Reflections on ICT used by former teachers

To be honest, back in my school days, I've never met a teacher who used ICT for any of the lessons I have attended. My first observation of usage of ICT in classroom teaching was during my school attachment at First Toa Payoh Secondary School in 2008.
I attended a classroom observation of a chinese teacher, Mdm Tan's class, where she was teaching a chinese text from a secondary three higher chinese textbook called 《八十怀古》by季羡林. The students who took higher chinese were mainly students from China, who have a relatively strong foundation in Chinese language.

To make chinese teaching more interesting and alive, Mdm Tan showed videos introducing the author 季羡林 to the class. Mdm Tan was able to get the students interest in knowing the author's life and background, and it enhanced and spurs the student's interest in knowing the text. Though it's a simple gesture and video, it makes teaching and learning alive, and it ignites the interest in students to want to learn more about the author after class, for students may want to read other texts and books written by the author to know more about him.

I've only have had been to a few classroom observations, and thus it would be inappropriate for me to comment on how ICT is being used effectively in classroom teaching currently. I can only thus talk about a few ideas that I have of how ICT can be used in more ways in the teaching of the Chinese Language. For example, it would be great if ICT is used in the teaching of Chinese words, where students will get to be shown and they will get to understand the evolution of the Chinese words through the centuries. Chinese characters are sinographs that evolutes from the traditional oracle bone scripts. Thus, knowing how the original oracle bone script is drawn of a certain word, students can get to better grasp the semantics of the Chinese characters. This will provide them with a deeper impression of how the Chinese character is written.

It would also be great if ICT can be used in the teaching of literature. As we do know, when we present a text to a student, we need to talk about the author's background, the time period when the text is written, and the location or country of stay of the author. A programme can be drawn out, which provides students with a visual understanding of time and space. With a better understanding of the text's author background, the time era when it was written, the historical events happening then, and the geographical location and societal culture and customs of the place where it was written, students may get to better appreciate the text and it increases their interest to learn more. Using ICT in teaching may actually spurs interest, encourage self-learning, and is in line with the 'teach less, learn more' policy.