Gifts That Show You Care - Instead of a present, donate on someone's behalf!

This is a nice article Kristof of the New York Times.

I ask my relatives to donate to causes rather than buy me presents.

Really, I mean, almost all of us in the US and Japan have everything we need.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/kristof-gifts-that-say-you-care.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Never Let Me Go (2010) Directed by Original by K. Ishiguro

Just saw this, in connection with the beginning of the bioethics unit that I am going to be teaching from tomorrow in my ICU class.

The bioethics connection is that the characters in this movie are humans who have been raised as organ donors. They will be used for organ harvesting.

This is similar to the concept of the 2005 movie, The Island.

However, the movie Never Let Me Go, which is based on the acclaimed 2005 novel of the same title by Kazuo Ishiguro, is more than a bioethics SF film.

If fact, I would argue that it does not fit the genre of SF. It is much more. The file is not really about the ethics of using humans as organ donation machines. That is the main characteristic of the lives that the characters are living, but this is just a background theme that Ishiguro uses to explore other themes of human existence and relationships.

I thought the main theme is how we accept and deal with the time limit of our own existence. As Kathy, the protagonist, ponders at the end, there isn't so much difference between us (non-donor humans), and them, who were created to live, give, and die when they have completed giving. We live, have freedom to some extent, and give ourselves to others, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes with no choice, and them we are "completed," as the donors called it when they die from their final donation operation.

What has Ishiguro said about this novel? Why did he write it? I am curious and want to read the original.

YOU: A Course of Personal Writing -- My Reflection

After autumn term, the break flew by with various conferences and family obligations. I wanted to look back at my new course for ICU 2nd year students called YOU: A Course of Personal Writing.

Here's the link to the course blog.

http://you-personal-writing.blogspot.com/

It has the various course materials and links to student blog and writings.

This was a very fun course to teach, and I learned a lot. There's a saying that "the best way to learn something is to teach it" and this was very true, once again.

Basically, I allowed students free choice of topic, genre, and deadlines, and they just had to complete 20 blogs of free personal writing, and 3 published pieces that were drafted, revised, edited, and published on our blog.

The creativity of my students was very impressive. I also wrote a few pieces for practice, but since I have done very little creative writing since...high school, it was a very new and anxious process for me. I was very honest about that with my students, that I am not a professional creative writer in any way, and I was just one of the writers in the class trying to discover what is meaningful to me in terms of themes, and trying new genres.

How can the course be better? Students made excellent suggestions in their final reflections including adding a group project, introducing more examples of good writing, and ways to evaluate more transparently, and ways to help them squeeze out their creativity a little more efficiently with deadlines of some sort--so that not everything will be done at the last moment just before the end of the class.

I'm looking forward to teaching it next year!

Using the 20x20 PechaKucha presentation format for presentation training

Here's a link to a paper I published recently with my colleague Sylvan Payne in the Language Research Bulletin. Many thanks to the editorial board for their suggestions and patience for us (especially me) to finish the final writing and editing.

http://web.icu.ac.jp/lrb/volume-26-2011.html

Enjoy! We hope this will encourage teachers to try the 20x20 method in their classes.

It is always nice to be done with a research paper. Once again I wished I had done more sooner before the final deadline, but somehow it got done.

I want to thank my partner Sylvan for introducing 20x20 to me and persuading me to try it when we were team teaching a presentation course. He also created the initial templates we used.

I also want to thank all my students for the feedback they gave on their 20x20 experiences. Hopefully they have learned more about how an effective presentation can be prepared, rehearsed and delivered!

How was ARW Autumn 2011?

Winter term is starting, but I hadn't had a chance to look back at Autumn yet. My Winter term ARW course (Academic Reading and Writing, 3 hours a week for 10 weeks) is going to have similar learning activities, so I want to write down my thoughts on what went well and what needs to be improved.












This Autumn ARW was the first time that I had students write one longer essay and also do a presentation based on it. It was also the first time that I used blogging as the main reading reaction method in Autumn term.

One longer essay: Usually ARW starts the one longer essay in winter term, but I felt that students would benefit from focusing on just one topic, and really going into the process deeply and carefully. I think I was right. Most Program B students are ready to write 1500 word essays on a topic, and impressively, we did it in exactly 30 days, from topic selection to outline to draft to final paper. After the final deadline, we had a few days for me to give final feedback and require students to do English/format/citation editing as well.

The main drawback of this method was that a few students got stuck and had difficulty with developing the topic that they chose into a thesis and supporting paragraphs. For some students, perhaps 5 or 6 out of the 40 I taught, it is true that two shorter essays may have been better because they could have "reset" their topic and tried something that would be easier to research or write for them. However, this happens for any longer paper, so I still think one longer, or at least one medium length paper is better than two essays. For quality writing, an intensive approach seems to be better than an extensive, write-a-long, write-many-essays approach.

Perhaps the ideal flow of autumn is to start off with a very simple, short 500 word fixed topic essay that uses three or four required sources. That essay could be drafted and polished in two weeks. Then we could spend the rest of the term focusing on one essay.

