时间:2018-12-15 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2008年(六)月


英语课

The growth of the Internet has led to new technologies. Many are being used today to create valuable learning environments in education. Transcript 1 of radio broadcast:
24 June 2008


VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we finish our three-part series about communications.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In our first two programs we discussed the history and importance of communicating information. We talked about the development of the Internet. This has made it possible for almost anyone with a computer to share in what is called the Information Age.

Research shows that the Internet's World Wide Web is especially popular with young people. As a result, colleges and universities are recognizing the learning gains that can be made with Web-based instructional technology. For example, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia offers its professors training in instructional technology. G.M.U. teachers can learn how to use the latest Web tools to improve their classes.

VOICE TWO:
 






Rick Reo




Rick Reo is an instructional designer at the university. He says the education profession has entered the Web 2.0 period. He says Web 2.0 is a marketing 2 term that defines 3 a renewal 4 of the Web since the start of the twenty-first century. Any kind of Web-driven tool that is interesting, useful, easy to learn and free is Web 2.0, says Rick Reo.

VOICE ONE:

One such tool is a social networking service. This is a Web site that helps people find others like themselves, create personal identities, exchange resources and work together. Facebook and MySpace are two social networking Web sites popular in the United States and around the world.

Educause is a nonprofit organization that supports the use of information technology in education. The group says up to ninety percent of American college students have created Facebook Web sites. Social networking sites also provide teachers a way to reach their students outside of the classroom. Rick Reo says students use Facebook or MySpace as often as they check their university e-mail.

VOICE TWO:

Social bookmarking is another Web 2.0 technology that has many educational uses. Professors can use the tool when doing personal research. It can also add to classroom learning. When you save the address of a Web site that you want to visit again on your computer, you are bookmarking it. Social bookmarking sites let people store collections of bookmarks. These can be shared with other people or made private.

When you bookmark a Web site, you also tag the site with descriptive words. For example, you might tag the voaspecialenglish.com Web site with the words: English, teaching, learning, news and information. Tags help users organize their bookmarks. Users can also see how many other people have used a tag. And they can search for all resources that have been given that tag.

Rick Reo says social bookmarking is especially useful when creating a collection of resources to be shared with others. A biology teacher, for example, might ask her students to bookmark Web sites about flowers and plants. The students work collectively to create the list. When it is finished, the students have a group of resources that will help them finish their project.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:
 






Different versions of Apple's iPod




Podcasting is also a very popular instructional technology. The term was invented with the Apple company's iPod in mind. IPods are small digital audio players that permit users to download music from their computer directly to the device for listening later.

The term podcasting no longer relates only to the iPod. It involves any software and hardware combination that permits the user to download audio files and control when those files are heard. Anyone with a modern computer can create, make available and download a podcast from the Internet.

VOICE TWO:
 






Professor Suzan Harkness works with an iPod at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington. She can record lectures as podcasts.




Podcasting also makes education transportable. Teachers can make their talks, or lectures, available to students who miss the class. Podcasts also let students hear what other experts have to say. Remember that biology teacher who asked her students to bookmark Web sites about flowers and plants? She might also ask her students to report about that collection of resources in a podcast.

Rick Reo says George Mason is one of many "iTunes universities" around the world. Apple has opened its iTunes store to universities. Podcasts created by the schools are stored on Apple's computer servers. Anyone can download the free educational material at Apple's iTunes store. Stanford, Yale, Duke, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are other universities offering audio and video downloads.

VOICE ONE:

Podcasts are fed to computers using a technology called RSS. Many creators of information on the Internet offer it directly to people using RSS feeds. Our biology teacher example might ask her students to register for RSS feeds from five popular science Web sites. To receive those feeds, students need to register for a free RSS reader, or aggregator. Google and MyYahoo both offer RSS readers.

Once the students register for a free RSS reader, a connection has to be made between the reader and the student's favorite science Web sites. Establishing these connections is called subscribing 5. It is easy to do. Just look for an RSS sign on the site.

Using RSS technology helps people easily get new material from Web sites that interest them. Did you know that Special English offers RSS feeds? You can find a link to RSS on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

VOICE TWO:

Wikis have also become a popular Web 2.0 technology in education. Let us go back to our biology class. Suppose the teacher decided 6 to take her class on a camping trip to collect plants and flowers. The students would need to work collectively to decide what to bring on the trip. A wiki can help. A wiki is a Web site where anyone can create, edit 7 or change information collected on the site. Audio, video and pictures can be added to a wiki as well.

VOICE ONE:

The most popular wiki on the Internet is Wikipedia. It is a free encyclopedia 8 of information about people, places, things, events and ideas that anyone can write, add to or edit. Wikipedia was launched in two thousand one. Today, it includes more than ten million articles in more than two hundred fifty languages. More than two million articles are in English. Each article offers links to other Wikipedia articles or to other Web resources.

