Taipei, Taiwan – March 19, 2015 – “The Beatles are considered one of the greatest bands ever because their music influenced the whole world. Does Britain have any bands like the Beatles now?” “The Taiwanese band Mayday has performed in Britain. Have you ever heard their music?” “Nelson Mandela opposed racial segregation and was voted the greatest South African ever. He once visited Taiwan. Did you know Taiwan also has problems with race?” These are some of the questions Taiwanese students asked their counterparts in English in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Poland, in a distance learning activity that expanded their horizons and was made possible by AVer’s EVC900 video conferencing system.
AVer, a global provider of intelligent education solutions, organized the “Make Friends” activity at New Taipei City’s Municipal Bei Da Senior High School. The EVC900 permitted students in Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Poland and South Africa to communicate and better understand each other's history, culture, cuisine and lifestyles, breaking the mold of traditional education and bringing students the benefits of Internet of Things education.
With competition for places in northern Taiwan’s best schools intense, schools depend not just on the quality of teaching to attract students, but also on how innovative their learning strategies are. When AVer joined with Bei Da Senior High School on 18th March 2015 to hold the international Make Friends activity, Bei Da’s students and teachers eagerly took the chance to demonstrate their English skills and introduce Taiwanese culture to British, South African and Polish students, and also ask them about their own countries, all in real time.
Language differences were a challenge for the students. Bei Da student Zhu Shaoxuan, who represented the school, said that the “Make Friends” activity was a special experience because it was the first time she could make a presentation in English, and it gave her the opportunity to learn to better express herself in English. Another student, Zhang Ruiqi, said that he is now better at making and presenting reports, and knows what he can tell foreigners about Taiwanese culture. Their classmate Ma Yuxin hopes she will can take part in this kind of exchange again, since she not only improved her English, but also met people from other countries. Even though she had to stay up late to take part, she felt it was worth it.
AVer’s EVC900 video conferencing system sets the standard for distance learning. With one-touch recording and the EZMeetup remote video conferencing software, classes can be more varied and schools can move beyond traditional teaching methods. With high visual and audio quality, meeting people through the EVC900 feels like meeting them face to face. Schools can easily record sessions to a USB drive for later use, and the live broadcast function allows students’ parents to watch live from YouTube as their children communicate with other students thousands of kilometers away.
AVer hopes that by helping schools that own AVer video conferencing equipment hold distance learning exchanges with schools in other countries, students will be able to tell people of different cultural backgrounds about their own culture, learn about other countries and their values, and build transnational friendships. AVer will continue organizing these programs in order to help the leaders of the future get a head start on building a better, more peaceful and more civilized world.