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‘A’ Is for App 应用软件，叫我第一名

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How technology could unleash childhood creativity and transform the role of the teacher  看科技如何激发孩童创造力，改变教师角色

Gemma and Eliana Singer are big iPhone fans. They love to explore the latest games, flip through photos, and watch YouTube videos. But the Manhattan twins don’t yet have their own phones, which is good: In November, they turned 3.

辛格家两姐妹嘉玛和艾莉娜是超级iPhone迷，她们喜欢玩最新的游戏、翻看照片，和看YouTube影片。不过，还好这对曼哈顿双胞胎没有自己的手机，她们十一月才满三岁。

Gemma and Eliana belong to a generation that has never known a world without ubiquitous handheld and networked technology. American children now spend 7.5 hours a day absorbing and creating media – as much time as they spend in school. More and more of these activities are happening on smartphones equipped with audio, video, SMS and hundreds of thousands of apps.

嘉玛和艾莉娜所属的世代完全无法想象，如果少了到处可见的手持网络科技的话，会是什么样的世界。美国儿童现在每天花七个半小时在吸收与创作媒体内容上，和上学的时间一样多。这些活动有愈来愈多都是使用配备有影音、简讯等功能、以及数十万种应用软件的智能型手机。

Mobile-phone subscribers are expected to hit 5 billion during 2010. More than 2 billion of those live in developing countries, with the fastest growth in Africa. Mobile broadband is forecast to top access from desktop computers within five years.

手机用户预计在二０一０年达到五十亿人，其中二十多亿是开发中国家居民，而成长最快的地区则是非洲。预估行动宽带在五年内就会超过桌面电脑的宽带连接。

Revolutionizing learning  学习革命

Handheld and networked devices are tools for expression and connection, not just passive absorption. “You put a kid in front of a TV, they veg out,” says Andrew Shalit, creator of the First Words app. “With an iPhone app, the opposite is true.”

手持装置与可上网装置是表达与链接的工具，并非被动的吸收而已。安德鲁．沙力表示，「让孩子坐在电视机前面，他们根本无所事事。但给他们iPhone应用软件的话，情况刚好相反。」安德鲁．沙力是First Words应用软件的作者。

Thousands of new mobiles – not just smartphones but also ever-shrinking computers – have come into use at schools in the United States and around the world just in the past year.

包括智慧手机与体积愈来愈小的电脑在内，光是去年一年，美国及世界各地的学校就已经使用了数千款新问世的行动设备。

To understand the transformative potential – and possible pitfalls – of this device-driven instructional reboot, you can look at the impact of one machine, the TeacherMate, that is getting educational futurists excited. It has the total package of appropriate design, quality software and an ability to connect kids with teachers and technologists. And while it will have to leap huge hurdles – systemic, bureaucratic, cultural – to be widely adopted, it does present the tantalizing prospect of revolutionizing how children are educated.

要了解这种硬件取向教学新风潮的改变力量以及潜藏的问题，看看TeacherMate（译注：教师良友）造成的影响就知道了。「教师良友」这个设备让教育未来学家非常兴奋，它的配套完整，设计合宜、软件质量佳，能将孩子与教师及科技人员连结起来。虽然要让「教师良友」广受采用，还得克服系统、官僚行政和文化上的重重困难，但它确实提供了极诱人的前景，可能彻底改变孩童受教育的方式。

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ubiquitous [juˋbɪkwətəs] adj.【正式或幽默】普遍存在的﹐无处不在的

handheld [ˈhændˌhɛld] adj. 手持式的; 便携式的; 掌上的

networked [ˋnɛtwɝkt] adj.【计算机】网络的

SMS (short message service) 简讯服务 a system for sending text messages from one mobile phone to another 

top [tɑp] v. 高于；超过；胜过

veg [vɛdʒ] v. 打发时间，虚度

come into use 开始被使用 start being used

pitfall [ˋpɪt͵fɔl] n. 可能出现的问题[困难]﹐隐患﹐ 陷阱

-driven [ˋdrɪvən] 表示为……驱策

futurist [ˋfjutʃɚ͵ɪst] n. 未来学家 someone who studies current trends and other information in order to advise others, especially companies, about making intelligent plans for the future

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The TeacherMate is a handheld computer with a four-hour battery life. It runs full-color Flash games on a platform partly open to volunteer developers worldwide, and it can record and play back audio. Julissa Munoz shyly tells me that she likes this device better than her PlayStation 2 at home. “I like the fireman game,” where exciting music plays as you choose the right length ladder, which sneakily teaches simple addition and subtraction.

