Ms Shú-jyuan Jiang of Changan Elementary School has been given the Excellent Teacher Awarded by the Taipei City government.  One of her outstanding deeds was the roll-out of the Junyi platform in the school.  Her effort has made the Junyi platform a popular tool for learning mathematics in Changan Elementary School.  Let’s see what she did in the roll-out.

        When I was having the job interview at Changan Elementary School, I learned that the school needed a teacher who manages computer related issues.  I was capable of handling those issues and I took the responsibilities on my own initatives.  I became a system manager when I joined Changan.  I helped the school in the management of the computers.  Subsequently, Ms yùn-tíng Jhu left the position of leader of information services team.  I had first-hand knowledge of the computer and network issues in Changan and I naturally took the position as the team leader whose responsibilities are more about management and planning than hands-on care.  Issues like which classroom needs computer facilities, content of the school webpage that helps disseminate school’s message, necessary computer skills for Grade 6 pupils etc. are covered by the team leader.
       I like the role of the leader very much.  I got to do something original that combined creativity and subject content to facilitate children’s learning.  Such job goes well with me since I like to seek new angles and explore new space with children.  I am not tired of the role even though I have been in the position for over 10 years.

       I learned about Junyi Academy in the news regarding Taipei International Conference of Innovative ICT Education in 2013.  The guest speakers included Mr Shin-chou Fang, Managing Director of Junyi Academy and Benson Yeh from the Pagamo platform.  I was interested in the suggestion of Mr Fang who mentioned a free-of-charge platform designed to assist underprivileged children in learning.  Junyi denotes the concept of equity and supremacy.  Regardless of financial conditions and living condition, as long as one gets hold of an internet connected computer, he gets equal opportunity in obtaining education with supreme quality content. 

       I was really touched by the words of Mr Fang.  Even though I am a teacher in Taipei City where financial conditions of most households are better off, I still see families that cannot afford after-school tutoring.  When a child of such family does not understand coursework, he may not be able to seek help at home.  If he cannot afford the charge for tutors or self-learning materials, he is stuck.  It is a shame that we left the child in such helplessness.  I’ve decided to help our pupil after hearing the speech of Mr Fang.  I’ve had the advantage of managing the information services team that gave me access to computing resources and opportunity to talk to all the teachers.  I took initiative to shoulder the responsibility to evaluate and rollout the Junyi platform.

       I was teaching Grade 5 and 6 computer studies.  If I started with Grade 5, there were 2 upcoming years to get them used to the Junyi platform.  With Grade 6, there were only 6 months in the second semester to show it to them.  I had only limited time and resources and could not start with something too big.  Also, I wasn’t completely sure that it would be as effective as the Junyi people had told me.  I had to evaluate it first.  If it was really good, I would choose to start with Grade 6.
      I started with some Grade 6 pupils who were a bit behind in their mathematics and were attending remedial teaching.  I spent lunch hour with them on Junyi.  Firstly, I had to get used to it myself.  Also, I had no extra-pay if I was to do it during other timeslots.  After a short period, the Junyi attendee scored at least 85 in mathematics in examination.  They used to fail the normal and mid-term examinations.  This proved that the platform is effective.  I wasn’t working on this alone but with the home-room teachers.  I started logging the problems and performance of the pupils after every Junyi session.  I met with home-room teachers to discuss and compare the performance of the pupil during the junyi session and in mathematics lessons.  We wanted know if there were any change in attitude and examination results.
     Home-room teachers wanted to help their pupils.  We weren’t doing it under the directive of the headmaster and Director Of Academic Affairs and we held the session for two months.  From failure to over 85, we had a strong sense of achievement.  We summarized the whole thing including the rollout plan and experience in a research paper.  The submission of the paper brought us an award which gave us a very strong encouragement.  Starting from 2015, all computer studies class for Grade 4 to 6 cover user training for the Junyi platform.
    The reward system on the platform has been adjusted continually.  I gave small prizes to those who made improvement in their Energy Points.  It turned out me subsequently that there prize has no direct bearing on using the platform. I couldn’t keep on gauging their Energy Point and I could not afford to give out prize all the time.  The prize was not a motivation for those who didn’t use it.  In 2015, we started a “Junyi Club” which is not open to all pupils but only those who use it.  We want to award the active users with “fun in learning”.  You can consider this an elite club or interest group.  We believe that such gathering can take learning to the next level.
    Currently, all Grade 4 to 6 pupils are registered to Junyi and 1/3 of them finish the missions given to them by the platform.  The result is very good.  In the early stage of the rollout, Junyi was primarily used in remedial teaching.  In later stage, redemption of Energy Points becomes a strong motivation.  During the recent years, one of the most effective drive was the missions given to them during term breaks.  Everyone who completes the missions, which consist of about 100 at summer break and 50 at winter break, gets to join the Junyi Club.

