For faculty members who have to appear in front of the camera for teaching purpose, help is at hand. On May 10, a workshop on “Skills of Facing the Camera” conducted by Ms. Ma Yu-pei, the Director & Editor-in-Chief of Tamkang Times, deals exactly with the fear and tear of appearing before the camera. In this workshop organized by the Teacher Professional Development Section, she will show the participants how to calm the butterfly in the stomach and project a charming and relaxed image on the screen. Participants need to bring with them a clip of their teaching video for critique and suggestion.

Ms. Shyu Hsin-yih, the event organizer who has also planned a series of workshops on on-ling teaching, explains that with the propagation of distance learning, teachers involved in this medium will need some professional training from people such as Ms Ma, who used to work as a broadcaster for one of Taiwan’s TV networks. Teachers need to be coached how to express themselves verbally in effective and charismatic manners, just like a great story teller. For even better effect, Ms. Hsu is also seriously considering inviting Chinese-style stand-up comedians to provide teachers with voice and acting training.

Ms. Ma workshop, together with other workshops will take place over a period of two weeks, and will be conducted in three ways: Face to face teaching, asynchronized on-line teaching, and synchronized on-line discussion. WebCT teaching platform will be used during these workshops. The materials used for asynchronized on-line teaching include internet copyright issue, the five key elements and four stages of being an e-instructor, and the differences in skills between synchronized and asynchronized on-line teaching. 16 teachers will attend these workshops. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )