I would like to talk about the social networking site-- Fan Fiction (http://www.fanfiction.net/) we explored in class this week. Again, like many other websites, it proved to me that the internet could provide more possibilities and opportunities than we could ever imagine. The forums had such a wide coverage of movies, cartoons, books, and TV shows all around the world in this website, and there were so many people discussing, creating, cooperating, sharing, and communicating in it, which had made it look like a whole different world to me. It further amazed me when I found there were people discussing and rewriting popular Chinese TV shows from the 1990s in English. Without the development of technology, this level of exchange and collaboration would have been unimaginable. Now that we have so much help at our fingertip, we could turn the previously impossible into the possible, but how to get the best out of it remains as our own responsibility.
4 comments:
Hi Rong,
Fan Fiction is quite a spectacular community. It's amazing how it has grown solely through individual contributions (i.e., there's no outside expert creating the material). How do you think this site could be used to teach a second language?
Hi Torrey,
Thank your for your comment. I would say Fan Fiction might be a good place for students to practice their L2 reading skills and observe culturally relatd genres and content, and it could also be suitable for writing practice for advanced level language learners.
Hi Rong,
I agree with you technology is moving rapidly and it's our responsibility to use it wisely!
I 'd also like to mention that technology has also helped many disabled people. One example is my brother in-law who is deaf. He goes online and calls a special person online (the software is similar to Skype). He uses sign language to communicate his need such as ordering a pizza, making a doctor’s appointment, etc.; the person on the other end makes all the phone calls for him. This has made my brother in-law’s life much easier especially that he his disabled and in a foreign country.
Warmly:-)
Sarah Alamoudi
Sarah -- that's really cool. What a neat development, and a great example of technology not only be used wisely but being created for the greater good.
The Fan Fiction was really fun, Rong. I agree that there are so many interesting possibilities for classroom use, and certainly for exposing students to new vocabulary and idioms in their target language while still making reading or writing relevant to their own interests.
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