly to sensory stimulation. They have stronger consciousness. They come to realize more details,” says Michael Pluess, a psychologist specializing in the study. “They will pick up on the moods of other people, have higher empathy, process things more deeply and pick up more about the environment. Deeply affected by what they see and feel, highly sensitive people are also easily overstimulated.”

The challenges highly sensitive parents face — including stress and overstimulation in a messy environment — can affect “high quality parenting”. In the early stages of parenthood, such parents report greater stress and find parenting more difficult than other parents do.

Fortunately, though, the trait also comes with certain advantages. Recent evidence suggests that while highly sensitive parents initially experienced high levels of stress, they showed improved parenting styles by the time their babies were nine months old. In the short term, sensitive people are more easily overwhelmed with change, but when it comes to parenting, highly sensitive parents have the potential to be exceptional. They can understand their children and respond to their needs quickly and appropriately.

Since parental overwhelm can affect anyone, whether highly sensitive or not, some of the coping strategies for highly sensitive people could benefit all parents.

Children learn best when the significant adults in their lives—parents, teachers, and other family and community members—work together to encourage and support them. This basic fact should be a guiding principle as we think about how schools should be organized and how children should be taught. Schools alone cannot address all of a child’s developmental needs: the meaningful involvement of parents and support from the community are essential.

The need for a strong partnership between schools and families to educate children may seem like common sense. In simpler times, this relationship was natural and easy to maintain. Teachers and parents were often neighbors and found many occasions to discuss a child’s progress. Children heard the same messages from teachers and parents and understood that they were expected to uphold the same standards at home and at school.

As society has become more complex and demanding, though, these relationships have all too often fallen by the wayside. Neither educators nor parents have enough time to get to know one another and establish working relationships on behalf of children. In many communities, parents are discouraged from spending time in classrooms and educators are expected to consult with family members only when a child is in trouble. The result, in too many cases, is misunderstanding, mistrust, and a lack of respect, so that when a child falls behind, teachers blame the parents and parents blame the teachers.

At the same time，our society has created artificial distinctions （区别）of the roles that parents and teachers should play in a young person’s development. We tend to think that schools should stick to teaching academics and that home is the place where children’s moral and emotional development should take place.

Yet children don’t stop learning about values and relationships when they enter a classroom, nor do they cease learning academics— and attitudes about learning —when they are at home or elsewhere in their community.

These days, it can take extraordinary efforts to build strong relationships between families and educators. Schools have to reach out to families, making them feel welcome as full partners in the educational process. Families, in turn, have to make a commitment of time and energy to support their children both at home and at school.