NEW WAYS TO TEACH AND LEARN IN CHINA AND FINLAND - CROSSING BOUNDARIES WITH TECHNOLOGY Eds. Hannele Niemi, PhD., Professor of Education, University of Helsinki, Finland, [email protected] & Jiyou Jia, PhD., Professor, Department of Educational Technology, School of Education, Peking University, China, [email protected] 1 Table of contents: Preface and Acknowledgements What are New Ways to Teach and Learn in China and Finland? Hannle Niemi and Jiyou Jia VIRHE. KIRJANMERKKIÄ EI OLE MÄÄRITETTY. PART 1. STUDENTS AS KNOWLEDGE AND ART CREATORS IN DIGITAL FORUMS 15 1. Using Smart Phones to improve the Classroom Instruction of University Students 15 Jiyou Jia 2. Student-driven knowledge creation through Digital Storytelling 30 Marianna Vivitsou, Veera Kallunki, Hannele Niemi, Johanna Penttilä and Vilhelmiina Harju 3. Beyond the Classroom: Future Music Education through Technology 30 Inkeri Ruokonen and Heikki Ruismäki 4. Faculty of Medicine as a Mobile Learning Community 51 Eeva Pyörälä, Teemu Masalin and Heikki Hervonen 5. E-Schoolbag Use in Chinese Primary Schools: Teachers’ Perspectives 101 Fengkuang Chiang, Shuhan Jiang, Mingze Sun and Yana Jiang 6. An E-learning Project for Language Instruction in China Virhe. Kirjanmerkkiä ei ole määritetty. Bao-Ping Li, Xiao-Qing Li and Lulu Sun 7. A Study on the Online Learning Behaviors of Secondary School Students 141 Xiaomeng Wu PART 2. PERSONALIZED LEARNING SUPPORT IN THE DIGITALIZED ERA 155 8. Finnish Digital Learning Support for Children with Learning Difficulties in MathematicsVirhe. Kirjanmerkkiä ei ole määritetty. Pirjo Aunio 9. Supporting Hospitalized Children’s Agency and Learning Through Digital Technologies and Media 169 Kristiina Kumpulainen and Tarja-Riitta Hurme 10. Game-based Inquiry Learning: Design and Application 189 Lu Zhang, Yu Jiang, Morris Siu Yung Jong and Junjie Shang 11. Personalized Learning in Early Education in the Digitalized Era (title may change) 208 Daniel Chen PART 3. DIGITALIZATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS 224 12. Teachers as Researchers: Current Trends and Hot Topics 224 Shelly Zong, Jingjing Jiang and Yizhou Fan 2 13. Promoting Meaningful Science Teaching and Learning Through ICT in the LUMA (STEM) Ecosystem 252 Maija Aksela, Jenni Vartiainen, Maiju Tuomisto, Jaakko Turkka, Johannes Pernaa and Sakari Tolppanen 14. Designing the First Finnish MOOCs 276 Otto Seppälä, Juha Sorva and Arto Vihavainen 15. Learning Analytics 298 Jari Multisilta and Ari Korhonen Epilogue Crossing Boundaries with Technology Jiyou Jia and Hannele Niemi AUTHORS 3 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In 2014, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland signed the Learning Garden agreement with the intention to establish synergies among various projects and agents involved in Sino-Finnish education cooperation. The University of Helsinki has promoted cooperation with Chinese universities as one of its strategic aims. In late 2014, the mutual understanding between the University of Helsinki and Peking University was updated and signed, and in November 2015 the University of Helsinki and Beijing Normal University decided to establish the joint Sino-Finnish Learning Innovation Institute for cooperation in educational issues in both countries. The editors and authors of this book want to thank the ministries of both countries for the important initiative and for their systematic cooperation. This book is a product of a research collaboration between Chinese and Finnish researchers, especially in the area of educational technology. During the last two years, researchers have held several joint symposiums and conferences in both Peking and Helsinki. It has been amazing how much we have learned from one another despite the vastly different scales of our two countries. All authors are very grateful to their own universities for providing an opportunity for inspiring international collaboration. The Finnish researchers also want to thank the Finnish funding agencies, the National Agency for Technology and Innovations (Tekes) and the Academy of Finland, which have supported the development of educational technology in Finnish educational settings in recent years. The Tekes project Finnable 2020 at the University of Helsinki has been especially important to this book. As editors we want to thank all authors for their constructive and fruitful cooperation. We would also like to extend our thanks to our research assistant Pauli Peräinen, who has been an excellent help in technical editorial work and in the communication between the researchers from both countries. In addition, the Chinese authors also want to express their deepest thanks to Professor Hannele Niemi for her devotion to and persistence in the joint research and