       There was a major update of the Junyi software which largely changed the Proficiency Process.  In the old version, when an exercise was correctly done, the proficiency status would be changed and show a different color.  The currently version is different. The proficiency status would revert to previous state in a month.  To re-gain the proficiency status, one has to complete 4 exercises without wrong answers.  Some pupils consider this difficult, but I insisted on re-gaining the status.  A lot of pupils were frustrated.  That was a set-back.  My insistence had led to the frustration of many students.  I would have done differently if the same shall happen again.

      Some improvements are actually needed.  It is the reward system.  What can children do with the Energy Points?  They cannot redeem the Energy Points for prizes.  There were certain shortcomings, such as that user could not communicate with others on the platform.  Pupil A could not share and chat with pupil B.  There weren’t social networking function on the platform.  Teacher could not talk to pupils.  We kept polling Junyi for such functions which eventually were implemented.  We expressed negative opinions simply because we have been using it.  My relationship with the Junyi team has improved as I continually point to the shortcomings.  Our pupils love it more if whenever it gets better.  I believe many teachers like Junyi too.  They are probably doing the same which is giving Junyi suggestions.  The recent improvements include new questions that include icons and jokes.  There are also contests that are open to all as long as one wants to do exercise.  Such improvements are actually beyond expectation.  Our children like them very much.

     I am not commercial endorser of Junyi. I will introduce anything that help pupil in self-learning.  They have to the master of their own learning.  There are so many emerging websites for self-learning such as LearnMode that focuses primarily on natural science and social studies.  If one wants strengthening knowledge obtained in school, he can fill in his blanks by self-learning on the platform.  I want to propose the idea of being the master of his own learning.  Don’t give up.  Junyi is not a necessary path for doing well in mathematics.  Through using Junyi, one practices self-learning.  I wish that the experience of such internet based self-learning application would nurture and eventually become a habit of Changan’s pupils.  One can look up the internet for answer should a question come up.

     I started with small seminars for teachers and encouraged them to try out Junyi on selected pupils.  When such pupils showed improvement, the home-room teachers asked their classes to use Junyi.  I repeatedly emphasized the merits of Junyi in the early days.  It is the teachers who urge me to open accounts for their classes now.  When another teacher becomes aware of such improvement in neighbouring class, he wouldn’t want his class to be left behind and would rush to register his pupils on the Junyi platform.  Our school goes steadily with Junyi without questions now.

      Instead of encouragement, I prefer to give you my gratitude.  The adoption of Junyi as the theme of your study would help induce in yourself the habit of self-learning.  Your website would be certainly be visited by others and trigger positive influence.  Apart from the public, your study means great encouragement to the Junyi team.  The study infers that you’ve placed importance on Junyi.  Their effort behind the website actually means something to pupils.  They may consider you brand representative which probably gives them a hand in marketing.
     What you are doing is very important.  You have to disseminate the message about Junyi.  I want to thank you for getting the concept of self-learning across.  If our children are highly capable, our nation would be strong in the future.  I consider this study a very important project.