“Similar to the ‘remix generation’ shift in media where new technologies (e.g. Tivo, RSS, podcasting, etc.) have increasingly put more power in the hands of media consumers, the same technologies will shift training from a traditional classroom-centric model to a more flexible, learner-centric, continuous learning model. ChinesePod is designed to support this shift by making professional Chinese training more convenient and effective through the use of free daily podcasts as an ‘on-ramp’ to a supplementary, subscription-based Personal Learning Center.”
With increased market power for training consumers, the average student will increasingly demand to learn WHAT, HOW, WHEN & WHERE they want. ChinesePod is very much a work in progress, but this is the challenge I have posed to the academic gurus at Kaien. How could the training of secondary languages be re-conceptualized to fit this new paradigm? While they naturally have expressed healthy reservation over such a shift, I commend them for being willing to experiment.
Thinking about the experience of a typical language student here in Shanghai (i.e. a Chinese learning English), it is quite possible that their total travel and waiting time for a class could exceed their total instruction time. This is a massive inefficiency that I believe can be dramatically improved. Just as I use podcasting and BitTorrent to enjoy audio & video on-demand, I increasingly expect my training to be on-demand. I believe in the future, a ‘classroom’ will not be the center of one’s learning experience as it is so often now, but simply a supplement to a process of continual learning.
We have no real training models on which to base our product design so we are very much innovating as we go along. We have already gotten a lot of good feedback from users and are eager for more. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please email us at chinesepod@gmail.com.
If you’re thinking about China, then figure out a way to push content out onto phones and with SMS. Broadband is still to young/undeveloped inside the Chinese home. But show me a Chinese person without a phone? (BTW, different for the USA, broadband everywhere now, phones on the other hand are too expensive, relatively speaking. The US mass consumer is not plunking $400 dollars down for a phone that plays MP3s, videos and takes feeds)
Definitely agree, but I think the trick is how the medium is used. SMS doesn’t lend itself particularily well as a broadcast technology, but as the guys at 蒙牛 with their 超级女声program can attest, it is a great way to make a program personal and interactive for the audience. As for broadband, China has 50 million broadband users and growing rapidly. Stats from the US show that broadband users are twice as likely as other internet users to consume podcasts, so in many ways an argument could be made that China should be the largest market for podcasts just as it is in so many other industries. A little ironically, a loose IPR in China might even encourage podcast growth as it doesn’t have the same kind of structural problems that the US has with intellectual property.
Hi Hank, just to argue for the sake of arguing!
Broadband in China. Okay, it’s different in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong vs anywhere else in China. I’m in anywhere else right now so my view is tainted. None of my friends have broadband, I am the only ‘crazy’ one spending Y198/month for a 2 mp connection that to me is still SLOW. 50 million out of a billion to me means young, undeveloped, not yet at critical mass. (Then again, it IS the hip, young and with cash from their multi-national corporation jobs Chinese urbanites that are craving ENGLISH language podcasts. Please Ken and Jenny, don’t defect!)
I had broadband in the States before everyone else had and I was online banking in a flash. But it took time and the shift in the price point of broadband to being much closer to dialup before there was any traction in the mass market. China has a good 6-7 years I figure before that happens in the medium sized cities. Right now I pay for NOTHING with my credit card, I pay my bills by walking with my two feet, I don’t pay Chinese bills online, and heck no I don’t pay 99cents to download Chinese mp3s and yah I admit I’m paying 8 yuan not US$12 for a dvd. In other words there is a hecka lot of transition time ahead.
As for podcasts in China, without the mass-market distribution of broadband it’s tough to Podcast w/o iPods and there are no iPods here, at least where I AM. All the other ‘local’ mp3 players are just to small in capacity.
Lastly, SMS. Why can they distribute and charge in Japan? In South Africa too. I can ‘forward an SMS to like a jillion people if I want’. People are downloading music clips and wallpaper to phones, why not an RSS feed, a podcast? I just figure it’s not blossomed here yet because so very few people have credit cards or Paypal accounts here to build the billing/payment infrastructure. (Ohh and don’t throw out a figure that 88 million Chinese already have credit cards!)
So is this all just seeing the glass half empty? Geez if I had just one dollar from every Chinese person!?…….well truth be told, I’m in China cause it is a heck of a lot more fun and filled with BIG opportunities than all those ‘developed’ (overgrown) countries, so we probably violently agree.
David, I just wanted to add that Australia is far from underdeveloped, yet like most countries it does not have the availability nor the cheapness of technology found in the USA. I still have a permanent 28k modem connection for my mail and web servers, which costs about $50/month plus 20c per MB in plus a lesser amount per MB out, not to mention overheads. It’s difficult and expensive to get ADSL with a permanent IP address, but I do have it now for my desktop use.
Many people in Australia, even in major cities near where I live, can’t get broadband available for any amount of money. Some day, they say. On the other hand we do use a lot of mobile phones, partially related to the distances and problems with cables, and partly to our keenness to adopt new technologies when we can. I don’t think Australia is particularly backward in the big wide world. It just doesn’t happen to be the USA, that’s all.