BYU-Hawaii faculty, staff and students successfully hosted approximately 300widespread international members of the Global Chinese Society for Computers in Education on campus from June 6-9 during the group's ninth annual but first-ever conference outside of Asia.
"From all aspects, I think the conference was a success, both in the paper quality as well as the other functions," said GCSCE organizing chairman Dr. Tak-wai Chan of Taiwan Central University. "One surprising thing to us, this was supposed to be a western place, but somehow this conference inherited the spirit here [in Hawaii]. It's not only the mountains and the beaches, but you have a human paradise here."
Dr. Chan also noted that the BYU-Hawaii students who assisted with the conference did very well. "Compared to previous conferences, we find that most of the student helpers are undergraduates," he said. "Here, the undergraduate students are very lucky they can participate and see how weare organized."
In delivering the conference's closing keynote address, Dr. Yong Zhao, professor of technology in education and educational psychology and director of MichiganState University's Center of Teaching and Technology, quipped, "The only problem in having a conference here is that we're competing with paradise"
Dr. Chan explained the group's unprecedented meeting in Laie was due largelyto the efforts of BYU-Hawaii's Dr. Yee-Kong Peter Chan [no relation], assistant professor of instructional design and development, and the support of theuniversity's administration and Center for Instructional Technology and Outreach(CITO).
"We had a lot of help. We had more than 100 volunteers," said Dr.Peter Chan, a BYU-Hawaii alumnus who served as organizing committee chairman for the conference. He singled out BYU-Hawaii Vice President of Academics,Dr. Keith Roberts; CITO Dean, Dr. Robert Hayden; Elder David Merrill — a retired Utah State professor of instructional technology, and his wife, SisterKathleen Merrill, who are currently serving as educational missionaries in the BYU-Hawaii Center for Instructional Technology, which is part of the CITO division; "and so many from so many different areas."
Dr. Peter Chan also explained the enthusiasm the conference delegates experienced "is part of the aloha spirit," and invited any of them who were interested in "learning more about our values" underlying the aloha spirit to stay for a while.
Earlier in the conference, Elder Merrill delivered the conference's opening keynote address on e-learning, in which he challenged the delegates to make their work more effective by having students use computer technology to demonstrate what they learn. "I'm very concerned as I look at the Internet that so much of what's called education does not teach. We need desperately to improve the quality of the education we have out there."
Dr. Merrill explained he believes in the "show me" principle, where students prove they have learned lessons by application. "If you don't remember anything else today, ask yourself if you're showing the students what they need to do," he said. "Too often we stick a lot of 'remember what I told you questions' on a test and call it instruction. We want to get students actually involved in what we're trying to get them to do."
In another address, Dr. Rong-Huai Huang of Beijing Normal University's KnowledgeScience & Engineering Institute, seemed to agree with Dr. Merrill. Dr.Huang explained that many university graduates in China face problems finding good jobs, and yet more research is needed to determine if "teachers can pass along their tacit knowledge," which appears to "come mostly from informal studies."
In his closing address, Dr. Zhao also pursued a similar theme. Passing out remote control-like devices, he conducted an instant virtual survey which showed the delegates believe "technology can improve teaching, of course," but were less definite about whether computers can improve student's learning. The survey also showed the delegates saw the "defining role of educational technology professionals" in software development and tech support,[whereas] teaching technology ranked low."
"There have been many conferences on how we can effectively use computers, but how do students use the computers?" he asked. "Computers themselves have no effectiveness. It's how we use them. It's how effectively we can use them."
He added that "as educational technology people, we have been very busy in exploring new technologies. We try to see how we can use every new technology. There are more and more of them now, but so far the general conclusion is in the past 20 years, the actual effectiveness is quite different from the huge volume we use."
"It's not about the teacher," Dr. Zhao said. "Don't overemphasize innovation."
As part of the GCSCE conference's closing activities, Utah Governor John Huntsmanpleased the delegates in a video message by addressing them in the Chinese he learned as a young LDS missionary in Taiwan, and pointing out to them that BYU-Hawaii is a part of the largest private educational system in theU.S. that includes BYU. He added that Utah has a large multilingual society, including many Chinese speakers.
At the conclusion of the conference, Dr. Tak-wai Chan announced next year's meeting will be held at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Later, Dr. ChengJiangang, Director of Tsinghua's Institute for Educational Technology, said he personally enjoyed the conference at BYU-Hawaii and his exposure to Hawaiian culture.
"The culture is very good," he said, "and I would like my daughter to study at BYU-Hawaii."