Presenting Essay Ideas: Each student did a 20x20 Pecha-Kucha format presentation on their essay content, and these were very well done in almost all cases. A 20x20 is 400seconds long, with 20 slides shown 20 seconds each.  I rushed the process, and only a few students did the optional full rehearsal with me, but even students who did not do the rehearsal presented their ideas visually in a concise way with good rhythm. The challenge of doing this is to fit it into the busy terms we have at ICU. The 20x20s took 3 periods, or 10% of the class time we have. However, I think it was worth it.

I strongly believe that, for their future development as international professionals, being able to orally explain ideas is just as important as being able to explain them in writing. The research essay 20x20 is a good platform for developing presentation skills, and students get to learn from the research that their classmates have done. We may want to build in a requirement for this in all ARW classes from next year. It may not need to be a 20x20 presented in front of the whole class; perhaps it could be...a P&D that uses visuals?

Using a Blog for Reading Reactions: This continues to be experimental, and I still want to ask my student what they felt about doing it. The good thing about the learning blog is that students can see their own thoughts in an organized way, and they own their own learning. Classmates can leave comments as well.

The drawback of the blog method is that it does not force students to read before class...the worksheet method is better for that. Most students write their blog after the discussion, which is more natural, so maybe it is fine.

Two ways to improve the blog homework are 1) make evaluation criteria clearer from the start by defining what a good reading reaction is, and 2) make commenting groups so that all students will receive peer comments on their blog entries.

I hope the students will enjoy these activities and find them more meaningful when I do them in future classes!

Reaction to Diamond's "Race Without Color"

Race without color? Is that possible?

Summary:
In his 1994 article in Discover Magazine, Jared Diamond argues that the traditional notion of "human races" (subspecies) based on visual features of skin, hair, eyes is not scientific. Furthermore, it is unnecessary and harmful to human society.

Race by Blood Type A?

Race by Fingerprint Type

 



























It may be true that different regions of the world have some notable characteristics such as dark skin in Africa, or narrower eyes in Asia. However, Diamond argues this does not mean that humans can be categorized into clear biological groups. Depending on what biological characteristic is used (skin, blood type, fingerprints, lactase digestion etc.) the groups come out differently. Based on sickle cell malaria gene catorizations, Swedish whites will be grouped with Xhosas in Africa. That is the problem of concordance. If the groupings vary according to the trait used, there is no concordance of variable traits, and therefore defining a subspecies of humans is not valid.

Today, DNA analysis is possible, and that will clarify how various populations migrated from Africa to other parts of the world. Obviously some groups are closer cousins, like Japanese are closer to Koreans and Tibetans. However, even within Japan, similar splitting is possible. Some people in Japan have more Mongolian genes, some have more Oceania genes. It is mixed and complex. That is the problem of hierarchy. Depending on how much difference in DNA you define as "different" (0.1%? 0.2%), the number of categories will change. The criteria is arbitrary and ultimately meaningless. Clear categories of human physical characteristics based on multiple traits cannot be defined. Categories with one or two traits are easy, of course, but which traits are used is arbitrary.

In race, traditionally, beauty traits were used because that is how humans like to subjectively and culturally separate themselves. As Diamond concludes, in primitive times, such 'us and them' distinctions may have been useful for protection. In the age of global interaction, such distinctions are unneeded and harmful.

Critical Reaction:
Does this argument make sense? It seems to. However, one thing that bothers me is that the definition of "concordance" (or any definition of subspecies) is hard to find on the Internet. Do other taxonomists agree with Diamond's view? I'm curious how solid the consensus of "no human races" is.

Also, assuming his argument is reasonable, what's the application? For one, scientists in any field should not use the word "races" in a biological sense. That seems clear. However, in society, people live from day to day based on their subjective, traditional notions. Whites think they are white, and Asians think they are Asian. The concept of race is subjective and cultural, but it IS something that people feel as a social category. Therefore, ignoring it or abandoning it is not a solution.

A proper understanding of both 1) the biological fallacy of race, and 2) the social reality of race is necessary.

My Reaction to Shreeve's "Terms of Estrangement"

James Shreeve, author of Terms of Estrangement, Discover magazine 1994 

Main Points:

Shreeve's main issue is whether the term "race" should be used in science and other professions such as police work or medical research. He interviews many experts to see what their opinions on it are. Most of his experts are anthropologists, and most of them (especially Armelagos, Marks, Smouse, Sauer, Lewontin and Brace) feel that the word "race" is NOT a scientific category that can be defined for humans. This follows the 1996 declaration by the American Association of Physical Anthropology (see via Moodle link). In other words, the categories are impossible to make because various geographical populations such as African, Asian, or European have not been isolated; they are all connected to each other and there are innumerable mixes. 

Thus, Shreeve's interview data seems to point to a consensus that race is a traditional socio-cultural perception of human categories based on sets of visual characteristics such as skin color, eyes, and shape of facial features. It is connected to geography and migration and genetic change, but there are no clear "bushel basket" categories. It is not scientifically definable. However, at the same time, it is undeniable that police find the word useful for finding identities of suspect with quick visual sets of traits, and medical researchers find that medicines can be developed for certain types of people within a country such as American Blacks, who have different genetic tendencies than American Whites. Those are just genetic tendencies or "sub-populations" or "sub-cultures", not "races". 

