Lecturer Shawn Yeo and his fellow instructors had the most active Module Blog in the previous Academic Year. He has graciously taken the time to share how he used the blog in his CL2280 Basic Translation module. This module introduces students to entry-level translation and interpretation of Mandarin to English and vice-versa. Here is what Shawn has to say:
Basically, I use it as an extended platform to my lectures and tutorials. The first thing I noticed about this virtual platform is that it makes classroom time management less pressurizing. In the past, when I spent more time on a topic, I would have to go faster, or cut short some relevant discussions in order to cover all the topics for that particular session. Now I have the luxury to develop a concept gradually or allow a discussion to go into finer details. Anything not covered within the given time can be posted on the blog for elaboration or discussion.
I use the blog to introduce topics not covered by the module but nonetheless useful to my students. I post for-information articles to bring about awareness in certain aspects of translation. I also intend to post lengthy articles not included as modular reading materials in response to questions raised by students, when the need arises.
I post questions related to current topics under discussion, and encourage students to attempt. Students’ participation is not mandatory, but their performance on the blog is assessed. After a discussion is closed, I print out all the messages posted under the thread and assess them.
I find it most useful to post ad-hoc questions on the blog. In the past, I would collect interesting translations from day-to-day sources, e.g., newspaper, the Internet, and TV and radio programs, and discuss them in my lectures/tutorials. According to the students’ feedback, such discussions are interesting and stimulating. However, they took up so much time that I sometimes ran short of time for my scheduled lessons. As a result, I had to cut back on these discussions. What a shame! Thanks to the blog, I can now post these questions at my convenience, and the students can reply to them when they are ready. It has been a win-win situation for us.
Students are encouraged to ask questions on the blog too, and they have posted questions directly related to specific lectures/tutorials/assignments. I understand that some students are shy by nature, and do not speak up in class even when they have something to contribute or clarify. On the blog, however, I notice that some less articulate students are amongst the more active participants. So, the blog has also become a platform for these students to come forward and share!
My students are also encouraged to initiate new discussions. They have actually taken the initiative to ask about translation issues not included as modular topics, especially those found in our daily life. For example, one of them started a discussion on the Chinese translation for the ‘Demonstration Area’ signs erected at Suntec City during the IMF conference here. Another sought her peers’ comments on the translation for the term ‘blog’, exploring the different translations used by PRC and ROC, the pros and cons of these terms, and why Singapore should use the PRC version instead of the ROC one.
Although the current blog setup does not allow our students to initiate a tread, i.e., they can only respond to messages posted by the manager of the blog, I have set up an all-purpose thread to allow them to do so. Specifically, they would start a discussion by posting a new message under the all-purpose thread, and I would start a new thread and move it there.
As far as possible, after starting a discussion, I let it run without interfering. The students are free to discuss amongst themselves, and I only come in when I perceive that the discussion is going nowhere. For the questions I post, I conclude them when I think enough has been said. When concluding, I comment on everyone’s contribution as far as possible.
I have discussed the issue of moderator intervention with a few active participants of my blog, asking them if they prefer to see my presence during their discussions. Most think the lecturer should come in to provide directions when things are not moving, or at least at the end of the discussion to provide some form of conclusion.
Judging from the view count and comment count, I think the students’ response to the use of blog is encouraging. However, as one of them put it, blogging for discussion is interesting but VERY time-consuming. I, as a lecturer, do feel the same.
I do notice that of the 144 students, about 30 – 40 of them are active participants. The rest just read and contribute only occasionally. I definitely want more of them to contribute, but at this stage, I am happy that at least the rest of the cohort show a keen interest and are following closely. (We have 145 students, but some of the treads have a view count of 350 – 450!)
