線上教學平台 因疫情重生

Sandeep Gupta, a technology manager in California, sees the economic storm caused by the coronavirus as a time “to try to future-proof your working life.” So he is taking an online course in artificial intelligence.

美國加州科技業經理古普塔認為，新冠肺炎引發的經濟風暴是「防止職業生涯被未來淘汰」的時機，所以修讀了一門關於人工智慧的線上課程。

Dr. Robert Davidson, an emergency-room physician in Michigan, says the pandemic has cast “a glaring light on the shortcomings of our public health infrastructure.” So he is pursuing an online master’s degree in public health.

密西根州急診室醫師戴維森說，疫情「使我們公衛基礎設施的弱點顯而易見」，所以他在修讀線上公衛碩士學位。

Children and college students aren’t the only ones turning to online education during the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of adults have signed up for online classes in the past two months, too — a jolt that could signal a renaissance for big online learning networks that had struggled for years.

在新冠肺炎大流行期間轉而接受線上教育者，不限於兒童和大學生。過去兩個月，數以百萬計的成人也註冊參加線上課程，這令人驚訝的事實可能意味苦撐多年的大型線上學習網路即將再起。

Coursera, in which Gupta and Davidson enrolled, added 10 million new users from mid-March to mid-May, seven times the pace of new sign-ups in the previous year. Enrollments at edX and Udacity, two smaller education sites, have jumped by similar multiples.

古普塔與戴維森註冊的Coursera，從3月中旬到5月中旬增加1000萬新用戶，是去年同期新增註冊人數的七倍。edX與Udacity這兩個規模較小的教育網站，新註冊人數也以類似倍數暴增。

“Crises lead to accelerations, and this is best chance ever for online learning,” said Sebastian Thrun, a co-founder and chairman of Udacity.

Udacity共同創辦人兼董事長史朗說：「危機導致改變加速發生，這是線上學習業未曾遇過的最佳良機。」

Coursera, Udacity and edX sprang up nearly a decade ago as high-profile university experiments known as MOOCs, for massive open online courses. They were portrayed as tech-fueled insurgents destined to disrupt the antiquated ways of traditional higher education. But few people completed courses, grappling with the same challenges now facing students forced into distance learning because of the pandemic. Screen fatigue sets in, and attention strays.

Coursera、Udacity和edX近十年前出現，嘗試與大學合作推出線上課程而備受矚目，這類課程名為「大規模開放線上課程」，簡稱「磨課師」。這種課程被描述為獲得科技支持的反叛者，意在顛覆傳統高等教育過時的授課方式。不過，很少有人能修完課程，這些人窮於應付的挑戰，與目前因為疫情被迫遠距學習的學生一樣。長時間盯著螢幕造成疲勞，而且注意力難以集中。

But the online ventures adapted through trial and error, gathering lessons that could provide a road map for school districts and universities pushed online. The instructional ingredients of success, the sites found, include short videos of six minutes or less, interspersed with interactive drills and tests; online forums where students share problems and suggestions; and online mentoring and tutoring.

不過這些線上企業透過反覆試驗來調整，並且積聚了可供被迫線上授課的學區和大學參考的知識和經驗。這些網站發現，線上授課成功的要素包括：短片時間不超過6分鐘，穿插互動練習和測驗；設立線上論壇，讓學生提出問題和建議；並提供線上指導和輔導。

A few top-tier universities, such as the University of Michigan and the Georgia Institute of Technology, offer some full degree programs through the online platforms.

有幾所頂尖大學，如密西根大學和喬治亞理工學院，透過這些線上平台提供一些正式學位學程。

While those academic programs are available, the online schools have tilted toward skills-focused courses that match student demand and hiring trends.

這些線上學校雖提供學術性學程，卻更傾向開設符合學生需要和雇用趨勢的技能課程。

The COVID-19 effect on online learning could broaden the range of popular subjects, education experts say. But so far, training for the tech economy is where the digital-learning money lies. With more of work and everyday life moving online — some of it permanently — that will probably not change.

教育專家指出，新冠肺炎可能會使線上課程熱門科目範圍變得更廣。不過到目前為止，針對科技經濟提供的訓練課程，才是數位教學業的金雞母。隨著更多的工作和日常生活轉移到線上進行，有些是永遠轉到線上，這種情況大概不會改變。

說文解字看新聞【李京倫】

美國愈來愈多針對8到12歲兒童的童書以性騷擾和性侵為主題，因為作者認為，等到兒童上中學之後才跟他們討論這類主題，為時已晚。

sexual assault性攻擊是不經同意，迫使對方與自己發生性行為，也就是強暴（rape）。在法律上是指強迫他人與自己性接觸的刑事罪，各國定義不同，有的包括強暴，有的專指強暴。

一般來說，rape和sexual assault可以互換，但rape比較直白，語氣強烈，情緒也較濃，sexual assault則比較正式，偏向官方用語，警方、法院或是統計上經常使用。

hill to die on這個慣用語源自軍事訓練，原意是不計代價占領一處高地，衍伸義是某件事非常重要，不論多困難都要處理，通常用在反面說法，如：It's not a hill I'm willing to die on.

推倒雕像 美國重新檢視歷史

The boiling anger that exploded in the days after George Floyd gasped his final breaths is now fueling a national movement to topple perceived symbols of racism and oppression in the United States, as protests over police brutality against African Americans expand to include demands for a more honest accounting of all American history.