My Reactions:

My main question is "So what? What should we do with Shreeve's information?" Most of us are not anthropologists, so how is this connected to us? I understand that the term "race" comes from a European tradition from Linnaeus and Blumenbach and is not based on real science. People are different, but there are no clear categories that can be made. The genetic differences are mixed and complex based on human migration from Africa to other parts of the world. 

OK, if somebody asks me, "What is your race?", what will I say? Will I say "There are no races of humans, but my ancestors are mostly from Europe." 

Next, what will my children Michael and Mei say? The question "What is your race?" does not make sense to them at all. I guess they could say "We are biracial, with genes from a European father and Japanese/Asian mother, but that muddles the issue. Their best answer is probably "The word race should not be used, but our father's ancestors come from Europe and our mother's come from Japan."

Something like that? In any case, I think it is very valuable for us to EXAMINE where "terms of estrangement" come from. The word race is responsible for a LOT of suffering around the world. If it has no scientific basis, we should abandon it, and look for other words that more accurately describe our differences. Perhaps ethnicity is a better word?

My Reaction to Gould's "The Geometer of Race"

Main Ideas:
In his 1994 article in Discover magazine "The Geometer of Race" (link to article), Stephen Jay Gould (link to profile) mainly seems to argue three main points using the historical example of Blumenbach's (link to Wikipedia) theory of human racial classification published in 1795.

 
 

1. Main Idea 1: Gould writes that scientists' theories can never be completely objective, and that it is important for scientists to realize that their personal and cultural biases are imposed to some extent on their theories. Blumenbach's hierarchical theory of race based on perceived beauty of physical characteristics of white Europeans (especially Georgians) shows how subjective ideas can influence theories.
2. Main Idea 2: Secondly, scientists must also realize that their scientific theories can have a powerful ideological impact on society. Gould believes that Blumenbach's theory of racial classification had a "practical impact...almost entirely negative, upon our collective lives" similar to the level of the impact of nuclear bombs (p.4 in our Reader).
   
   Gould believes this negative impact in terms of supporting racism, slavery etc. in the 18th to 20th centuries was due to Blumenbach's theory. He writes "Where would Hiter have been without without racism, Jefferson without liberty. Blumenbach lived as a cloistered professor all his life, but his ideas have reverberated in ways that he never could have anticipated, through our wars, our social upheavals, our sufferings...." (p.9). This is highly ironic, according to Gould, because Blumenbach was a promoter of equality among races, and was NOT a racist compared to other people of his time.
3. Main Idea 3: Relating to the key word Geometer in the title, Gould seems to want to argue that scientific theories form a "mental geometry" that remains in people's minds. Blumenbach's theory is an example of "redrawing the mental diagram of human groups" and the impact of the theoretical shift was "broad and portentous in scope" because people now had a visual representation of the hierarchy of race in definable geometric terms. I think he means a sort of triangle, with Causasians at the top, and Africans and Asians at the bottom, which is one way to interpret the theory.

My Critique
----------------
So, are those three points reasonable and persuasive?

I feel that the first point is strongly supported by the Blumenbach example. It is clear that Blumenbach, in spite of his best efforts to be scientific and to support the moral and mental equality of all humans, was influenced by a bias toward superiority of Europeans.

The second and third points, however, are not fully persuasive. Gould fails to show what kind of effect Blumenbach's theory had on European society. He suggests that Hitler was influenced, but no connection between Blumenbach and Hitler is explained. It is left to our imagination, and I am skeptical out this. He also fails to show that people really interpreted Blumenbach's theory in a geometric way. Many questions remain. Who read Blumenbach's theory, and what kind of ideas did they get from them? How widespread was this knowledge of the theory? Also, didn't racism already exist anyway, even without his book saying that Caucasians came first? What effect did he exactly have outside of the ivory tower? Gould needs to explain these points further if he wants to convince a critical reader.

Extra:
Here's a PDF of an exchange between a critic and Gould regarding this article. In this exchange, I think Gould is persuasive, although he apologizes for the alteration of Blumenbach's original illustrations from flat to a triangle, which was done by the publishing company to show what Gould was trying to say. Gould didn't do it, but he takes responsibility for the visual representation done by the book editor. Blumenbach never made a clear image of a hierarchy in his treatise, which was almost all text in Latin, but I agree with Gould (I think, assuming that his translations of the Latin are accurate), that a hierarchy of beauty is being argued in the treatise.

Gakkou Koukai: Visiting my son's primary school and English Activities

Last Saturday was a Open House (gakkou koukai) for Michael's primary school, a public school in Mitaka. He's in the 2nd grade this year and loves his school life very much.

Open House is a day where the kids have school all day on a Saturday, and the parents and other guests can roam the halls and visit classes freely.

I wanted to see my son's classes, of course, but also wanted to peek in on some English Activities (eigo katsudo) classes which were being held in classrooms of 4th graders and 6th graders.

