SHIH-YUAN HSIAO
VIA22 APAC
Challenge
Taiwan is undergoing a huge change in its national curriculum. It aims to develop students spontaneity, interaction, and social participation. The new curriculum presents challenges to both teachers and students. One major challenge is the implementation of global-issue integrated instruction, which baffles teachers because they lack proper training. Naturally, this change has spawned a question: how do teachers align teaching issues with the rigid curriculum? Issue-oriented teaching demands instant and correct information, so technology is the key. Now that we are a GRS, I take this difficulty as the next challenge of my school. The integration of global issues is critical because it nurtures intangible qualities of phenomenon observation, critical thinking, etc. Despite all the advantages offered, numerous students are apathetic to whats happening in the world, partly because of the distracting mobile games and social media, but the principal reason is ignorance of global issues. However, the idea of global issues is so wide that few teachers can harness the situation. Thankfully, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contour a much clearer picture. Nonetheless, as I size up the SDGs, they are so intricate and interwoven that its challenging to arouse students motivation, without which students will feel lost in the giant maze of global issues. Yet, with my experience in integrating technology into teaching, I believe technology can be the light at the end of the tunnel. I cant help wondering: what can I do to help teachers motivate students to explore the SDGs via technology? This challenge matters because Taiwanese society aspires to nurture young minds to tackle the big issues of our time. Now students lack sufficient understanding of how society works and what they can do to improve it. Few teachers feel equipped to remedy this situation. At the moment, I believe I can help.