Purpose:

As the 'world' keeps changing, and the knowledge we need to acquire and develop is endless, learning to learn is one important goal in our course on 'World Literatures in English,' in your college life as well as in life. 

In this age of digital globalization, you will--if you haven't started to--learn more and more through the Internet from people and things in a distance.    But when learning by yourself and without a teacher or a classroom, how do you motivate yourselves to learn?  How do you absorb and activate your knowledge, instead of consuming information and then forgetting it?  How do you turn the Internet into a virtual classroom?   These are all important things to learn, and I'd like to introduce this mode of learning in our class.   

目的︰人生百變，無不是學習的對象和思考的起點。而在當今電子全球化的趨勢中，很可能你學習的一個主要對象就是網路上在遙遠一端不曾謀面的人和不親身經歷的事。這些資訊(911、南亞海嘯……不勝枚舉)傳送到我們的電腦、電視，可以讓我們麻木不仁或不知所措。因此，如何在「教室外」學習，同時學習如何學習是我們在大學以及一生所必須面對的課題。這也是我們了解「世界」英文文學的目標之一．

本門課想用兩種方法把你帶出教室︰一是遠距學習。一是經由新聞和紀錄片（請見Connecting to the Big Wide World through News and Documentaries Project）。

遠距學習不容易，對學生、對老師皆然。要如何把網路當成教室？如何在沒有去教室面對老師的壓力之下主動學習？  如何經由網路溝通化實質的距離為更多元、更民主的互動？這些都是我們必須要學習的。

Method and suggested schedule: (Whether we will do it or not will be determined by an anonymous voting in class.  If a majority of students disagree--or if the numbers of 'yes' and 'no' are close--we will not do it.)

1. Six times (please see the * on the calendar) in this semester, you finish your readings and watch the lecture videos the night before class; (videos will be provided both online and on CD-R);
2. During class time, two groups of students will come to class to have a group discussion (each around 60 mins), while the other groups will have their discussion on EngSite.   The online discussion is due at midnight of that Thursday.  
3. Absences from group discussion are NOT allowed and thus cannot be made up for. 
4. In case of general technical problems (e.g. blackout or server breakdown), however, discussion deadlines and times can be re-scheduled.
5. Please contact Kate or Paul Chen in case of personal technical problems.  

實施方法︰（我們要不要做這個練習，由學生不記名投票決定。如果大多數，或近於一半學生反對，我們就不實施。）

1. 一學期六次  （請見課曆中星號部份）請你於上課前一天閱讀完指定讀物，同時看過教師講課錄影帶。（錄影帶會同時有網路和光碟版本。）

2. 上課時間，兩組同學來課堂上進行小組討論(每組60分鐘)。其他小組在英才網進行線上討論。線上討論於上課當天的午夜截止。

3. 小組討論不得缺席。

4. 如果有普遍的環境因素（如停電、伺服器故障），小組討論可以重新定日期。

5. 個人的設備、技術問題請與劉紀雯老師和助理陳盈昌連絡。