For my son, I had a chance to see him doing a language arts class and a crafts class. In the language arts class, which was supposed to be a PE class outside but changed suddenly to language arts due to the rain, the teacher read a story to the second graders in a whispered voice (she had a cold in her throat that day), with the 30 or so second graders crowded toward the teacher's chair to listen carefully. After the story, they got some comprehension and discussion questions on cards that they discussed with their neighbors. Then students took turns reading the questions and the students who knew the answer raised their hands. Interestingly, the teacher only asked the students to raise their hands, and did not actually call on anybody to answer. Perhaps she was keeping things safe to avoid loss of face by students with so many parents watching to see what the kids would say? A very low key lesson, but very impressive to see that the kids' ability to focus was high and they stayed quiet and controlled for 45 minutes sitting on the floor in front of the teacher. Was the good behavior because of the parents visiting? Or does the teacher have good control of the class from day to day? I'm curious to ask, but I would guess that my son's teacher has done a good job with the crew over the past year and a half, inspite of being fresh out of her college and certification program and getting a cohort of wild untrained first graders last year. I remember that in last year's classes in Open House, around this time 12 months ago, a few members of the class couldn't keep still and had to pull stunts to draw attention to themselves every few minutes. Those guys were well under control.

Craft class was also very nice. I didn't stay for the whole time, but the lesson had a nice flow of one group of students teaching another group of students how to make a moving toy. Good practice of communication skills and collaboration. My son taught one of his classmates how to make a dancing cup out of a paper cup, rubber band, sheet of paper and tape. Very patient and friendly teaching!

In addition to my son's 2nd grade, I visited one 4th grade class and 6th grade class to see their English Activities, and stayed about half an hour in each one.

Both were doing Halloween theme activities.

My notes/observations

• The teachers were Japanese home room teachers only. No ALTs. I'm not sure why this happened because using ALTs more is an explicit goal of Mitaka education for English in primary school. Anyway, what impressed me was that both of the Japanese home room teachers who taught the lessons were VERY GOOD English speakers. Very capable with basic communication and classroom management English. Pretty good pronunciation, too. At least one had obviously studied abroad for a while.
• The flow of the lesson seemed to be 1) picture flash cards for Halloween vocabulary, combined with a short explanation of the meaning of Halloween in Japan, at least for the sixth graders. The flash card sequence seemed routine. First, after choral repetition, the teacher prompted the students for the Japanese equivalent expression to confirm understanding. The prompting was done in English "What's xx in Japanese? Do you know?" and volunteers answered in Japanese, all correctly. Then students repeated and were quizzed on them a little. 2) Games: For the 4th graders, Janken (Paper Scissors Rock 123...) + "Do you have witch?" for the 4th graders + winner gets one of the other person's picture cards. For the 6th graders, vocabulary bingo. In both games, the usage of spoken English by the students was very low. Most group work or free work included a lot of Japanese interaction. Some use of the English vocabulary may have been included, but I couldn't hear it. So...through the lesson, the students only seem to have heard and repeated 6~9 Halloween words such as bat, witch, Jack-o-Lantern (a mouthful), vampire, mummy, ghost. Input also included classroom English from the teachers, who seemed to speak only English...which is quite commendable for a non-English teaching specialist.
• There was no review of basics, and there seemed to be very little accumulation of functional language that the students could use except for "What's this?", which the students only used when required. No spontaneous use was seen. 
• Since Mitaka started English activities in September 2007, the six graders have so far had a total accumulated school English Activities hours of...let's see...in 3rd grade 25 hours, 4th grade 25 hours, 5th grade 35 hours, and now in October of 6th grade, about 17 hours. Almost 100 periods of 45 minutes. That's the equivalent of about a bit less than a year of junior high? 
• I think a specialist with a continuous, accumulating curriculum could have built a foundation of English by 100 hours, but this is very difficult in Mitaka schools because 1) English activities are NOT for English. They are for, as the national curriculum stipulates, experiencing the fun and curiosity of learning about foreign cultures and languages. However, that balance is very hard to strike. You either do cultural experiences with many languages and cultures with a little English thrown in, or you do English mainly with a little intercultural experience thrown in to show the context of why they are learning English and where English comes from. 
• It would be very interesting to interview the teachers to see what their thoughts are about the current use of time in the English Activities hours. My feeling was that the teachers were not really sure which way the class should go, and as a result, the time ends up being spent with fun and games to ensure, at the very least, that no child will end up disliking English before going to junior high...
• ...But I think it is difficult for kids to like English, especially in the higher primary grades, when they are only liking the games and the lack of pressure. 
• My stance on English in Japanese public primary schools continues to be: If you are going to do it, do it WElL. Do it systematically and with dedication of trained teachers. Communicate with the junior high school and agree on what foundation the children will be given in elementary school. Including basic phonics for pronunciation practice and sound-letter association should be completely within a reasonable reach with 100 hours even if the pace is 45 minutes per week. Give the children a sense of accomplishment--build in a lot of repetition of basics (numbers, alphabet, greetings, exchanges, reactions, chunks of phrases) that are repeated in every class.
• Or...if not done with organization and dedication, perhaps it is better to not do it and to leave it alone until junior high school??
• I'm curious what other primary schools in Mitaka are doing, and how the education committee is coordinating the efforts between them. My experience with the education committee shows that they may not have any personal qualifications or experience with language teaching, and their efforts to coordinate language teaching probably need help. 
• I'm willing to help if they are willing to listen...

