January 2012 Volume 15 Number 1 - Educational Technology ...

elementary schools. Thus they are both experienced in teaching and guiding students through the Chinese poetry
courses.
Table 3. Statistical results of the questionnaire from nine teachers
No. Items 5 4 3 2 1 Mean
1 This teaching model can elevate learning motivation. 5 4 0 0 0 4.56
2 This teaching model can elevate learning effectiveness. 4 3 2 0 0 4.22
3 This teaching model can help students to express what they think 4 5 0 0 0 4.44
about the poem.
4 The system has high feasibility. 3 4 2 0 0 4.11
5 The system can help teachers to reduce their teaching burden. 2 6 0 1 0 4.00
6 I would recommend this system to my colleagues. 2 6 1 0 0 4.11
7 The use of icons and text in this system is coherent. 3 6 0 0 0 4.33
8 I can easily find the functions in the system. 1 5 2 1 0 3.67
9 Switching between pages in the system is easy. 1 6 2 0 0 3.89
10 The interface design including text color, size, and icons is easy 6 2 1 0 0 4.56
to identify.
11 The messages provided by the system are brief and concise. 3 6 0 0 0 4.33
12 The overall manipulation of the system is easy. 4 4 1 0 0 4.33
As shown in Table 3, most of the teachers believe that this system is suitable for Chinese poetry learning and think
that the system can promote students’ motivation and learning performance (Items 1-3). However, in terms of
practical application to instruction, some teachers express their concern and hesitation (Items 4-6). Having
experienced this system through smart phones, the feasibility of the system is acceptable for most teachers. However,
some teachers think the application of this system requires teachers to prepare in advance, thus increasing their work
load.
In terms of the system interface, most teachers think this system is user friendly (Items 7 and 11). However, some
teachers express neutral attitudes towards usability of the system (Items 8, 9, 10 and 12). According to interviews
with these users, the main reason is that they are not used to operating mobile devices with small displays. Also, they
think that some default functions of the smart phone are not so obvious to ordinary users.
The second evaluation addresses the students’ responses to this experiment. The results are shown in Table 4, and
discussed as follows. The first five items address the learning behavior and attitude of students before the
experimental class. Most students have experience of using a digital camera, and leaning Chinese poetry using
photos and graphics as supplementary tools (Items 3 and 5). However, some students have no experience of using
smart phones, learning Chinese poetry outdoors, and thus have difficulty in expressing what they feel about a poem
(Items 1, 2 and 4). The results show that the proposed approach is novel to most students. Also, most students have
enough information literacy to conduct the innovative course.
The next nine items (Items 6 – 14) address the learning motivation and progress of students during the experimental
class. Most students like to learn Chinese poetry outdoors because they are interested in outdoor activities (Item 6),
smart phones (Item 7), or Chinese poetry (Item 8). Furthermore, students think that the proposed approach is more
interesting than traditional classes (Item 9).
Table 4. Statistical results from the questionnaire for forty-eight students
No. Before class 5 4 3 2 1 Mean
1 I have experience in learning Chinese poetry outdoors. 9 16 5 4 14 3.04
2 I have used a smart phone before. 4 12 7 13 12 2.65
3 I have used a digital camera to take photos outdoors before. 21 20 7 0 0 4.29
4 I can easily express what I feel about a Chinese poem. 7 17 11 7 6 3.25
5 The teacher would use supplementary tools such as photos and
graphics to teach Chinese poetry.
25 18 5 0 0 4.42
No. During class 5 4 3 2 1 Mean
6 I like to learn Chinese poetry outdoors because outdoor activities
are interesting.
9 22 13 4 0 3.75
96