Educause reports that Wikipedia is the eighth most visited Web site in the United States. College students use it as a main research tool. However many schools look at the tool with a critical eye. That is because a person can put incorrect information on Wikipedia. The history school at Middlebury College, for example, has banned Wikipedia in student research. The ban was ordered after several students repeated the same wrong information from a Wikipedia article.

Other universities are using Wikipedia to teach students how to write without expressing an opinion. At Columbia University in New York City, professors have had their students create or edit Wikipedia articles to learn how to write in a neutral way.

VOICE TWO:
 






Eighth grader Eyck Freymann works on his political blog from his home in New York




Perhaps the best known form of Web 2.0 activity is the Web log, or blog for short. There are reportedly more than one hundred million blogs around the world. A blog is an online collection of personal comments and links to other Web sites. Anyone can create a blog using sites like blogger.com or wordpress.com. Bloggers often work together in small communities. They read each other's posts, link to them or report what other bloggers say.

Each individual post on a blog can become a discussion through comments left by readers. There are personal blogs, political blogs and entertainment blogs, just to name a few. In higher education, professors use blogs to communicate their opinions or to create a discussion with other educators. Students are also using blogs for personal expression or as part of their classes.

VOICE ONE:

There are many other ways that information technology can be used in education. We have only reported about a few of them. For example, there are virtual 9 worlds and gaming, Web-based self-publishing and photo-sharing. When it comes to information technology in higher education, Rick Reo at George Mason University says the sky is the limit.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Jill Moss 10. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.



1 transcript
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书
  • A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
  • They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。
2 marketing
n.行销,在市场的买卖,买东西
  • They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
  • He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。
3 defines
规定( define的第三人称单数 ); 使明确; 精确地解释; 画出…的线条
  • This name defines us all. 这个名字造就了我们。 来自演讲部分
  • The range of incomes over which this happens defines the 'poverty trap'. 发生在这种情况的收入范围,称为“贫困陷阱。”
4 renewal
adj.(契约)延期,续订,更新,复活,重来
  • Her contract is coming up for renewal in the autumn.她的合同秋天就应该续签了。
  • Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。
5 subscribing
v.捐助( subscribe的现在分词 );签署,题词;订阅;同意
  • I am subscribing for some of the books of a book club. 我预订了几本这家书刊俱乐部出版的书。 来自辞典例句
  • I am glad to have such a pleasant opportunity of subscribing myself. 今后益望努力前途,为国效力。 来自互联网
6 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
7 edit
vt.编辑,校订,主编,编辑,剪辑(影片等)
  • You'll have to edit that tape,it's too long.那盘录音带太长,你得把它剪辑一下。
  • It is not yet decided who will edit it.由谁校订未决。
8 encyclopedia
n.百科全书
  • The encyclopedia fell to the floor with a thud.那本百科全书砰的一声掉到地上。
  • Geoff is a walking encyclopedia.He knows about everything.杰夫是个活百科全书,他什么都懂。
9 virtual
adj.实质上的,事实上的,实际上的
  • This reply is a virtual acceptance of our offer.这一回答实质上是接受了我们的建议。
  • At that time the East India Company was the virtual ruler of Bengal.那时东印度公司是孟加拉的实际统治者。
10 moss
n.苔,藓,地衣
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
学英语单词
analytical syntax
appended procedure
argoed
atrichopogon pruinosus
bag men
ballahs
bash sb up
befall
BIL(basic impulse insulation level)
Biscaya
butter-bowzy
clamped amplifier
coded instruction
Corylopsis veitchiana
cpls
credit exemption
cross one's palm
crucial use of variable
deines
denigrates
die making
dimethylphenosafranine
doodies
dummy riser
duplex bag
edge surface
elasmobranchian
endogenous hormone
energy energy release
etopic testis
final climbout speed
flood control storage
free-minded
Front panel connector
genus Symphoricarpos
green index number
green ormer
gunn (diode) source
hasty expedient road
Hupyong
hydraulic jetting
hydrogen blower
hypsochromic
input data selection
ivoriness
joysticking
kinetic art
L-Hydroxyproline
landing simulation
legitimacy status of children
linearity control circuit
macrodome
mamola
manure conveyor
MAOT
Marizile
medialised
microdiffusion analyser
monoxygenase
multiarray
Narathiwat, Changwat
neoprene glove
night sky radiation
off-minded
one-hand
pachometry
paillasses
perflate
pipers
pissing around
plexus rectalis cranialis
polarization battery
polycyclic relief
Prefox
profos
propellerlike
proper cut set
pslra
qat
queer-bashing
respiratory arrest
reticular layer of skin
right of offset
rilozarone
Rφksund
Saxifraga yunlingensis
scartella emarginata
sebcs
slow storage
Sobralite
sturnella magnas
swear sb to silence
tetragon-trisoctahedron
threw her weight around
trip setting
turns loose
Tycho Brahe
variable free expression
waziristans
wine-maker's yeast
yield stresses
zero-type dynamometer