Tag: problem

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translation error phenomenon and the phenomenon behind

received this advertisement pamphlet by singtel selling 3G services in view of the impending 2G termination:

as a CL teacher, the choice of term in the blue bubble immediately caught my eyes – “赶忙”. in the same moment, i hypothesised it’s #ThankUGoogleTranslate problem. indeed, a quick check on Hurry, the term used in the EL bubble, yielded 赶忙 as the 3rd translation. anything in the top 3 must be good right? (:

posted the photo on fb, and we observed different reactions, with mostly sympathy of the error’s occurrence.

while such occurrence of error is not a first, nor will it be the last, i think we should look beyond the phenomenon itself, and ask WHY it occurs at all. the reasons could be many.

as a CL teacher (educator), my immediate question is how did these grown-ups learn CL when they were in schools? Were they taught to become a lifelong learner of CL, or were they taught to inherit the language (contents) from the teachers? to become a lifelong learner, it means that one is able to learn and to use the language when my teacher-guru is no longer around me. but, the over-reliance on Google Translate (or some other online translation tools) appears to suggest otherwise. it appears to me that these grown-ups are using Google Translate in place of the trust-me-all-guru who is no longer around. in short, they lack the know-how of learning the language in life beyond schools (and exams).

in terms of know-how, if a Science teacher is to teach students to think like a real-world scientist, what is a CL teacher teaching his/her students to think like? a writer, a poet, a linguist, or an exam-Acer/passer? the outcome goal is critical; with only the outcome goal clearly set can a teacher possibly design his/her lessons to enable students to learn to being and becoming the goal.

if you are a CL teacher reading this, what is your goal? what are you already doing to enable your students to learn, and to use the language lifelong? the transmission of large amount of knowledge has probably proven to be futile as the singtel pamphlet has revealed.

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ict lesson, a problematic conception

“ict lesson”, or “ICT教学”，这样的一个名词, such a conception, is problematic.

if we have “ICT教学”，与之相对的是什么？“非ICT教学”？

如果ICT的使用可以随时”开”或”关”, 这或许就是为什么学校里还存在one-off设计ICT活动的现象了。

“ICT教学”, and “ict lesson”这个名词应该去除。停止使用，不再使用。

理由很简单，21世纪的生活已脱离不开科技。要预备学生在未来的生活中不断自主学习，运用ICT学习的习惯和技能必须养成（这其实连带学生“如何学”的问题 (cf.教师如何教)）。习惯的养成不是一朝一夕的事；技能更是多样，更需要长时间指导磨练。

要达到培养学生习惯、磨练学生技能的学习目的，任何教学都要从TPACK角度去思考。那么学生的学习照顾到了，教师也从此不再陷入one-off、ICT可有可无的问题。

clock time photo

acknowledgement: Alexas Fotos

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asus n61jq windows 10 upgrade display fail

if you are here reading this post, most likely you have tried upgrading your good 5-year old asus N61 to windows 10, and was treated with a BLACK DARK BLANK screen? the problem is we are now treated with a generic AMD-ATI driver, instead of an ASUS customised one.

the generic driver is indeed working. the “trick” is to up your display brightness (Fn+F6), and you should find your LCD suddenly comes on!

2015-08-06 15.54.24

took me 2 roll back to Windows 7 and reinstallation of Windows 10 in one day to confirm the above. happy windows 10-ing (:

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padfone 2 review – only one note

if u lands here via any search engine, chances are you are preparing to buy a new/used asus padfone 2 and looking for a review. OR, you connected your padfone 2 to the padfone station but your display/screen keeps on flicker flickering non-stop. this is not the usual review, but it’s purpose is to share ONE recent (shocking) experience with my own padfone2.

one fine day, i plugged in my padfone2 to the padfone station, and the screen keeps on blinking and flickering intermittently. yes, it’s absolutely abnormal.

so the hospital it’s sent to, and guess what the doctor tells me? “there’s a black thing that’s missing that’s causing the problem” i look and look and i really have no idea what the doctor is saying cos i din even realise there’s something there in the first place! the most shocking part follows:

“the replacement for the parts costs S$100 (singapore dollars),” said the doctor.
“what!?!”
“yes, you compare the socket with the one on the padfone station you will see the difference.”
“errr … hmmm … (actually i still cant tell what’s there or what’s not) … but why did Asus install something that will so easily drop out in the first place? i have never heard of such a problem from any other phone.”
“yes, just to set your expectation there. for this time, becos it’s the first time (err…sounds like it’ll drop easily again and again and again?!?) we’ll waive the charges”

today, after 5 working days, i get to get back the phone. and the first thing i do is to examine what’s “new” that went missing … hmm … seriously … such a small piece of thing cost $100 !?!

it’s real small, so i have taken a close up shot of it here:
padfone2-connector-highlighted

for those who owns a padfone 2, you can compare my photo with your phone and you’ll get what i mean (i think).

so the advice is this, for anyone who’s going to buy a padfone 2, (1) get a new set with warranty cover, (2) don’t ever ROOT your device before the warranty expires, (3) if you are buying a used set, make sure you inspect the charging connectors very closely, and make sure the black ‘parts’ shown in my photo are intact, (4) don’t buy this model, get the latest padfone infinity instead.

for record sake, the proprietary charging cable cost S$15 from the hospital.

and for record sake x2, ASUS has done away with this (stupid) connector and revert to the standard mini USB. so this problem should effectively be no more? i’m not sure 😛

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padfone 2 station touch insensitive problem

lately my padfone 2 station appears insensitive to touch on the screen. it doesnt accept functions like “hold” which is needed to activate alternate character on the touch keyboard for example, and pinch to resize is also non-responsive. a search on the internet finally landed me on the solution shared in the padfone club. but the solution isnt available quickly through a search. perhaps not many pple have this problem, yet.

the solution to the problem is quite simple. it’s a software issue. a recalibration of the padfone 2 station is required. this can be done by downloading the software from asus support website. look for:

padfone 2 –> OS: Android –> Utilities –> Padfone2 Station Calibration Tool

you may need to download an RAR archive extractor to extract the apk file. plug in your padfone 2 to the station, run the apk (you’ll need to enable “Unknown Sources” software to run option found in Settings –> Security).

and it worked for me, and i hope it works for you too (:

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