First semester’s research
I haven’t recorded class notes recently because I am coming to conclusions for this semester. I’m preparing for a presentation and paper submission now. The focus, as it stands now, is on creating base curricula for each year based on the best learning method to promote collaborative blended e-learning.
I am looking into first year students being taught using a more teacher-centered directed method in the first semester, learner-centered second semester, second year being student-centered project based and collaborative, and third and fourth students being completely student-centered collaborative problem solving environments that utilize technology to communicate via Skype or similar technologies to help solve a problem.
More to come…
Edutainment…for English class?
How many of you have had a great science, history or art class? Was it great because the teacher told you interesting facts, or because the text was sooooo interesting. Was it because the teacher involved you in the lesson or gave you the right amount of feedback; how about because you were learning things you could use in real life? Or possibly that their were activities in class you did that were fun? The last option may sound closest to what you would imagine as the best class. But was that what you did in Science, History or Art class? Probably not. I don’t ever remember playing games or doing activities in any of my classes, but maybe you do. I especially don’t remember ever doing ANYTHING fun in my English classes, well…I take that back. I did have a great creative writing class in which I had to present a product. Besides that one activity, nothing else stands out.
Who are the really great teachers? Looks like Walter Lewing is doing something good over at MIT. He recently appeared on Martha Stewart Living and has quite a few videos on YouTube of his fun classes. Professor Lewin teaches Physics.
Professor Walter Lewin - MIT Physics
Here in Japan, teachers with the most recognition are the ones who treat English class as a form of edutainment. It’s the ones who can keep the students attention long enough to get them involved in an activity that garners them the title of “good” teacher. Keeping the motivation high in the classroom means choosing material that is easy to make entertaining and fun to use. Some of my favorites include: restaurants, directions, shopping, invitations, introductions, emergencies, small talk, and complaints. I just wish I had all the props that Dr. Lewin has.
Class Notes #3 - 5-08-08
This week I had the students join our class group, then try to join a chat group to start talking to people around the world. Then I asked them to search for friends and add five new friends. We had difficulty with the firewall and the chat program, so I had them add a couple games they could challenge people with in order to make friends also. They were interested in the games. All of this is being done in English so I think they are learning vocabulary and are still motivated. I’m just hoping I can figure out how to overcome firewall issues so I can get them to chat with their new friends. It’s getting difficult.
How transparent can they be?
Can Japanese become transparent with friends they meet on the Internet? Japanese are so interdendent and privacy stricken making me wonder if true global communication can exist beyond business. As I look for ways to “connect” my students with the world, I am confronted with privacy and security issues around every corner. It seems I am spending more time trying to figure out how to protect my students than actually figuring out how to teach with technology.
As I continue using Facebook, my students are becoming more and more interested with the ability to use this popular social networking program in English. Next week, they will begin adding “friends” by searching for people with similar interests. The word “friend” in Japan means someone you have some kind of connection with. More than what we as westerners would think. Take for instance meeting someone at the gym. You may meet them only once, but the next time you see them you may introduce them to someone as a friend, “This is my friend, Gina.” Japanese on the other hand would only introduce by last name. This means simply adding “friends” feels strange. Pressing a button that says “Add as Friend” is like a commitment. What do they think of this “Face” “Book”?
Making these commitments is one hurdle, but a bigger problem may occur once they have overcome the fear of making friends with strangers. How much information about their life are they willing to share?
For instance, in 2005, The Dog Poop Girl story featured a South Korea University student who refused to clean up the feces of her dog in a subway compartment was posted on the Internet. The story soon hit the national headlines and even the Washington Post. The Internet users were not merely content to expose her wrongful deeds. They hunted her down, and exposed her personal data. Facing mounting public pressure, the girl eventually resigned from her university (Cheung, 2007).
Programs like Facebook allow you to see what every one of your friends is doing. To take it one more step, Twitter has the ability to show what your friends are doing almost 24 hours a day, meaning your life is so exposed and transparent that it almost feels like you are living together.
This closeness can also be a great reward for my students. In a country that is made up of groups and circles, sharing your daily life is almost commonplace amongst the cell phone connected youth. If students are able to create anonymous profiles from which they build a network of friends then categorizing them into lists such as close, school, or other, they can then open another account with their real name and invite only those friends who they wish to become closer to. Such is the case in my classes. They have all opened Facebook accounts with fake names and limited personal information. This makes it possible for them to experiment with the concept of making friends this way.
Even with this anonymity in the first stages, are Japanese students going to be able to open up enough to the world? What will it take for them to “reach out and touch someone (a reference to an AT&T slogan)”?
Factors to think about when teaching in Second Life
These are some of the questions going through my mind right now.
- Do your students like using computers?
- Do they have a computer at home that can access SL and run without a lot of lag or crashing?
- Do they have a USB headset?
- If you are teaching English, are they at least intermediate level speakers?
- Are your students motivated to use technology to learn?
