Zhang Ping (writer)

Transcription

Thanks everyone. It's my pleasure having an opportunity today to share with you a very unique thing we made. It's called "PAGAMO". We consider it is very rare and unique in the world, which might be able to change people's learning habit. This system may bring huge impact. We think it is has potential to be an effective startup, and an idea with possibilities. We have spent more than six months trying to develop this system with our students. All of us, often stayed up late. My parents and my wife are here today, and they can finally get to know what I'm doing! The main problem with setting your Facebook page in "public" mode is that your mom can often check when you go to bed. Even if you're forty, she still keeps doing that. This is a picture that our students (Department of Electrical Engineering) like to use during midterms and finals. They would mock themselves when they are suffering from studying and say: "It hurts to not have enough intelligence." I made a picture for TED Talk, which I think really fits: "It hurts to not have enough time to speak." Because usually when you're a professor giving a lecture in the classroom, students cannot say anything even when you speak overtime. It's totally different here. Therefore it hurts to not have enough time for a speech. OK! First of all, I want to ask you all a question. As human civilization evolves, I want to ask you one question: In your opinion, is education moving forward, or backward? Let us vote! Please raise your hand if you think it's moving forward. OK! Please raise your hand if you think it's moving backward. OK! We have a tie here. Basically there's no right or wrong. But I'd like to provide my own thoughts. I think, as civilization evolves, education is moving backwards. Mainly because it's a trend no one can deny. In other words, when civilization evolves, we humans gain more knowledge. In the past, you only need to learn this much stuff in college. but after two or three decades, you need to learn so much more! There are more things to learn, yet the time given remains the same. Then what happens to our education? We pursue efficiency. As many of us know, pursuing efficiency isn't usually the best way, right? Therefore, all the teachers in this era are suffering! We prepare a lot of good stuff for our students. We want to teach all the knowledge to our students as soon as possible. This is tough! However! What is the method we choose? We often talk about how the students we teach turn out to lack sense, gratitude, confidence, and they aren't fun at all. How can this be ?! Here's a metaphor: I want to ask you call, especially mothers, If there's a kid, we feed him the best food all the time, will he attain the taste on food? Will he know what delicious is? Like baby panda "Yuan-Zai" in Taipei Zoo, we feed her the best bamboo leaves since it was a baby. Do you think that she can distinguish what "high-classed" bamboo leaves taste like? She doesn't even know what bad leaves taste like, does she?! She has so sense at all. She is used to eating the good stuff, and probably thinks that she deserves it. This panda has no gratitude at all. And that is why we teachers suffer. We suffer like hard-working moms. I didn't mention that because my mom's here! Hard-working moms, we prepare with all our hearts for the kids, we prepare all the good stuff for the students. But our students don’t appreciate it, and they have no taste! So, what should we do? Actually, I want to tell you, especially if you are a parent, it is simple. Force your kid to go fry an egg. If they have never tried it, they will definitely burn it. But don't you sympathize them at all! You must force them to eat the burnt egg. The kid would say "Ew! It's disgusting!" But you need to force them to finish eating it. Then you treat them with a plate of delicious spaghetti afterwards. The kinds would understand it's good and appreciate the food. They will know what "delicious" is. Now they got gratitude and taste, eh? (applause) Okay! What about confidence? What about confidence and fun? Talking about these two issues, I think we have to change our values. We need to change our values, and it is then we have the chance to bring our students back their confidence and fun. Think about it, back when we were kids, what do we do? We love playing! Like playing games, like hang out. We love showing off! We all love our friends telling us "Wow! You're great!" don't we? We also love comparing with our friends, don't we? So, it's human nature to love playing, love showing off, and love comparing with others. Can we fulfill all three wishes at once? YES! This is what we did in the department of Electrical Engineering in National University for the past 12 years. We transformed one of our mandatory math course "Probability and Statistic," into an online game. In this game, you can "love playing, love showing off, and love comparing!" You can fulfill all three wishes at once. Then, what's our system like? This is our system. It's called "BJT-online." "J" stands for one of my graduate students, JIANG,ZHE-XONG. "T" is another one, TANG,WEI-XUAN. When these two developed this system with me, we named it “BJT-online. If you have interest in this, you can google “Study like gaming." There are many people reading this article in Taiwan and China because I wrote it. It