Inside Job (2010) A "must see" documentary

I'm not an expert on financial regulation, but I felt "Inside Job" was a very skillfully produced documentary on an immensely important issue. I had some general knowledge about the Subprime Loan crisis and how it happened, but this documentary seems to explain the weaknesses in our current regulatory system more clearly than anything I have seen so far.

The issue here is how financial greed (and, I would argue, a disregard of their responsibility toward society) among a wealthy elite is allowed to be protected by a web of arrangements between financial institutions, the government that is supposed to regulate them, and academic institutions that are supposed to analyze and point out the dangers for society.

The documentary implicates the investment bankers such as Goldman Sachs, the government regulators such as the Federal Reserve's Greenspan/Bernanke, and academics such as the economics professors at Harvard and Columbia who advise the government. It seems clear that those involved knew what was happening, and did not take steps to stop the greedy risk taking which the documentary calls the Heist, an inside bank robbery job.

After watching this, you just wonder, how could a group of immensely wealthy people (owning millions of dollars in assets) who knew that these careless risks could end up affecting the lives of millions of people who will have trouble eating, living, and getting basic medical care and education from day to day, just gamble with the high risks, lose billions of dollars of people's money, crash their companies and cause economic difficulties around the world, and yet get billions of dollars of taxes (from us) to save their money, and walk away still being millionaires.

The documentary producer Charles Ferguson in his interview at the end of the film states that he believes many of these con men running a gigantic legal Ponzi scheme should spend several decades in prison. Maybe so.

I would say that they should at least have to start over from zero. They should forfeit their personal assets to pay back their debts, become one of the jobless persons (like the millions they affected), and be banned from ever having a job in financial services again.

Of course, there is a very small chance of that type of regulation or penalization ever happening because the government bodies that are supposed to create such penalties are run by advisers and academics who they used to work with (or who they will hire and work with in the future). In principle, I am sure that Obama is for punishing the greedy industry more, but he has been unable to pass legislation with teeth. Obviously, it is very difficult to penalize rich powerful cliques of people. They protect each other. Money talks in democratic politics. People will shut their mouths of if given a bonus of a million dollars to keep working in the greedy system.

So, what can break the system and cycle? Politicians who are not afraid to oppose money, academics who are not afraid to criticize the system even if their universities (like Harvard, for example) are run by people who created and maintain the system, and do I dare dream...members of the financial industry who believe that they should only earn a honest wage for their work, and see a million dollars as money that is completely unnecessary to have a personal income...I mean how much do you really need?

I hope the education that I provide to my students helps them realize the social responsibility that talented, privileged people like them have toward creating a fair, caring world where members of powerful institutions avoid pursuing wealth beyond need.

Finished a very sweaty, dangerous Turtle Half Marathon

Yesterday I successfully finished a half marathon in unbearably high October heat and humidity.

Marathons are not made to be run when the sun is burning at 30 degree centigrade.

As the news article below reports, 23 runners were hospitalized due to heat stroke, some in critical condition. I saw a few of these guys convulsing in the heat on the side of the road. Scary. Fortunately, the race was well-staffed with doctors and emergency personnel.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20111016/t10013298241000.html

Somehow I finished. My time was about 2 hours 6 minutes on my watch. The official time will come in the mail in a few weeks.

If it weren't for the heat, I was hoping to run around 1hr 55 min, but I slowed down a lot to take extra water and to get under showers volunteers were giving with chilled water.

Finally, I want to thank my friends Toshi and Kazumi for inviting me after the run to his house nearby by for a badly needed shower and cold beer and good food. It was nice seeing their daughters Haruka and Honoko there and meeting friend Mr. Shimakura.

Why Boys Need Parents - LOL!

This came around from, of all people, my own dear father. Yes, I did a few of these things when I was a kid.

http://izismile.com/2009/04/07/why_boys_need_parents_39_pics.html

One Girl's Courage - Another powerful report from Kristof of NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/opinion/one-girls-courage.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

 

I think it is very valuable that reports like this come out in the New York Times. I've been impressed by the current series that Kristof has been doing researching how NGOs and NPOs have been working in Africa. A lot of powerful stories are coming out of this and showing us that we have a lot to learn about our world and how we can make a difference in it.

For one, these reports give us in the US and other countries (like Japan where I live) some perspective on how fortunate most of us are to be able to live in peace with our families and pursue our studies and dreams.

Another value is that we see how outside assistance can be helpful for bringing change to areas where violence against women or other weaker groups is structurally embedded. NPOs that work with issues like that clearly have a role to play in the lives of girls like Fulamatu, who otherwise would be a victim of a system that allows male rapists to walk free while she, as the victim, is shamed and exiled to the countryside away from her school and family.

Hopefully she will be allowed to go to a boarding school. The Internet hopefully will be a medium that allows us in developed economies to see opportunities to help assistance organizations in developing countries and help make a difference more directly.

I won the lottery! + Marathon plans

I just got the following email:
-------------------------------------------

Dear Mark CHRISTIANSON
[ID-No: 12913 ]

Congratulations!  You have been selected in the lottery to run the 2012 Tokyo Marathon.
-------------------------------------------

I guess foreigners get to run every year. This will be my 5th year in a row.

