Week 8 Reflection

Hong Kong's amended copyright law: a guide for teachers and students

The leaflet highlights some of the changes of Copyright Ordinance that affect teachers and students. I think the most important message is the “fair dealing” exemption which allows us, teachers and students to use or deal with reasonable portions of copyright works in a pair manner for our teaching and learning. Examples are also given which make me have a better understanding of the Ordinance.

When I was a secondary student, my teachers used to photocopy the past papers of the HKCEE and the HKAL for us but now we can’t do that and students have to buy their own copies. I also remember that my some of my classmates would photocopy the whole textbook because it was much cheaper than buying one. However, students cannot do that now because it infringes copyright. In recent years, people have shown more concerns for copyright. My school brought up this issue in one of the staff meetings. Also, the panel chair keeps reminding us that we should not infringe copyright when preparing exercises or setting tests. We must be very cautious when using copyright materials.

Week 6 Reflection

THEORY-DRIVEN CALL AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

The author aims to establish a clearer understanding of the relationship between theory and application of CALL by exploring the implications of theory-driven CALL in relation to the materials development process.

The literature shows that the development process of instructional design is prescriptive and is always based on an instructional theory. The generic model suggests that there are three stages: the analysis phase, the development or synthesis phase and the evaluation phrase. For the development of CALL, Meskill outlines a systematic approach and I agree with her that the initial thinking of the media to be used is important. It would be better to consider the technology early rather than late.

The author also summarizes the results of the CALL Survey. If I had to answer the questionnaire, I would say that I usually use CALL materials for lower level tasks or problems. I think I am a proceduralist rather than a formalist which means that I prefer to solve problems by writing programs instead of solving problems by formulating theory. However, when using CALL materials, we have to strike a balance between technology and theories.