英国华威大学 - 西外IGGY项目

2014-03-14

    由英国华威大学主办的“天才少年工作室”全球竞选活动在去年1月拉开帷幕，上海外国语大学西外外国语学校有幸被选入竞选学校参赛队伍。该大学为英国排名第8，全球商学院排名第26，全球排名前50，其预科班曾为剑桥，牛津大学输送过无数优秀学子，而IGGY组织是由英国WARWICK大学成立的志在培养全球天才少年的项目。该大学拥有激励发展并培育天才少年的历史，最初是有其英国政府资助给予优秀学生以培养其特殊才能。当政府资助停止后华威大学义不容辞投入并承接了这个培养全球精英的使命。到今天为止，IGGY组织已网络天下奇才建立了五方八达的资源库和网络系统，IGGY组织每年都会以论文和网络面试形式在全球挑选10位精英少年，最初的程序是要求学生上传有关大家共同关心的时事话题以论文形式进行阐述，主办方根据论文内容，表达方式和个性展示竞选一批学生参加网络面试。本次参赛的主题是“科技与教育”，参赛者必须表达其对现今教育体制和科技利用提出其独到的见解，选手们的见解将被一一审阅，而挑出的十位全球少年将组成一工作室，以团队形式完成研究工作和相关论文，他们的见解将被送达国际政要如美国总统奥巴马，英国首相梅杰等，他们代表着年轻一代对个人，对人生和对地球生存发展的思考和愿景。获胜者除了有机会面对不同国家天才少年进行头脑风暴，还能拥有人生中无比挑战的体验以及获得为期一个月在美国和英国的学习交流活动。因此，整个参赛过程漫长，复杂，专业而又紧张。2013年时上海外国语大学西外外国语学校被选入参加IGGY国际赛事的第一年，高中国际部挑选了15位优秀学生参赛，从今年2月着手准备，高中国际部全体外教出动指导学生，大家的努力和付出没有白付，西外学生出乎意料地获得了好成绩，高二（4）班的徐雨沁（Angela)，田野(Anthony)，高一（4）班的程茜仪(Anna)淘汰了许多全球竞赛选手，顺利进入网络面试环节。这样的胜利代表着西外的学术实力和团队精神，我们希望国际部能坚持着创新，知识，健康的发展目标，肩负培养世界公民的使命，迈着大步伐坚定地往前走。多年后，或许就在我们的身边，就会有一个改变着世界的伟大人物，即便不是成就着丰功伟绩，也是一个有着正确人生观和价值观，懂得追求卓越，责任和使命感的人物。

Work Show of Applicant

VITO ZHANG’ S IGGY ESSAY

To IGGY judge & advisory panel:

It is a great pleasure to submit the application to compete to be a junior commissioner. I am a grade 10 student from Xiwai international school in Shanghai China.  I am privileged to be in the Honor Class, which is only for the top 12 students out of 120 peers in grade 10. I’m one of only two boys in the H class. Actually when I received the notification to join the H class, I was very surprised, because I was quite a troublemaker. My Economics teacher said to me ‘there’s no doubt that smartness is one of your strengths, but it gradually gets you into the bad habit of only making effort at the last minute. However, you have tremendous potential.’  Now, I’m making my efforts to change my bad habits and hope to develop my potential fully.

Academically, I tend to be more interested in lessons such as Social Studies, Economics, History and English literature. I found that my English proficiency has been greatly developed over the past few years by taking the Advanced Program in English in our school. My IELTS score reached 6.0, which is the highest level in grade 10, but my ambition is to reach IELTS 7.0 in 1-2 years.

As an energetic boy aged 16, I like sports, music, traveling, and above all, I am curious about everything to do with digital technology. I have made a few videos and music remixes for school activities. Without having a software-programming course in our school, my solution is to self-study online videos course to learn the techniques. During the weekend I go to the Apple store to take their One-to-One program to practice more using new apps. I’m always fascinated about making creative digital works by applying new media. To me, the exploration of technology is great fun and I am never been bored of serving others with my skills.

Social activities are also an important part of my life. The most inspiring and meaningful experiences I have had were at my volunteer program at a non-profit organization during my winter and summer holidays.  The Little Angel Action Fund of China Youth Development Foundation (http://www.gooood.hk/_d275452232.htm) offers different educational programs than school classes. Students will take creative workshops, lecturers, DIY and outdoor activities in the form of a youth camp.. The second program was hosted in the China Museum of Digital Arts  (http://www.field.io/exhibition/china-museum-of-digital-art) in Beijing with a theme of Discover a Better Self. The LAA team provides new kinds of educational tools to children and teenagers and is open to the local community and disadvantaged families. My role is to assist the professional educators and instructors to deliver the workshops, which have been carefully designed to integrate technology into arts and culture. I must say that I gained much more than I contributed as I have actually discovered my better self through these experiences.

The reason why I’m interested in becoming an IGGY junior commissioner is that this will be a great chance for me to get in touch with the best students from all around the world. This is an awesome opportunity but also a huge challenge for me as well.  Also, making a difference in future education has always been one of my dreams, even a little one. And I’m always curious to discover innovations in life.  How great it will be to make education better by using modern technology.