I have to apologize to the 270,000 Japanese runners who failed in the lottery again this year. Only 30,000 can run, and the odds are 10:1 for getting in if you are a Japanese citizen.

Why not just let all 300,000 people run? I guess the streets of Tokyo may not be able to handle a mob of that size.

In any case, I feel very fortunate that I can run in this fun race again!

Please leave ideas for costumes as a comment below  : - )

Last year, my time was about 4 hours 53 minutes, and that was one of my slowest times ever. This year, I still want to try to beat 4 hours...if my knees don't hurt too much and if I can lose some weight...

This weekend I have a half-marathon in Arakawa and we will see how I feel running 21km at this point.

Also, for the full Tokyo marathon in March, I wonder if I can do a fundraiser. Anyone want to sponsor me with a donation to Red Cross or some other charity?

Todai 30th in University Rankings...CalTech No.1...but No.1 in what?

What makes a good university?

This article in the Japan Times today shows that the rankings by a British magazine called Times Higher Education.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20111007a8.html

Todai is 30th. CalTech is No.1. Harvard and Stanford are No.2.

So...what does that mean?

Apparently the ranking is based on "their teaching and research capacities. The institutions were also judged on their international mix of staff and students, ability to transfer research into commercial gains, and research influence based on the number of citations."

I dug deeper, going to the Times Higher Education website, where they explain the weightings of the 5 areas of criteria:

• Teaching — the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
• Research — volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
• Citations — research influence (worth 30 per cent)
• Industry income — innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
• International outlook — staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).

I'm curious about how they assess Teaching / the Learning Environment, but information on that is hard to find.

From an "undergraduate education" point of view, I'm concerned about their weight on Research/Citations/Industry Income, which adds up to 62.5% of the weight. Certainly it is important for students to be taught by professors who are active in their field and able to publish articles that get cited and get grants, but is it more important than the teaching side? For graduate students who are at a university to become researchers themselves, I can understand the importance. However, for undergrads who are not necessarily going to become academic researchers, and most of whom are going to go into professions that need a generally high level of intellectual and personal development such as the ability to understand, think, and communicate on issues...the learning environment is much more important.

So...I would think a separation of "universities for educating" and "research institutes" in the rankings would be beneficial. In Japan, I think a lot of research may be going on at Todai, but is the university really helping students develop intellectually and as a person?? I hope so, but from what I have heard, this may not exactly be the case.

What I really like about what we do here at ICU is that the focus is clearly on the development of our undergraduate students. Faculty do excellent research here, but a lot of effort goes into challenging and supporting each student on an individual basis.

More information is here.

Authorstream embedding test for 20x20

Cloning20x20sample

More PowerPoint presentations from Mark Christianson

This was an experiment I did earlier this year with posting presentation slides online.

The voice recording audio on this slide show is really scratchy, so I need to redo this on a new file with a better microphone.

Also, this is an incomplete presentation still. I have a more complete one that I show students, but I haven't added voice recording to it yet. I plan to do that in the near future.

However, other than that, the voice and animation seem to work quite well.

ARW students, you will be creating something like this using your research essay content!

Upon re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This was one of my favorite novels in my high school English classes, and I decided to read it again a few weeks ago because many of my students had read it for their summer reading.

Atticus Finch, the lawyer who defends a Negro slave wrongly accused of rape, is still one of my greatest heros, and I love these quotes:

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

The whole novel's lesson is about learning to "stand in someone's shoes". In a sense, there is nothing more important than that concept of empathy as we try to live together with others in society.

He also says, in connection with telling his son why a certain crabby old lady was a very brave (she was kicking a morphine habit to die with a clear head):

"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

That's a beauty as is the final one about why Atticus stands up to do what is right, rather than what everyone wants:

 "The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

A tragedy of religious intolerance: Agora (2009)...inaccurate in places, but worth watching

Agora is a movie based in 5th century AD Alexandria and the life and death of a female philosopher and mathematician in the city named Hypatia.

Here is a Smithsonian feature of the life of Hypatia and how she was killed by a Christian mob in 415AD.

As a fan of history based movies, I watched this this weekend and felt it was worth watching because it brought up many interesting historical questions about the process of the expansion of the early Christian church--how it interacted with the politics of the Roman Empire, with local pagan beliefs, with Jews in the communities, with female leaders in the those communities, and with scientific pursuits such as the heliocentric theory.

In Agora, the Christians take over Alexandria as their numbers grow among the lower classes and slave. This process includes a number of bouts of religious violence and the gradual increase of political power connected with the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Pagans massacre Christians first, followed by a violent riot led by the Christians that leads to a marginalization of the pagans. Christians harrass Jews, followed by a Jewish attack on a group of Christians, followed by a massacre of Jews and their banishment from the city. Finally, the Christian bishop of Alexandria denounces Hypatia as being a bad influence because she is a woman who speaks her mind and believes in nothing (only philosophy and science) and a group of zealots catch and kill her.