this book. She has borne the main responsibility for finding resources and editing this book for a wider international audience. We hope that this book will encourage the active cooperation between China and Finland in the future. In Helsinki and Peking, May 6, 2016 Hannele Niemi Jiyou Jia Ph.D. Professor of Education Ph.D. Professor of Education University of Helsinki Peking University Finland China 4 What are New Ways to Teach and Learn in China and Finland? Hannele Niemi University of Helsinki Jiyou Jia Peking University Current trends in the Chinese context Computer technology has been utilized in Chinese education since the 1980s, with audio-visual technology having been utilized since the 1950s. The growing popularity of the Internet and wired or wireless phone communication technology from the 1990s onwards brought a wider concept of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), which was then introduced into China and Chinese education. The Chinese-English word ‘informatization’ was invented by Chinese scholars at the end of the twentieth century and indicates the application and integration of ICT into other disciplines. For example, educational informatization means the application of ICT into education and the integration of ICT into education. In 2010, a national plan for educational reform and development was issued by the central government. This plan declared “ICT has a revolutionary impact on education” (MoE China, 2010). The national propaganda at this time demonstrated the government’s insistence on the high priority of ICT for educational reform and development. In 2012, the “Development Plan of Educational Informatization for the next decade (2011-2020)” was published by the Ministry of Education to concretize the policy and methods of promoting the application and integration of ICT into education (MoE China, 2012). Since then, with the steady increase of government expenditure on education, vast investment from central and provincial governments has gone to the application of ICT in education. For example, in Beijing’s Digital Campus Program, founded in 2009, 10,000 typical and outstanding lectures from primary and middle school teachers were recorded and aired on wired TV channels and uploaded to the Internet as ‘on demand’ programs, which could be freely accessed by pupils and teachers. Meanwhile, 100 schools were selected as “Experimental Digital Schools” and were granted an 5 investment of approximately 300,000 Euros to buy hardware such as notebooks, tablet computers, electronic whiteboards and educational software. From May 23 to May 25, 2015, the UNESCO and the Chinese Ministry of Education jointly held the International Conference of Educational Informatization in the city Qingdao in Shandong Province (MoE China, 2015). Educational officials, researchers, principals and school teachers as well as ICT companies from more than 90 countries came together to explore an effective approach to the integration of ICT into education and to examine the increased popularity of ICT usage in education. In the congratulation letters, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the construction of a digitalized education system based on the Internet for individual growth and life-long learning, the building of a learning community for every person for any time and any place, and the training of a large number of innovative talents. He also declared that educational informatization can help more schools, teachers and students to use excellent educational resources and enable billions of children to share quality education and change their own destiny with knowledge. On March 16, 2016, the National People’s Congress (Chinese Parliament) voted and passed the “thirteenth five-year plan for national economic and social development”. This plan aimed to enhance the educational level of all people and to promote the modernization of education. The concrete approaches detailed in this plan include the development of online education and distance learning, the integration of all kinds of educational digital resources and their service for society as a whole, and the deep integration of ICT with teaching and learning (National People’s Congress China, 2016). In addition to governmental investment, high enthusiasm and investment from the industrial and business sectors in form of venture capital have been extended to educational informatization, as investors hope to profit from related industries and businesses. Though many schools have been equipped with the latest hardware and software, and teachers are required and encouraged to use ICT in their teaching, there are still many problems with ICT application in China. The chapters in this book written by Chinese researchers attempt to address