The Classroom Part 2. Technology

It is possible that our higher educational system has become a bit dependent on technology. I, of course, do not really think so because that would mean admitting that I personally am overdependent on technology and that just is not going to happen. However, I am getting one hell of a crash course on what a professional life with minimal technology is like. In the United States pretty much the first thing that happens when you enroll in a University is that you get an email address. We use that email address for corresponding with the school, with professors, and for pretty much everything really. We use system likes Blackboard and TWEN to manage assignments and online classes. Here they are not using email systems like that. In fact, when I required my students to write down their email addresses for me so I could contact them about 1/3 of them did not have an email address of any kind. The remaining students did not know their email addresses by memory. This means the only reliable way I have of contacting my students is by phone, which I do not consider a choice at all. It is odd, the Chinese classroom is a combination both of a disregard for available teaching technology and an utter dependence on technology for some other aspects of teaching. The primary teaching method used in the University is the power point. Oh excuse me, I mean the ppt. If you say power point they will look at you like you sprouted a third head off your nose. When I say dependence, that is EXACTLY what I mean. A complete and utter dependence on ppt files. Teachers are required by the administration to use ppt files in their lecture and I have discovered that students have a real issue digesting material lectured to them in any form that does not involved a power point. This is my greatest challenge and the biggest point of contestation I have here. I loathe powerpoints. I loathe them with every fiber of my educational being. I consider them to be the laziest, most boring, and most useless method of conveying educational material that the evil demon gods of ivory tower ever conjured up. I think anything that can be told with a powerpoint could be told better in a different method. BUT, I have little recourse in the matter. I do not even have access to a printer and photocopier so I could use handouts. So, I do the best that I can and grumble and grouse every chance that I get about how terrible this is for the Chinese university system. (I truly do believe it is absolutely killing the ability of the Chinese University student to do any critical thinking.) Oh, and another thing, what makes having to use all those power point files so frustrating is the fact that the freaking computers processing power would be stretched playing a rousing game of pong. Firstly, a problem exists because, well, you know, the computers are in Chinese. This is a bit of a hurdle if you do not read it. Fortunately for me I have spent so many hours in front of a computer that not being able to read the OS does not really hamper me from doing whatever I want to do. Being able to navigate the Chinese computer may actually be the only thing I have done thus far that has impressed my students, but I digress. The problem is truly that this computers have just worked to hard and to long to still put off their job easily. So, everyday is an adventure. Everyday you get something new here and anytime a problem comes up you get to try new and exciting ways to express a complete technological issue with grunting and hand gestures because its a certainty the tech guy will not speak English, and unless he has some beer with him that I can ask to drink my Chinese will be pretty useless. Thus, such is life. Tis never boring.

The Classroom Part 1

The college classroom in China is very different than college in the.....well...anywhere. The culture difference in the classroom is a huge problem, but this post focuses on just the difficulties and differences without even taking personalities into consideration. University in China, I think, is helping me understand a bit of what going to college sixty years ago must have been like. Obviously, truly that is a bit of an exaggeration, but, not by much. The buildings themselves are more akin to what we would expect to find in a particularly poor funded inner city school. They are dirty, nothing is in good shape, and everything is in one stage or another of "broken." What we would consider broken beyond use in the United States is still good for another year or two in a Chinese university. It is little stuff, dirty foot marks at the base of the wall, a broken chair in the corner that NEVER gets removed, desks and tables that are falling apart. Everything is always mismatched and paint is always flaking off of everything. Anything that is white turns a nice dingy shade of smog. However, this stuff you get used to. I don't even notice this anymore. Use, I miss the fact that my colleges in the United States provided a much more comfortable and clean environment, but I was really surprised how quickly I stopped noticing that. However, there are some other things that I am not so quick to forget. One, the buildings are not really classroom buildings like most Universities. They are open buildings, kind of designed a bit like a motel, with every door and window facing the elements, not a series of classrooms that open up into the building. There is no hallway, there is just a series of doors and stairs all of which is exposed to the hot or cold or rain. This takes some getting used to. Every time the classroom door opens it opens into the freezing cold wind in winter time. Which is not a good thing because the door does not shut snugly and the windows let in so much air they may as well not even be shut. This brings up another problem. The classrooms are not climate controlled. There is no cool air to keep us from sweating when it is 100 with 100% humidity. There is also no heat to keep us warm when it gets cold. The climate here is exactly like Arkansas, so, you know that means we get all the nice temperature extremes. The building design is really good in the hot but bad in the winter. When it is hot outside the open building design allows for a nice breeze to circulate and lets the heat escape so it doesn't get to hot. In winter however, it kinda sucks. Since it allows for a nice breeze to circulate and lets the heat escape so it doesn't get to hot. See, great for summer, bad for winter. Fortunately I am generally not impressed with cold weather. Alright, next post will address the really bad stuff, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Until Next Time, J