I watched the movie first, and then read the historical accounts available on the Internet. Apparently the movie spins a lot of fictional threads for dramatic effect and there are inaccuracies in terms of how the library of Alexandria of sacked by a Christian mob or how she was killed. In the film, she dies quietly in the arms of a man who used to be her slave (and in love with her) but now is part of a group of violent Christian zealots. He kills her mercifully by choking just before the mob gets to her and the events after that are not shown. It seems that the real way she was killed and paraded through the streets was a lot worse.

Despite the historical inaccuracies and dramatic license taken by the director, the film makes you want to know more about how Christianity grew in influence around the Mediterranean and in Europe in the early centuries of its existence. Hopefully the reality of the expansion was not as brutal and un-Christian as shown in the movie, but at the same time it is probably true that violence accompanied the conversion process when intolerant zealots forgot that they were trying to spread faith in peace, forgiveness, and love, a tragedy that should never occur.

A culture of political apathy among Japanese youth...Japan Times article by Roger Pulvers

I think this would make an interesting issue for an essay for some of our students research.

Pulvers poses the question:

Why are today's young people (in Japan) so deliriously apathetic and passive? And for how long will they remain that way?

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20111002rp.html

Pulvers cites this book by Yoshimoto Takaaki, which I have never read, but may try to get from the library. Looks interesting.


Personally, I have tended to be moderate in politics, and perhaps the "new" way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the government and start a political movement is to raise voices on Twitter or Facebook. But a spirit of concern and a desire to do something to ensure change is necessary in all ages.

My Reaction to Fisher's "Perception of Self"

What do you see? A vase or...?

Over the past six years, the Fisher article in our Reader has become of my favorites. It is good for our students to think about this stuff. I wish I had been equipped with awareness of the nature and elements of human perception when I was 18 years old.

Fisher basically explains his theory that perception is experiential, selective, inferential, inaccurate, and evaluative. In other words, our interpretations of what we sense in the world are influenced by our past experiences, our selective filtering of a limited amount of sensory information, our inferences from that selective information, and our evaluations of that information as important or not important, or positive or negative. As a result, we have to accept that, to some extent, our perceptions of the world are incomplete and inaccurate.

Fisher also explains that our perceptions are influenced by not only 1) senses and our interpretations of them, but our 2) expectations, 3) the figure/ground effect (what we see or are led to see as important), 4) comparisons of our interpretations with others, and 5) the context that we are in. All of these points seem reasonable to me.

The limited nature of perception and the various elements that influence it are why different people end up with different perceptions regarding the same things, whether it is fashion or politics. It is good to be aware of this the next time you wonder why your boyfriend or girlfriend seems so insensitive.

Critically speaking, is Fisher's explanation enough? Has he left anything out (intentionally or unintentionally)? I think one point that Fisher has NOT explained is the effect of genetic differences on perception. One question I would ask him would be "In addition to experiences, how much effect does one's DNA have on the personal differences have on how we perceive something?" For example, some people may not like this question, but do men and women perceive the world differently due to physical differences? Or do certain elements of brain chemistry or genetic elements of personality (if such things exist) influence how we see things. Just wondering.

One related topic to perception that we haven't talked about is "perceptions of beauty". What do you see as beautiful? Where do your perceptions of beauty come from? Are certain definitions of "beautiful" harmful or undesirable?

The following YouTube video makes us think about this. This might be an essay topic to consider.

Huge typhoon! Looks like it will be going right over our heads

A good day to stay inside and read book...stay safe everyone!

A rising hydro-hegemon by B. Chellaney...the need for transboundary cooperation on water

I have a feeling this water issue is going to have a serious effect on political stability in Asia in the next few decades...definitely something to keep an eye on.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/eo20110921bc.html

"Water indeed has emerged as a source of increasing intercountry competition and discord in Asia, the most-populous and fastest-developing continent whose per capita freshwater availability is less than half the global average.

The growing water stress threatens Asia's continued rapid economic growth. And for investors, it carries risks that potentially are as damaging as nonperforming loans, real estate bubbles, infrastructure overbuilding, and political corruption.

Because of China's centrality in the Asian water map, international pressure must be exerted on Beijing to respect the rights of subjacent states and halt further unilateralist appropriation of shared waters."

The map below is from:
http://www.asianoffbeat.com/CrazyPictures/China-Dam-Interactive-Map.jpg

 

My Reaction to Barna's "Six Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication"

This is my 6th time to be teaching this text at ICU. It has some limitations, but basically it is a very good introduction to what factors problems in intercultural communication and how to avoid them.

The idea that the six stumbling blocks of "Assumption of Similarities" "Language Differences" "Non-Verbal Misinterpretations" "Preconceptions and Stereotypes" "A Tendency to Evaluate (the other culture)" and "High Anxiety (Stress such as Culture Shock)" are some of the main problems in communication is quite reasonable.

LaRay Barna, author of "Stumbling Blocks..." passed away in October 2010.

In my opinion, the most important key word in the Barna text appears in the conclusion, where Barna talks about the need for people to not only be aware of the stumbling blocks, but also to make efforts to gradually improve their "intercultural communication competence".

So, what is the competence? How can we improve it? The most important part of intercultural competence is the ability to listen and try to understand with an open mind. When we encounter a person or custom who we cannot understand, when tend to jump to evaluate them as being wrong or crazy and to distance ourselves from them. We prefer to stay close to people who we "get".

