Part One: Why we should use GanJingWorld and promote it in our classes
For students, searching for materials online has become a very common practice. Whether it is for a hard math question, or maybe a complex physics problem, or some facts/formulas for other subjects. However, on most websites and platforms, there is often content or advertisements that are inappropriate for our students, but they do pop up randomly and could either be annoying, or become a negative influence.
With this situation in mind, it brings us to the answer of Why we should use GanJingWorld in our teachings—
Part Two: A brief intro to the platform: GanJingWorld
First of all, on GanJingWorld, there are no violent or erotic materials, either in content or in advertisements, thus making it clean and safe for students and school-aged children to use. (In GJW, they use AI tools to check for anything that does not comply with the no violence/erotic rule, and there’s also the ‘Report’ button for each video/short/article where users can report violations of that rule if, by any chance, they do see such content)
And then, as a company based in New York, it was founded in 2022 by James Qiu, a former Apple executive, so the resources on this platform are mostly up-to-date and relevant to the educational trend.
What's more, the platform is non-addictive: that is to say, unlike many social media platforms such as TikTok, GJW uses algorithms that are non-addictive. So for example, if you’re watching a video on this platform, there won’t be pop ups of many similar stuff—a fact that makes it very beneficial as we can regulate the time students spend online.
Also, GJW is a very inclusive and user-friendly platform with multimedia content. Unlike many other social media platforms where it's mostly videos and shorts, here they also have articles, polls, and posts to better support user interactions and navigation. And for the polls, it is even possible for students to participate without the need to log in or create an account. Making this resource even more appealing, memorable, and accessible for all.
Yet, while GJW is a relatively new and fast-growing platform, it doesn’t have as much content as YouTube, especially in the education sector, so they are trying to encourage more educators to join—And one great incentive for Teachers to use this platform is that educators can have free premium Channel if they apply now!
Part Three: How Teachers Can Use GanJingWorld In Our Teaching Practices
From my perspective, there are 4 major aspects where we could employ GJW in our professional practices and development:
- Use it's similarity to YouTube:
Teachers can post videos and shorts of class material here (for example: math teachers can post solution processes for complex tasks), by targeting the parts that students are confused about or didn't fully comprehend during class, teachers are making their own classes more inclusive as it meets the needs of diverse students, and this is also an effective way to perfect our classroom teaching
Asynchronous classes— In the videos, teachers can upload their recorded classes and post them on GJW, making it possible to work at a distance when teachers have such needs. Unforeseen situations may occur, and having such a platform where we can safely upload our classes to without worrying about content influence on students is very helpful.
Livestream—When necessary, teachers can have online classes here as well. Different from Zoom, we can just save that live-streamed video to our class playlist in our channel, making it easily accessible for our students, especially if they have a schedule conflict or when they need to review.
2. Use it's similarity to a personal website
I have observed that in Canada, many professors and teachers showcase their teaching philosophies and professional development on their websites. However, those websites do take up a great deal of space in our laptops and/or computers, and the videos on those websites often link back to YouTube where there is content and advertisements that aren’t suitable for students
Yet on GJW, it’s not just possible to edit and modify one’s channel to be similar to a website, but also great as all the content in one’s channel (videos/shorts/articles/posts/polls) can be made public(open to everyone) or private (2 cases here: totally private, and open to anyone with the link to it) by the channel owner.
3. Use it effectively in the class (polls/posts/videos/shorts/announcements/hashtags)
Polls: Before class or at the start of a unit, we can use the polls as pre-evaluation to better understand our students’ levels of understanding and areas of interest, and plan our lessons accordingly; During class, we can use polls to make up multi-choice questions to add interactive activity for the lessons, making them more fun and engaging for the students; After class, the polls can be used as exit tickets to assess what students have learned and how much they’ve mastered—anonymity makes students more willing to share their opinions ( especially if they haven’t understood a topic/problem).
Hashtags: As premium channel owners, teachers can use their unique hashtags to make class announcements, interact with students, create and maintain a safe and open environment for learning and school logistics.
4. Use it as a platform for teachers’ sharing & professional development:
Many teachers use journals and websites to share their teaching methods and learn those of others, but the advertisements on these websites might not always be appropriate for many, so on this clean platform, teachers can share their teaching experiences, findings, activities, strategies, etc.
What’s more, most parents can see these contents as well, and be able to better collaborate with the teachers to improve their children’s academic and overall development.
Part Four: Involvement of the Education community: parents, students, school administrators…
As mentioned above, parents can see the class announcements and materials the teachers post, they can also create channels and post relevant resources, interact with the teachers, and better understand each other through comments or polling, etc. In my opinion, communication is a key part in developing and promoting a positive teacher-parent relationship, and it can have conducive effects on our students' learning progress.
Moreover, parents can also upload content from the fields they are experts/interested in, such as maths, programming, chess, mechanics, music, sports… By doing so, they can contribute to the extra-curricular activities/initiatives/resource pool of their children's schools, and become more involved in their children's growth in and/or outside of the classroom.
Last but not least, GJW is a multi-lingual platform, so schools can create channels and promote their values and events here in a global context, they can also use hashtags as a way to better involve the educational community, and by using a platform clean of any violence and porn, they are creating an inclusively diverse environment that supports their students' mental and psychological wellbeing
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