is quite an interesting article. Then what is BJT-online look like? It looks like this. It's an online game that looks like a map. During the my classes, although traditionally teachers usually give out a lot of homework, I don't. I think students will learn more if they create their own homework. Definitely better than you stuffing them with problems. So, I assigned them into groups. Each group needs to design their our problems. and each group needs to try and solve problems designed by other groups. The more question you solve, the further you get to the front. Then everyone sees how far you've gone. Is that showing off or what? Okay! And what's another important feature about this game? You can witness everyone's status immediately. Like this, you can see the first group has finished more than 10 questions the second group has finished more than 20 questions, and the third group has not achieved 10 questions yet. They will feel anxious when they see this situation. It can fix the procrastination our kids have! If you tell them to finish their homework like “Hurry up! Hurry up!” I bet they still wait till the last day to finish it. Now you don’t have to, no you don’t! When they can see other kids have finished ten or twenty questions already, and only finished five questions themselves. they will start feeling anxious. So peer pressure is the best way to force your kids to work. Whatever mom says, teacher says, dad says, doesn't work. So this, is a way to let students be devoted to games and learning! Just think about it. When it comes to probability and math, X, f(x) or f(y) comes up right? Let me show you this. It’s the questions designed by our students. This is a question designed by our students, Lin, Din-Chi from dept. of Physics. Wei, Zhen-Yu and Huang, Jun-Heng from dept. of Electric Engineering. One day, Plato asks Socrates, “What is love?” Socrates tells him to go to the garden and pick the most beautiful rose on the way back He can only pick one and he can not turn back. But the road of the garden is a straight line, which means that he has no chance to see the same flower again if he passes it. Socrates thinks that Plato might be afraid to see a more beautiful rose so he would not pick certain one, lastly, return with nothing. At the time, he can explain his philosophy of love to Plato. However, smart Plato has his own plan, he secretly knows that there are eight roses only in this garden. Therefore, he uses a strategy to raise the probability of picking the most beautiful rose. First, take the prior three roses he sees on the road as reference. And to not pick them by any means. On the following route, as long as he sees any rose which is prettier than previous three, pick it! Don’t hesitate at all. Following by Plato’s strategy, what is the probability of him picking the most beautiful rose? This is the probability quiz designed by our students! (Applause) There’s no X, no f(x), no f(y)! See? questions designed by students are so interesting! We used to assign them with questions we designed and they have no interests at all. But they loved the question designed by their classmates! What was the reaction from our students? I can show you with evidence. This is the Facebook of one of my student's Facebook last year during the deadly finals: You can tell by the date, it was 14th of June. The kid wrote about, “I have four questions of BJ left and I really want to solve it.” However, I’ll fail “Signal and Battery”(midterm subject) if I did, I feel so frustrated!” The next day, 17th of July, he wrote about, “I can’t help but solve the other two questions.” Finals! Now you see we really made our students addicted to learning! (applause) So at that moment, I have to be honest, it almost brought be to tears when I saw this Facebook post. At that time, I felta little guilty toward my colleague who was teaching “Signals and Battery.” But I was so touched that we really did it, really made our students obsessed with learning. That's why believe, games can bring out the biggest potential in students. Here's another instance. This is another question from a group this year, designed by Zheng,Zi-Yu, Chen, Wei-Yu and Hsiao,Le-Shan from department of Electrical Engineering.  Les Misérables is really popular this year, so they have created a question called “Éponine senind the letter.” “It was June 1832, at a wet hot night in Paris. There was a worn-down hotel, with a crooked sign board written “Thénardier inn.” “ The old man with the white beard and moustache was the writer Victor Hugo, and the man sat by him was his friend, an English poet with integrity.” At that time I didn't get why they put a English poet here. But you’ll understand as the story goes. “ At meantime, someone pushed the sounding wooden door and walked into the inn, running. it was the famous mathematician Poison.” Poison is a really famous mathematician in probability. Okay! It’s not finished yet. “ Outside on the street, a brown-hair woman who wore fur hat and brown coat, walked by fast-paced." “It was Éponine.” “ She murmured, “wouldn’t it bother him more if I tell him I love him? I think of him, If I was Marius, wouldn’t I want to give this farewell letter to Cosette?” “She kept walking, until she disappeared in the dark rain.” “Bang! The inn hostess dropped the plate on the floor, “Éponine! Éponine! Where are you going ?”” Isn’t