I found Dr. Zhao's podcast very interesting. I agreed with many points that he made. Our students live in a digital world and we need to address that in their education. We also need to teach them how to interact on a global level. I agree with Dr. Zhao that students in Europe are much more adept in these two areas. I spent a year travelling and volunteering in schools in Europe in 1994 and even then I was very impressed with their educational system. Students seemed to be dedicated and driven to succeed. By the time they reach high school they know their career path. Many students spoke multiple languages. I think that the US needs to stop thinking that we have a superior system and start looking at other ways of education. I loved Dr. Zhao's comment that we send more band to Europe than we do educators. I feel we have so much to learn from other countries if we would just take the opportunity to do so.
I also agree with Dr. Zhao that we need to re-think the educational benefits of gaming. I find it very interesting that he created a game to teach Mandarin. I truly believe that we need to stop resisting this technological society and embrace it and make our educational system work with it and use it to benefit all students
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I noticed the comment about sending more bands abroad than teachers. Why are we as teachers not encouraged to explore other countries for ideas to bring home? I know of a teacher who completely on her own applied to teacher for a year in another country so that she could learn more about how they do things. Wouldn't that be great?
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