December 3, 2014 karinawp

Apart from the Chinese Testing International website, where you can download past papers, I’m only aware of two online HSK preparation websites: Global Exam and Hello HSK. Global Exam is a fee-paying platform. So I’m likely to try Hello HSK as part of my winter study plan. I will post a review of the website…

December 2, 2014 karinawp

Following my experience volunteering at the London 2012 Olympics, I am hoping to do it all over again at Rio in 2016. I’m very excited about this prospect and would love to improve (and use) my Chinese skills at the Games.

December 2, 2014 karinawp

MA DTLT 2014 Group Flipgrid Questions! This week one of our tasks was to select an article from the University of Nottingham library about social media use in the language classroom. We were required to make a simple presentation giving details of the main aim of the study, the students involved, the social media tools…

November 29, 2014 karinawp

Background At the end of November I attended a talk at the AmCham China Conference Center in Beijing, examining why education has failed to keep up with the fundamental changes driven by  new technologies. The speaker, Noel Thomas, Co-Principal of Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS Beijing), provided some insightful analysis on the current…

November 27, 2014 karinawp

The Social Web One of the core readings this week, Future Learning Landscapes: Transforming Pedagogy through Social Software by McLoughlin and Lee (2008), highlights the challenges of integrating social software tools into learning environments. Social learning is an ideal that strongly resonates with me. Indeed, my PLE demonstrates the emphasis I place on human interaction…

November 27, 2014 karinawp

Accessing Online Libraries This week we were challenged with finding an academic article about the use of social media in the language classroom and creating a presentation (in PowerPoint) based on the article. The task helped to develop my skills in acessing and searching the University of Nottingham’s online academic libraries. Knowing that one of…

November 22, 2014 karinawp

Background One evening I spoke with a friend about a theory I had about the ‘newness’ of the Chinese language being learned on an international scale and the lack of experience of native Chinese speakers listening to non-natives speaking their language. My theory goes that a lack of experience on the side of the native…