that dramatic? (Laughter) “Suddenly, few gun shot sounds brought silence indoor, only the old clock by the wall remained ticking.” “”I think he’s in danger.” Said Hugo, and he drank another sip of whisky. “After he got shot, he should be able to walk still, we assume that the shot speed reduce by half every time he got shot, until he was shot four times then he would die.” “What is the probability of him safely passing the lane? Do you know that?” We got the probability question here! Then, ““Are you even listening?” Poison asked the poet.” “”Thanks to the sniper, I got inspiration again!” said the poet.” Guys, theses students are so into making this question, They even wrote an English poem with 19 lines. (Applause) One student from this group who loves English literature and takes classes wrote this 19-lined poem for this question. This is actually an artistic poem! Not just something he made! O singing swan! Must you this letter send to Hades Black? With Poison’s bein’ the butcher’s PMF, Abetting bullets take no blade back! Cruel witnesses! Ask Probability, Still speechless, to relate the tragedy. It's not finished yet! There's still more. But I'm running out of time, only got 18 minutes. So you see, games can bring out the biggest potential within kids! Every body likes to show off! When you spend so much time and effort on a project, and get a "90" from you teacher, it means nothing for kids. But they come up with something that all the classmates, all the students in school would say: "Wow! He is amazing!" and even the teacher talk about it on TED..! (Laughter) (Applause) So you see! This indeed can bring out their potential, right?! Then, what's next? The past three years we were making this system, and I really think it has been helpful to students. What's next? This is, as mentioned before, Coursera. coursera is a new form of online lectures which attained the most attention in last year. It is different from old online classes, because it is interactive. For the past year, just a short year, the amount of students who use it have reached more than five million. This February, the system founder Andrew has invited NTU and other 75 outstanding universities to join Coursera. We have joined with others to upload our most interesting education. When Andrew came to us last December, I told him about my BJT-online project. He was really excited about this. he thought that it’s a possible method to change learning habit in the world. So he told me, Benson, please upload your lectures as soon as possible, By uploading the system like this, we can show the world that we can make it. That there's a learning method like this exists, Therefore, my probability class and the “first Qin Emperor class” taught by Prof. Lu, Shi-Hao, these two lectures are the first MOCC classes which are taught in mandarin, Therefore gathering a lot of attention worldwide. Now, we have nearly 20 thousand students in each class. Seriously! I do have the feeling that I have students all over the world. Really! Really! Think about having one to two hundred students in your class. even for the best lecturer, it’s still pretty amazing to have one or two hundred students in one class. I wouldn’t have 20 thousand students even if I teach for my whole life! That kind of feeling is unique! So at the moment—after we taught on Coursera, we think that this project has the potential to being next education revolution. Therefore, we have decided it. These young people from department of Electronic Engineering and department of Information, National Taiwan University, a bunch of our students, we have made the choice. We want to change the world! We are not satisfied with just probability class only, not just changing our department but the world! From NTU, we want to make the first platform which combines online game and interactive course. This is a platform which includes online game. We called it “PAGAMO.” Why is it called “PAGAMO?” Because when we first thinking about the name for the system, our foreign friends wanted us to came up with an Oriental name, They like this sort of fantasy, so after thinking for a long time, with our smart students, we came up with the name “PAGAMO.” Why? We are people from Taiwan! PAGAMO means “playing game and learn!” (In Taiwanese) Learning by playing online games. We Taiwanese need a name that fits our culture! Also, PAGAMO in English sounds quite exquisite! (Applause) This is what our game looks like. It's just like an ordinary online game. There will be 600-700 users on this map, and they will all complete on the same map. you need to conquer other people’s land. When you attempt to conquer other people’s land, This system would tell you do a math question. (Laughter) If you solve the question correctly, you will get their land, and get to kill other people's monsters. You can also set your monster and defend your team, Just like all the other online games out there, we have all their features. Also, what's important is that you are in a worldwide ranking. So what if you say that you are great and superior in your college? What's your ranking in the world? Don't you want to know what you tank in the world? If you can make it to the top ten, then again, that's the best to show-off. (Laughter) Therefore with this, we can motivate students to join the game and compete. Again, we want them to be obsessed