「教师良友」是一款手持电脑，电池寿命四小时。用Flash语言撰写的全彩网上小游戏的平台中，有一部分开放给全球自愿参与的游戏写手，而且还能录音并重新播放声音档。茱莉萨．穆诺兹害羞地告诉我，和家里的PlayStation 2游戏机比起来，她比较喜欢「教师良友」手持电脑。「我喜欢消防员游戏。」这个游戏一边播放着激动澎湃的音乐，一边让孩子选出长度正确的梯子，让孩子在不知不觉间就学习到简单的加减法。

Preliminary University of Illinois research suggests that reading and math scores in classrooms with TeacherMates are significantly higher than in those without.

伊利诺大学初期研究指出，教室中使用「教师良友」辅助教学，则学生的阅读与数学分数会大幅高于没有使用「教师良友」者。

“We encourage teachers not to do any pretraining,” creator Seth Weinberger says. “Pass them out, turn them on and have the kid start.”

「教师良友」研发者塞斯．温伯格表示，「我们希望教师不要事前训练学生，而是该把机器发下去、开机，让孩子自行展开。」

Weinberger can’t stop talking about the TeacherMate’s untapped possibilities. It seemingly has a solution for every educational buzzword out there: differentiated instruction, English-language learners, class size. It can let a Spanish-speaking parent help a student with his homework in English. (In addition to Spanish, software is being developed in Arabic, Hebrew, and Tagalog, with a goal to get to 100 languages.) It can help a teacher track exactly how much reading is going on at home. And it can allow a math whiz to speed ahead several grade levels.

温伯格滔滔不绝地谈论「教师良友」的无限可能，这个装置似乎对每一个热门教育术语都有解决之道：区别化教学、学习英语者和班级大小。「教师良友」让说西班牙语的家长也能帮助孩子做英文作业。《除了西班牙语之外，还有阿拉伯语、希伯来语、（菲律宾）塔加拉族语等版本，目标是一百种语言。》「教师良友」可协助教师确实掌握学童在家中的阅读进度，也可让数学神童跳级学习。

Invested in the concept  重要的是概念

For longtime school reformers, the sales pitch for the TeacherMate may sound familiar. What feels different about Weinberger’s organization, Innovations for Learning, is that it isn’t wedded to any particular gadget. While his organization has put significant resources into developing the TeacherMate, Weinberger says his true investment is in the concept. What matters is the development of new teaching and learning practices built around an idea: affordable, portable machines paired with constantly updated, collaboratively designed, open-platform software. “It’s about the system,” he says, “Not a device.”

对长期致力于教育改革的人士而言，「教师良友」的宣传卖点听起来可能很熟悉。温伯格这家「学习创新」公司的不同之处在于，产品并未与任何特定硬件装置绑在一起。虽然公司已投入了可观的资源在开发「教师良友」上。但温伯格说他真正投资的其实是这个概念。重要的是根据「负担得起的手持硬件装置，加上持续更新、集体设计的开放式平台软件」这个概念，以发展出新式教学与学习方法。他表示，「重点是整个系统，不是装置。」

−by Anya Kamenetz

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play back 重放...录音 to replay

subtraction [səbˋtrækʃən] n. 减; 减法

preliminary [prɪˋlɪmə͵nɛrɪ] adj. 初步的

pass out 分发, 分配 to distribute

untapped [ʌnˋtæpt] adj. 未利用的，未开发的

differentiated instruction 区别化教学 a style of teaching using various methods that allow students with different abilities and learning styles to be educated together

differentiated [͵dɪfəˋrɛnʃɪ͵etɪd] adj. 分化型；有区别的；差异化的

Tagalog [ˋtægə͵lɑg] n. 塔加拉族人；塔加拉族语

whiz [hwɪz] n. 熟手；能手；奇才

pitch [pɪtʃ] n.【口】叫卖，推销

collaboratively [kəˋlæbərətɪvlɪ] adv. 合作地；协作地

单词发音

Vocabulary Focus

unleash [ʌnˋliʃ] v. 解除……的束缚 to release suddenly a strong, uncontrollable and usually destructive force

veg out【澳】【俚】看电视打发时间；无所事事 to relax and spend time doing very little

reboot [͵riˋbut] n. & v. 重新启动 the act of starting a process over

tantalizing [ˋtænt!͵aɪzɪŋ] adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的 describes something that causes desire and excitement, but which is unlikely to provide a way of satisfying that desire

sneakily [ˋsnikɪlɪ] adv. 偷偷摸摸地 in a secret and unfair way

buzzword [ˋbʌzwɝd] n.〔重要的〕专门术语﹐ 时髦语 a word or expression from a particular subject area that has become fashionable by being used a lot, especially on television and in the newspapers

wedded [ˋwɛdɪd] to 结合在一起的 believing strongly that an idea or system is right and very unwilling to change that belief

Innovations for Learning - Teacher Interview TeacherMate iPod

TeacherMate in Mexico

The TeacherMate® Differentiated Instruction System is now available on iPod Touch®, iPad® and online on PCs and Macs.