To be honest, I’ve never written a 2000 word long essay, but I’ll try my best! If I am lucky enough to get the chance to be a junior commissioner, I’d like to gather all the students that have the same ambition, set a goal, analyze the advantages and disadvantages of them, contact each other regularly, and get a close relationship between everybody. It might seem to be a ‘mission impossible’ for us young kids to make a change and difference that influences the entire world, but I do believe that through our persistent efforts step by step, we will definitely reach our goal at the end.

With the development of the modern technology, the Internet has become the most important part of everyone’s life. And almost everything is based around the Internet, getting massive amounts of information, receiving and sending massages, sharing documents and so on. There has been a debate recently: Should students have open access to the Internet in school? As everybody knows, it will help a lot and gives huge opportunities to get information if there is internet in school, students can do research online, and maybe even do their assignments on the computer and hand them in by e-mail. Surely it will be very convenient if the Internet is allowed, but are there any disadvantages or challenges? As you know there is a huge amount of children addicted to Internet games.  What if students use the Internet to play games? There is no doubt that it will have a negative influence on their study and waste time and money. The same problem will probably happen with social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.  One can imagine that students will spend much time on looking up what’s new or chatting online with others without being noticed by teachers. These distractions will absolutely affect their study and maybe even influence other students. Also, when students browse the web, there is a lot of uncensored information, which might contain violence or obscenity.

There are so many similar cases that could illustrate the challenges of having the Internet in class, but there are obviously advantages of the availability of free Internet in class.  In my opinion, students should be able to access the Internet at school, but for those who can’t control themselves, there is a way to stop them from playing games or chatting on social network. The Internet should be time limited, opening only during daytime. And those social networks should be blocked somehow. Therefore, students could then only use the Internet in proper ways. But this is only what the school can do, suppose there is a naughty student, I believe that if they really want they will still be able to manage to get on Facebook or something else that will do no good for their study. So, what schools can do for internet rule setting, letting students know themselves that the school opens the internet for them to further enable their study, not for pleasure. As soon as they realize it, I believe that open access of the Internet will truly help. But to achieve that, it might take a long time and need a great effort on letting students know, deeply in their hearts.

By taking this opportunity, I would like to present my argument on how digital technology might change education over the next 10 years.  I strongly believe that the development of technology will transform the way people are educated, but what is more essential is the change of our mindsets towards what is so called “education”.  From my viewpoint, educational institutions shall provide students with an enabling and efficient learning environment by applying advanced technology. 

Technological changes have shaped education from the beginning. From the abacus that made teaching math easier millennia ago, to the word processor that changed the way research papers are written and presented, humanity’s technological progress has impacted education. Nowadays, with the availability of educational technologies in our society, the digital revolution has certainly transformed the method of education, but the ultimate goal of education remains unchanged – that is to cultivate talents with capacity of knowledge and skillsets to make a better life for people and our society.

Many colleges and universities offered distance-learning programs to those who lived in a town without a college or university. This obviously offered an equal right for the access to higher education regardless where he/she lived. Online education has changed the former education system. Colleges and universities in many countries now offer degrees in nearly every subject that can be completed entirely online. Other schools have programs that combine online learning with some on-campus study.  Today, teachers can create and give their lessons in exciting ways. For example, online video conferencing enables teachers to talk directly with experts who are unable to visit a classroom in person. Interviews can be incorporated into lessons with the assistance of presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint™.

Similarly, students can get the help they need outside of the classroom more easily than ever before.  No doubt the way teachers teach will continue to change as new software is created and other advanced tools become available.

If I were given the opportunity as a junior commission, I would be happy to work with the most gifted young minds around the world to develop an innovative educational initiative for the future. My dream is to initiate a “Mobile Classroom” in education by applying next generation technology for the next generation. As we are living in the digital world, mobile Internet has changed our ways of communication and even our lifestyle greatly.  But mobile technology has had limited impact on our current educational system as most students will have to study in the classroom with textbooks.  I believe that written knowledge will no longer be the core of education, but ability of learning and problem-solving will be more important for graduates in the future. I’m thinking of a new form of education, which could probably be tested on a small scale at the beginning. That is, in a certain period of the term or for some subjects, students will not have to take given classes all day long in the classroom, instead they will be given new technical devices like a pad that could only be used for study purposes for them to self study. Textbooks and all kinds of books in the school library will be contained in the pad.  Homework will be written on computers which could save paper. The students will be encouraged to self-study the topics as an assignment and will be guided to the relevant places or to meet interesting people other than their teachers.  I think the students will be more self-motivated to explore their interests and be able to interact with this ever-changing world by taking such a Mobile Classroom program in real world.

I believe the Mobile Classroom initiative will bring benefits to those students who live in remote areas or those disabled people who are unable to go to school, if we can provide them with the technology, devices and educational services to support their self-study. Then how can we achieve that mission in such a large country like China?  The first thing come to my mind is to work with the NGO organization -Little Angel Action Fund (LAA) of China Youth Development Foundation.  From my previous experiences with LAA, I know they have a great team that can develop an educational program with the latest technology, and China Youth Development Foundation have national networks to reach schools and communities particular those in less advanced regions.  If I have the honor to be selected as a junior commissioner, I would be committed work as an IGGY team member to link global young minds with the local team in China to make a change in our future education, even if it’ll be a small step.

I’m very much interested in joining the IGGY team for various reasons.  I wish to receive the training offered by Warwick University so that I can develop my full potential to be good enough to serve others. Thank you very much for your attention, I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Vito Zhang

Shanghai Xiwai International School

China