with learning. "MOOC." We have always thought that "MOCC" like Coursera, is an interative online class. It can bring a new trend of revolution in education, because it perfectly fits our young generation who heavily-depend on the internet. It has moved learning from classroom to internet. And brought out a tide of education revolution. What's next? What will education be like in five years? This is what we are all looking at. What will our kids become like in five years? Just look at your kids who are in elementary or middle school, every one of them a game addict. In five years, I predict the next education revolution is to combine learning with online games. That’s why in NTU, we are leading the world in this trend. We have come up with the system like this. We think MOCC and PAGAMO will bring the new revolution of online learning. So, don’t be surprised if you hear the conversation like this five years later really, be surprised. Mom would ask kids, “What are you doing?!” Kids reply, “Mom, I am playing games.” And Mom would reply excitedly, “Good job! Play more!” Don't doubt if this actually happens. It is possible! Then, you can tell your kids proudly, “I’ve seen it five years ago, what you are playing now is from Taiwan!” It’s from National Taiwan University. From department of Electric Engeneering and department of Information Engineering. From a group of young students who are passionate, courageous, and are dreamers. A group of students who want to change the world! (Applause) I feel like I am reading a line from ONE PIECE. (Japanese animation) (Laughter) (Applause) These students are really something. They have this courage, and they truly believe that this system can change the world. They were willing to devote half a year, all their summer. Working on the project in the meeting room in our department until midnight is not uncommon. Such devotion to their dreams. I am really moved. Therefore, as their partner, I really do appreciate them, and thank them for giving me the chance to make this dream come true with them. We have the chance to change the learning habit of people, I am honestly so thankful. At the same time, as their lecturer from NTU, I am proud to say that, there’s a group of young men like them in NTU. who are daring enough to dream and make it come true. As their teacher, I am so proud of them. So, I hope that you all can cheer for them with me. JIANG,CHENG-WEN, SHEN,DA-JUN, CHEN,YAN-LIN, CHEN,YAN- JUN, XU,ZI-HAN, ZHU,BO-CHENG, ZHANG,YAO-REN, YU,LANG-QI, XIA,ZHI-YANG, TANG,WEI-XUAN, LIN,GUAN-YU and our good friend, Mr. CAI,YI-CHENG Really, I thank them with my heart. Because of them, we have a chance to finish this project. (applause) A few days ago in our meeting, we were discussing wether we need a dress code. My students told me, “Prof. Yeh, please don’t wear a suit or tie, you have to wear jeans!” After a long discussion about our dress code, we decided that no one should wear "flip flops." We all followed the dress code! So today's speech, I hope to inspire everyone! We actually don’t have to work extremely hard, as a teacher, or as a leader in an organization. You don’t have to work extremely hard, as long as you have correct values, and organize your rules well, we can bring out the best potential with our students, and our employees. We can bring out the best of them. This is what we want to bring you within this speech. For the other, we want to tell the young generation in Taiwan that, we have the chance to change the world. Like all the young folks here, they had the courage to do something like this. I think our young generation should be brave to be courageous for your dreams, and make it come true. Lastly, I want to share something, This is my eldest son. This is my eldest son. This is the music instrument he made with Lego NXT few days ago. He came to me and said that he made an electronic guitar. (Music) Wow…great! (Applause) So you can see that, We really are a traditional Taiwanese father and son, no matter how great the son achieves, the father only says, "wow.. that's great." It's just like this. My dad and I are like this as well. There’s one message I want to bring you all, this is my son—YEH,PO-HSIU. When he was in kindergarten, transformers were so extremely in Taiwan! Almost every kid had one. And they would bring it to school. My son begged me for transformers almost every single day, but my wife and I just wouldn’t buy it. Six months later, one day I found out that he was building something with Lego, and he came up with a something just like a transformer. After few years, he sometimes wants us to buy him toys or music instruments, I never agree. In the end, he built an electronic guitar by himself. So what is the message I'm trying to tell you? When I was preparing for this speech, there was something I couldn't say in front of my child. But since there are not kids here, Dear parents, what I want to say is as a mother or father, or teacher, starve them, don't stuff them! (applause) Stop stuffing your kids, don't prepare everything for them. Just let them starve. Let them be hungry! Until one day, when they cannot stand it anymore, they will take action, they will create something naturally. It just comes. So yes, this is my message! Last thing is, I want you to all applaud for these great young men. POGAMO! We shall change the world! Thank you!