Thank you, Berkeley!

I came to Berkeley from China as a Ph.D. student specializing in Educational Technology. I am interested in instructional design, especially design-learning activities supported by technologies based on design thinking.
I feel so lucky to have been a visiting student researcher at the BLC. I learned a lot about language teaching in different meetings and classes. While sitting in on Rick’s class on Language and Technology, I learned a lot about the relationship between language and technology. I also participated weekly in the BLC Fellows’ meetings and saw first-hand how people interested in language teaching do pedagogical research. 
I attended numerous language lectures at the BLC. What impressed me most was the special connection between language teaching and music as well as the use film clips in teaching.  I was so excited the first time I participated in the evening reading group of the BLC. We played different instruments together and explored the relationship between music and language. I want to thank Mark for the introduction of his interesting research about film clips in language teaching to me. I also want to thank Francis, Karen, Weisi, Hayato, and Oliver for the opportunities to visit their language classes in Japanese, French, Danish, and Khmer, where I experienced different language pedagogies.
While I was at Berkeley I completed my dissertation, and I have now successfully passed my oral defense though an online meeting the day before I returned to China. In my dissertation, I developed a Design Thinking Pedagogy which is supported by technology. I employed two empirical studies based on design thinking pedagogy in a mathematics class and an IT class. In my future work, I will explore technologies to enhance language learning under design thinking pedagogy. Thank you all for a wonderful year-long experience at the BLC!
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Best Regards

Lin Lin      

Department of Educational Technology

School of Educational Science

Nanjing Normal University