- Are they bothered by troubleshooting computer problems?
- Would learning in Second Life benefit them more than traditional means of learning the material?
- Have they ever played a video game on their computer?
- Are they skilled at using applications such as Word, Excel and basic sound recording?
- What will you do to compensate for frustration in your students?
- Will your grading represent their efforts well?
- How will you provide assessments and feedback?
- Would using Second Life enhance their main objective in the class or would it detract from the course objective?
Class Notes #2 - 4-30-08
These are the class notes for week three of my the pilot classes for virtual language learning at Mukogawa Women’s University. We have been working in Facebook this week. The students are taking to it well. They haven’t made friends outside of class but they seem to be enjoying the process of setting up their profiles. We will be working on making friends next week. The average student has only one or two friends. I hope they will at least add each other by the end of the next class (next week is Golden Week so we won’t be meeting).
The first year student may not be able to use Skype, at least not this semester anyway. I’m not sure if any of the students will be using Second Life yet. I’ve started a cub after school but virtually no one is showing up. This makes me think how honestly motivated students are to learn English. “I really want to learn English” might be true, but are they willing to actually work at learning? I want to be rich, but am I willing and able to do what it takes?
Class Notes #1 - 4-17-08
These are my class notes for the first week of classes. We are using Facebook, Skype and Second Life this semester to help increase the student’s exposure and motivation in learning to communicate in English. Over 100 students, in three classes (1st yr Speaking, 2nd Adv Conversation, 3rd yr Writing) are taking part in this project.
I am recording my experiences in podcast format due to a lack of time. This Summer I will compile my notes and records into a paper which will be presented to the university and at various conferences and presentations.
You are free to comment and lend any ideas or support to make this project a success for educators worldwide.
Chatbots in Second Life 2
If a Japanese student is going to stand a chance walking up to a foreigner and starting a conversation, they should at least be able to ask 5-10 questions with the utmost confidence that what they are saying is correct. The only way to do that is to practice asking the same questions many times. But how can they do that when the only chance they have to ask a foreigner even one question happens on a very rare occasion? Introducing chatbots.
Chatbots aren’t new, but the fact they have been around for almost 10 years, and haven’t been exploited to their full potential, baffles me. Sites like Oddcast and Sitepal have been putting faces to them for years, but we still haven’t figured out how to make them mainstream. Don’t you think our students would love to sit in class with their cell phones practicing English?
OK. Maybe that sounds a little far fetched, but is it? Imagine if we could involve them in conversations with virtual friends who become their partners for a semester. The students could train them to say how to respond to every question posed to them. How fun would that be? Yes, of course that would be a very advanced exercise, but in the simplest form it would mean we could at least get students to communicate in the classroom in a way that is much more interactive than the 3 minutes they have with a native speaker.
Here is a video I recorded today of a chatbot I made. I’m going to experiment with it to see how the students take to using it. It’s also available through the web so those without Second Life can also access it.
Article in Japanzine - Second Life Kobe
Looks like my article (Alternate Universe–I didn’t title it. In the Magazine it is titled Second Life Kobe: Special K goes Virtual. ???) was published in the April issue of Japanzine, a popular English magazine here in Japan. I was approached a couple weeks ago and asked about a group I had advertised in their magazine. After explaining more about my intentions, the reporter asked if I could write up some information about the club. I didn’t expect they would cut and paste the article word for word into the magazine. I’m glad I at least proofread it once. Whew.
So now it looks as though I’ll be going forward with this group. I had to step back plans to begin to make it happen because of my work schedule, but since this article puts me on the spot, I had better produce 
. I’m going to the meeting space today to book the room at KICC for Saturday, May 10th from 3:00-5:00 in Sannomiya (not confirmed) .
Here is a map to KICC and the website
The first meeting will be to introduce the group, and see what interest there is in getting something like this going. Very casual and free. English and Japanese spoken.
UPDATE: These meetings are no longer. (Dec 2008)
Chatbots in Second Life
I am trying to find ways to connect my students with the outside world by utilizing virtual worlds and various communication devices. But just as is the problem with meeting people in real life, so is the problem in Second Life. There just aren’t that many chances to meet people. This makes it incredibly difficult. Collaborating with schools halfway across the globe is extremely time consuming and very undependable. So what is we could have a place which was available 24 hours a day and was always available for interaction?
Here’s the concept. We make a place in Second Life that is always advertised as having someone real or not available for chatting. Let’s say for instance I am learning English and I would like to practice. I know that I can go to English Village and text chat with a robot, but that’s kind of boring. So where do I go? Nowhere. I give up because I don’t know where to go. But what if there was a chance that some real people might show up at that robot chat place? Then I could practice my English with a real person. So I teleport over there to see if there is anyone else around. Lucky for me there is someone there talking to the robot. So I walk up and say “Hi.” Pretty soon we have struck up a conversation, and I have made a new chat buddy.
More to come.
