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Greetings from Japan

By onctomek on May 10, 2016

Hello everyone, my name is Tomek Ziemba and I’m an assistant professor at the National Institute of Technology, Oita College on the western Japanese island of Kyushu.

My prefecture is quite rural but also right beside Kumamoto which suffered huge losses and damage from the earthquakes and landslides that happened a few weeks ago. Oita also suffered damage and still experiences aftershocks (we’ve had over 1000 since “the big ones”) and schools have finally gone back in session as of yesterday. There is still lots of recovery to be done, but things are slowly but surely going back to normal.

I graduated from the Faculty of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa and since then have been teaching English in Japan for over a decade now. English is not my field of study but after having done it for so long, I am now conducting research on EFL education and other related fields through collaborative efforts with other professors at my College and around the world.

My reason for joining the MET program was to become familiar with the use of technology for educational purposes. The Institutes of Technology in Japan aim to foster future engineers through a 5 or 7-year system (high school and vocational school/undergrad degree in one). However one of my 6th year classes (21 year olds) the students still hand write their reports because they are not familiar with using Word to type in English (let alone in Japanese). Other professors still teach with chalk on blackboards, and using a projector for PowerPoint presentations is seen as super high tech by most of the older professors.

My reason for taking this course is to learn more about how to start up and run a learning technology venture. Through my work at my college I have had to take care of several exchange students who come with little to no knowledge of Japanese and struggle their entire time here. My goal is to create an online (?) Japanese language education course that I can use to pre-teach the students the language before coming, and hopefully expand it to anyone else who wants to learn the language before coming to study or even just sightsee here.

Unfortunately for school rules I can’t put up any pictures of myself or my students, but here is a video that they made for the national robotics competition in which they won the design award for their Lion Robot. They can program and design something like this from scratch but cannot log into a website or type anything on a computer still boggles my mind… https://youtu.be/T_IYRuKomB0

I look forward to learning about everyone else’s situations and environments and hopefully collaborating with others throughout the course and even beyond if possible!

Tomek

 

 

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11 May Posted on Greetings from Japan

Hi Tomek, nice to see a friendly face. Seems as if we're running into each other digitally quite often, haha. That video is really cool. That robot is super neat. Its interesting to see the intersection of Japan's youths struggle with technology. I read a paper not long ago that my fiancé was recommended from her studies discussing how.

11 May
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Dominic Maggiolo @maggiolo

Hi Tomek, nice to see a friendly face. Seems as if we're running into each other digitally quite often, haha. That video is really cool. That robot is super neat. Its interesting to see the intersection of Japan's youths struggle with technology. I read a paper not long ago that my fiancé was recommended from her studies discussing how.

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10 May Posted on Greetings from Japan

Hello Tomek, I taught in Japan (ESL, at ... NOVA... *shudder*, as well as a startup called KGC - Kokusai Gaigo Centre) back in 1999-2000 and I do remember the odd transposition (one of so, so many in Japan) of ultra-high tech (I had a cell phone advanced far beyond what was being used in N. America) and ultra low-tech (there was only one place in the town I lived in -- Muikamachi, Niigata-ken -- where one could access the internet (!). I miss Japan, and I would love to go back to explore the south. My experience there was fairly limited and I only explored parts of Honshu (Tokyo, Yokohama, & Niigata). It's interesting that your students were able to engineer complex robotics, while at the same time, they have difficulty with what many would perceive as 'basic' digital literacy skills. I'm curious - how is ICT taught in Japan? Are many schools utilizing a 1-to-1 program? Stay safe! I experienced the boxing day earthquake (Indian Ocean, 2004) when I was living in Malaysia (it woke me up!) but you were much closer to the epicentre than I was. Praying that I'll be prepared if/when the "big one" hits here in Vancouver!

10 May
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cquarrie @cquarrie

Hello Tomek, I taught in Japan (ESL, at ... NOVA... *shudder*, as well as a startup called KGC - Kokusai Gaigo Centre) back in 1999-2000 and I do remember the odd transposition (one of so, so many in Japan) of ultra-high tech (I had a cell phone advanced far beyond what was being used in N. America) and ultra low-tech (there was only one place in the town I lived in -- Muikamachi, Niigata-ken -- where one could access the internet (!). I miss Japan, and I would love to go back to explore the south. My experience there was fairly limited and I only explored parts of Honshu (Tokyo, Yokohama, & Niigata). It's interesting that your students were able to engineer complex robotics, while at the same time, they have difficulty with what many would perceive as 'basic' digital literacy skills. I'm curious - how is ICT taught in Japan? Are many schools utilizing a 1-to-1 program? Stay safe! I experienced the boxing day earthquake (Indian Ocean, 2004) when I was living in Malaysia (it woke me up!) but you were much closer to the epicentre than I was. Praying that I'll be prepared if/when the "big one" hits here in Vancouver!

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10 May Posted on Greetings from Japan

Hi Tomek, Thank you for sharing the video of your student's robot and your observation of their skills gaps in other seemingly less advanced technologies. It begs the question, how much does one need to know? Do those gaps need to be filled in for each learner or are work teams built so that specialists or generalists collaborate to work? I have been immersed in online language instruction for the past eight years, so if you are moving forward on a online language school, I will endeavour to be a resource. I usually have more questions than answers.

10 May
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Briar Jamieson @briarjamieson

Hi Tomek, Thank you for sharing the video of your student's robot and your observation of their skills gaps in other seemingly less advanced technologies. It begs the question, how much does one need to know? Do those gaps need to be filled in for each learner or are work teams built so that specialists or generalists collaborate to work? I have been immersed in online language instruction for the past eight years, so if you are moving forward on a online language school, I will endeavour to be a resource. I usually have more questions than answers.

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10 May Posted on Greetings from Japan

Hi Tomek, thanks for sharing your story. I’m interested in your circumstances since they are reflective of lack of institutional support for technology, which I’m sure many of your classmates will relate to. I’m impressed with your motivation to develop an online course, and hope that this course gives us the skills to move forward on that type of enterprise. I myself hope to digitize a workshop I am currently developing for physicians, but I think it will require a bit of institutional backing ($$$!) to get moving forward. Good luck!

10 May
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erinmenzies @erinmenzies

Hi Tomek, thanks for sharing your story. I’m interested in your circumstances since they are reflective of lack of institutional support for technology, which I’m sure many of your classmates will relate to. I’m impressed with your motivation to develop an online course, and hope that this course gives us the skills to move forward on that type of enterprise. I myself hope to digitize a workshop I am currently developing for physicians, but I think it will require a bit of institutional backing ($$$!) to get moving forward. Good luck!

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10 May Posted on Greetings from Japan

Welcome Tomek! It sounds like a very challenging situation. We are starting to run in to some situations like you mention here in Alberta where students are developing strong skills in one technological area but cannot type an email or join a class through google classroom without step by step guidance. I have a cousin who recently returned from teaching English in Japan (in Shizouka I think) at a pre/elementary school. She is now enrolled in a teaching program here and is looking to develop here technology skills and might be interested in a joint project of some kind. Perhaps I can put the two of you in touch?

10 May
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Dan Bosse @danbosse

Welcome Tomek! It sounds like a very challenging situation. We are starting to run in to some situations like you mention here in Alberta where students are developing strong skills in one technological area but cannot type an email or join a class through google classroom without step by step guidance. I have a cousin who recently returned from teaching English in Japan (in Shizouka I think) at a pre/elementary school. She is now enrolled in a teaching program here and is looking to develop here technology skills and might be interested in a joint project of some kind. Perhaps I can put the two of you in touch?

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