英语专业晨读美文-文化篇 12 Game Show

[00:02.60]Could a Game Show Format 1 Work at University

[00:05.43]Educators, are you ready? Hands on your buzzers 3.

[00:10.64]Here we go with our first starter for 10:

[00:13.56]do television quiz show formats 4 offer a useful tool for teaching?

[00:17.91]Anyone? Well, OK, it was a bit of a tricky 5 one.

[00:21.60]But the correct answer is yes, or so says

[00:24.38]at least one international institution of higher education.

[00:27.48]Some British universities, already under fire for dumbing down,

[00:31.64]may be wary 6 of the idea. Others may be susceptible 7

[00:35.82]to the showbiz appeal of a bit of classroom University Challenge.

[00:39.90]In America, the Montgomery County Community College

[00:43.78]has discovered that tuning 8 into the format

[00:46.28]of a popular television quiz show adds a bit of extra relevance 9,

[00:50.47]and fun, to its student review sessions.

[00:53.57]At the college's annual technology conference

[00:56.74]in Utah this week, computer science instructor 10

[00:59.83]Patricia Rahmlow explained how she divides

[01:03.02]her students into teams, handing each an electronic buzzer 2

[01:06.73]while cueing the theme music of the popular quiz programme,

[01:09.85]Jeopardy, to create the right ambience

[01:12.71]as she and her teaching colleagues fire off the day's questions.

[01:16.03] The winning team gets 10 points

[01:18.68]of additional credit for their efforts.

[01:20.81]Among the software available for such sessions is

[01:24.30]the rather nifty-looking Gameshow Prep,

[01:26.07]which allows educators to set up their own

[01:28.65]“universal question library” that stores questions,

[01:32.41]information about the various teams and players,

[01:34.71]point values for correct answers, logo graphics 11,

[01:39.11]themes and opening music.

[01:40.73]Another academic institution uses

[01:43.26]something similar for its Shakespeare classes.

[01:45.75](And for the not-so-faint of heart,

[01:48.12]here's another American institution

[01:50.40]that incorporates a television show format

[01:53.11]into its pedagogical bag of tricks.)

[01:54.99]And why not? For more than a decade now,

[01:58.75]some scholars have argued for the intellectual benefits

[02:01.86]of allowing young people a greater exposure to

[02:05.12]the likes of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and even Wheel of Fortune.

[02:09.14]Bringing the same format into the classroom

[02:12.46]may sound a little desperate, but who's to say that,

[02:15.34]used judiciously 12, it can't jolly things along.

[02:18.31]As Rahmlow told the recent American conference,

[02:21.51]she had never had students ask her

[02:24.53]“when are we going to do the review?”

[02:26.45]until she took the televisual plunge 13.

[02:28.68]Ready for the next question? Marvellous.

[02:32.73]Oh wait, I think I hear a gong. We've run out of time.