Meet ChinesePod
p2p news / p2pnet: Communist China is promoting mp3s and podcasting.
But not for listening to music.
"Why spend your evenings in a classroom studying grammar and sentence structure when you can learn English simply by listening to your MP3 player?" – asks state news agency Xinhua, referring to Hong Kong firm OnDemand which, says the site, uses "ChinesePod" as a teaching tool.
"People can listen to and watch podcasts online or download them to an MP3 player," it says, going on, "Ondemand says it is trying to raise interest in podcasting as a teaching tool, and will only begin charging money for the service after it has become more popular."
The story has the company’s Ken Carroll saying, "Unlike many training centers, we don’t need many excellent teachers to meet the demands of thousands of learners."
But, "Wang haitao, headmaster of New Oriental School, a school famous for Tofel, GRE and GMAT courses, say face-to-face teaching is far superior," states Xinhua.
"The so called innovative teaching mode is similar to long-distance education or TV education," Wang says, adding the, "lack of any pressure from teachers or a study schedule make it easy for students to be lazy".
(Thanks, again Michael : )
Also See:
Xinhua – Can podcasters teach English?, January 19, 2006
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If you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.
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