GROUND-ZERO EDUCATION, STANDARDIZED CURRICULA, AND TECHNOLOGY

There's truth in the sales adage ... "When need meets passion, sparks fly!"

Thus, my chief aim in designing THE FUNANCHILL TIMES™ material parked on a private (for now at least) wikispaces.com is to engage the interest of notoriously "shy" students (at least about speaking English) through their "loves".

For example, more than anything, boys (of all ages) love delicious food, so I've found one idea that works ... "express tickets" into the school caf (it offers the most delicious food in all Korea!!!) is a greatly treasured privilege for these young men. So, once a week, for 45 minutes, many of them manage to overcome their shyness and even have some fun by competing in teams (as opposed to individuals) in an "English language game show" -type environment. Up until last week, my material was strictly from the book. The 3-day national holiday -- Chuseok -- has given me an opportunity to create a wiki with technology-based materials.

At this point, the Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development views English as a Foreign Language AND, more importantly, as a communications tool .

So, although participation, not perfection, is a start, by 2008, students must also begin to do well in the international language testing's English "speaking" skill component.

Thus, students will soon benefit from much more than 45-minutes per week of exposure to native English Language Instructors.

In South Korea, compulsory education ends in middle school, so some don't even get a high school degree! Those who don't get sufficient English miss out on competing to get into universities. So, for years, those Korean parents who can afford it, send their kids to the best "hagwons" ...i.e., "English language academies" ... an expensive proposition in both time and money. Many kids go from specialized hagwon to specialized hagwon and get home at 10 pm!

An even greater expense is sending their kids overseas to learn English.

So, of course, I'd really like to tap into my middle school students' expertise in computer games, and other ICT, as another way to overcome their notorious "shyness" about speaking English.

QUESTIONS ABOUT TECHNOLGY The bottom-line for parents (and teachers and school principals) is RESULTS ... i.e., improving students' academic performance!

On the other hand, Asian students absolutely love playing computer games.

So, essentially, there's a huge market waiting to be tapped in Asia ... we need computer games (or iTunes or whatever technology) based on the standardized EFL public curricula. Sure, that's a difficult and time-consuming proposition ... but, that's what it takes when educating children at K-12 - we're building at ground-zero. Thus, the foundation for a lifetime of learning must be built on more than hapharzard materials from technology.

If these computer games can help students both learn for the long haul and pass their exams, WOW! Are there any such games in exisitence? If so, let me know! If not, why not?
To that end, I'm motivated to participate in the process of collaborative sharing of teaching-learning ideas, methods, and best practices. I'm especially interested in big ideas related to the acquisition of the English language by speakers of other languages in a format that has been standarized to public education curricula.

I'm currently a member of social education networks, including The Canadian Language & Literacy Research Network http://cllrnet.ca , Education Ning http://education.ning.com and, of course, Classroom 2.0.