Mandarin Chinese is a language alive and well among the students at Sandusky High School who are taking the elective this year via Interactive Distance Learning. The class is taught by Fanghong Yu, through East Central Ohio Educational Service Center, and is proctored by Mrs. Carol Barone. This is a daily class that takes place in Mr. Bernie Seiler’s room where Distance Learning equipment was already in place.
Dr. Sally Roth, Curriculum Director, visited the classroom and witnessed an amazing display of interactive teaching via Distance Learning. The students were all engaged, orderly and attentive to the teacher whom they could see on one television monitor while she was viewing them at the same time on her monitor. From the moment the Distance Learning Bridge (electronic connection) began, students and teacher interacted. There was not one moment of down time as, one by one students, were called upon, by their Chinese names, to recite and respond, to lead the class, to dialogue with the teacher or with each other.
After class, two students agreed to be interviewed, Harley Beesy, an astute Freshman, and Kym Gray, a very confident Junior. Both told why they like the class. Harley likes it because he finds it interesting and “different”. The homework consists of practice and preparation by listening to a CD each day. Kym especially likes the class because of the novelty of Interactive Distance Learning which she finds “very interesting” as a learning method. The idea of being on camera did not seem to phase the students at all; they appeared to react to the teacher, and she to them, as if they were all together in the same room, as a normal classroom setting would work. Both Mrs. Barone and Dr. Roth commented that the students have learned so much in just one week of lessons. Mandarin is a very difficult language, with many levels of inflection and tonal changes. The students worked hard to master this week’s sounds and meanings. They are off to a wonderful start on this new adventure at Sandusky City Schools, a 21st century technology integration pilot that has already paid off in students’ minds.