在喬治．佛洛伊德掙扎嚥下人生最後幾口氣之後，美國民眾的怒火四處爆發，如今正激起全國性運動，要推翻美國境內具有種族歧視和壓迫意涵的象徵。反對警察對非裔美國人施暴的抗議已擴大其訴求，要求對美國全部歷史做更誠實的敘述。

In Portland, Oregon, demonstrators protesting against police killings turned their ire to Thomas Jefferson, toppling a statue of the Founding Father who also enslaved more than 600 people.

在奧勒岡州的波特蘭，抗議警察殺人的示威者將憤怒轉向湯瑪斯．傑佛遜，推倒這位曾蓄養600多名奴隸的開國之父的雕像。

In Richmond, Virginia, a statue of Italian navigator and colonizer Christopher Columbus was spray-painted, set on fire and thrown into a lake.

在維吉尼亞州的里奇蒙，義大利探險家兼殖民者克里斯多福．哥倫布的雕像被噴漆、縱火且推入湖中。

And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tensions over a statue of Juan de Oñate, a 16th-century colonial governor exiled from New Mexico over cruel treatment of Native Americans, erupted in street skirmishes and a blast of gunfire before the monument was removed.

在新墨西哥州的阿布奎基，胡安．德．奧納特的雕像引發緊張，這位16世紀的殖民地州長因殘酷對待美國原住民，自新墨西哥流亡。在雕像被移除之前，曾發生街頭小規模衝突和一波槍火。

Across the country, monuments criticized as symbols of historical oppression have been defaced and brought down at warp speed in recent days. The movement initially set its sights on Confederate symbols and examples of racism against African Americans but has since exploded into a broader cultural moment, forcing a reckoning over such issues as European colonization and the oppression of Native Americans.

在全國各地，這些被批評為歷史上壓迫象徵的紀念物，近日以極快的速度被毀損及拆下。這波運動起初聚焦於南方邦聯象徵和歧視非裔美國人的典型事例，但之後爆發為更廣泛的文化事件，促成對歐洲人殖民和壓迫美國原住民等等議題的清算。

In New Mexico, it has surfaced generations-old tensions among indigenous, Hispanic and Anglo residents and brought 400 years of turbulent history bubbling to the surface.

在新墨西哥，原住民、西語裔和盎格魯白人居民間，數個世代之久的緊張關係因而浮上檯面，400年來紛亂不安的歷史也沸騰起來。

“We’re at this inflection point,” said Keegan King, a member of Acoma Pueblo, which endured a massacre of 800 or more people directed by Oñate, the brutal Spanish conquistador. The Black Lives Matter movement, he said, had encouraged people to examine the history around them, and not all of it was merely written in books.

「我們正處於這個轉折點上。」阿科馬普韋布羅成員吉干．金恩說，這個部落曾經歷由殘暴西班牙征服者奧納特主導的一場屠殺，有800多人死亡。他說，「黑人的命也是命」運動鼓勵民眾檢視他們周遭的歷史，而並非所有事都只寫在書裡。

“These pieces of systemic racism took the form of monuments and statues and parks,” King said.

「這些系統性種族歧視的片段，以紀念物、雕像和公園的形式存在。」金恩說。

The debate over how to represent the uncomfortable parts of American history has been going on for decades, but the traction for knocking down monuments seen in recent days raises new questions about whether it will result in a fundamental shift in how history is taught to new generations.

關於該如何呈現美國歷史上這些令人不舒服的部分，已爭論數十年，但是近日所見拆毀雕像大行其道，卻引發了新的問題：就如何將歷史教授給新世代而言，這是否會導致根本性的改變。

“It is a turning point insofar as there are a lot of people now who are invested in telling the story that historians have been laying down for decades,” said Julian Maxwell Hayter, a historian and associate professor at the University of Richmond.

「這是個轉捩點，因為有許多人現在投注心力於訴說被歷史學家擱置幾十年的故事。」歷史學家、里奇蒙大學副教授朱利安．麥斯威爾．海特說。

He said that statues removed from parks and street corners could be teaching points if they are placed in museums, side-by-side with documents and first-person accounts from the era.

他說，從公園和街角移除的雕像可以成為授課重點，如果它們改放到博物館，和那個時代的文件及第一手陳述並列。

說文解字看新聞【莊蕙嘉】

美國非裔男子佛洛伊德被白人警察壓頸致死引爆示威潮，美國數十年來未解的種族爭議再度浮上檯面。racism可譯為種族主義或種族歧視，字義本身包含因種族不同形成的差異，意同racial discrimination。

種族是敏感話題，用字必須謹慎，通常會用African描述黑人，例如佛洛伊德案中，新聞皆用African American描述其族裔。black則用於和白人對比的情況，例如Black Lives Matter運動。negro或nigger有「黑鬼、老黑」的嚴重歧視意味，切勿使用。

常見的歧視華人字眼有chino（老中）、chinito（中國佬）等，刻板印象濃厚。2012年2月，ESPN報導NBA台裔球員林書豪時，編輯下了「Chink in the Armor」的標題，原意是「盔甲的裂縫」，用來比喻他賽中的弱點，卻因chink一字也有「中國人」之意，源自華人普遍細長的眼睛，有種族歧視之嫌，引發軒然大波，那位編輯因此丟了飯碗。

如果要在文章或談話中提到族裔，通常會使用以地域區別的較中立且泛稱性質的用字，例如African、Asian、Anglo（北美白人）、Caucasian（歐洲白人），宜乎避免white、black、yellow等涉及膚色的字眼。