To improve our ability to listen and try to understand people, the best thing to do is to try to get to know as many "different" people as possible. Actively make chances to talk with people who you feel are different from yourself. Invite them to some event you are holding. Go to some event that you feel is "unacceptable" or "alien" (politically or culturally) and see what happens. Try to get to know people without judging them from their fashion, labels, appearance etc.

Sometimes the stress may become too much, but my experience tells me that, more often than not, we discover that we actually much in common and you find out that, while they ARE different indeed, that difference is nothing to fear.

By the way, when we talk about "intercultural," many people tend to imagine very different groups from different continents or those who speak different languages, but in fact...almost any conversation we have with someone is an "intercultural" communication event. Even when I talk with my brother...he comes from several different cultures that I don't share such as his current company's culture, or Arizona culture, so we need to assume that we will have differences and use good intercultural communication competence. In that sense, there probably is NOT any major difference between interpersonal communication and intercultural communication.

PS: Of course, don't go to groups or places that are not safe. I will not be responsible for students who travel off to visit a cannibalistic tribe and get eaten etc.

Some "Digital Stories" on Intercultural Communication

I think Digital Storytelling has a lot of potential for use in language learning, and actually for any kind of learning. It is a way to help learners connect the subject to their own lives and make it part of themselves.

One example is how students might make digital stories in a cross-cultural communication class like the following.





PowerPoint from the International Digital Storytelling Conference, which I'm hoping to attend next year possibly...

And shouldn't we be making interesting stories like this to summarize and highlight the research we do for essays in ARW or for research papers published in academic journals? Few people want to listen to "research" but everyone loves a "story".

While "research papers" might be efficient for communicating information to people who are interested in that topic already and want to read about it in detail, "digital stories" with high impact images, audio, video, and highlights of the importance or impact of that research can be effective for engaging the interest of people who do not know so much about that field of research and making them potentially interested in learning more about it in the future.

So...I would argue that our students should be trained to learn BOTH essay writing AND digital storytelling!

Digital Storytelling at University of Houston: Survey Results of Education Use, Social Studies Examples (Very powerful holocaust/Hiroshima images with music and data, no narration)

Digital Stories in e-Portfolios (link)

Small Steps Out of Poverty -Hope and microlending/saving make a difference

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/opinion/kristof-sewing-her-way-out-of-poverty.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/09/15/opinion/09152011kristof.html?ref=opinion

Many of my students are interested in development studies and I think this type of story is one of the best ways to begin to understand how small efforts and projects can change people's lives and make a different step by step.

I really appreciate how Nicholas Kristof of the NYT shares these stories. The fact that one Swedish lady (Ms. Ingred Munro) running a NGO in Kenya to help female beggars can lead to a recovery from a difficult situation like this for this family is truly inspiring.

"Be the change that you expect to see in the world!"  -Ghandi

Why is Japan's spending on education so low in OECD countries??

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110915a5.html

3.3% Japan
5% OECD Avg.
7.3% Norway, the leader

My concern is that Japan is not investing sufficiently to develop the learning and teaching skills of its students and teachers. Teachers in Japan are working hard to serve a curriculum designed by "experts" hired by or working in the Ministry of Ed. and to serve parents who have expectations for teachers to help their students pass competitive examinations to get into good schools.

But is the system really investing in developing quality learning and personal development of students, teachers, and adults in society? My feeling is that the top-down control exerted on education by the central government makes innovation, experimentation, customization, community dialogue, and personal teaching skill development of teachers quite limited, and as a result teachers are just doing their best to serve the system rather than really seek to develop their students.

Of course, some teachers will always manage to find ways to deliver excellent learning and opportunities for personal development (as people who can love to learn and work together with others) despite the system, but I have a feeling a major overhaul of the system is in need...and I'm hoping to get more chances to observe what goes on the school systems as my children go to Japanese public schools.


Thursday, Sep. 15, 2011

Education spending lowest in OECD
Kyodo

Japan's spending on education as a percentage of gross domestic product in 2008 remained the lowest among 31 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD says.

The ratio of educational expenditure to GDP in 2008 stood at 3.3 percent, the lowest among the 31 of the OECD's 34 members with comparable data, the group said in a report released Tuesday.

Japan's ratio was also the lowest in 2005 and 2007, and the second lowest in 2004 and 2006 in the annual OECD studies.

The average ratio of educational expenditure by central and local governments to GDP was 5.0 percent, with Norway ranking highest at 7.3 percent, followed by Iceland at 7.2 percent and Denmark at 6.5 percent.

Meanwhile, private spending on education as a proportion of total educational expenditure stood at 33.6 percent in Japan, the third highest among 28 countries with comparable data, following Chile at 41.4 percent and South Korea at 40.4 percent.

By educational level, the proportion of private spending on college education in Japan stood at 66.7 percent of total education spending.

Will ChatBots become a main form of English conversation practice?

I am curious how natural this conversation can be, and how accurate or useful the speech recognition software is. I want to try it.

The obvious advantage is the cost, and 1500yen per month is quite affordable, so I can see it catching on.

I suppose this method has a lot of potential for routine conversations as AI develops.

However, will the program push the speaker to develop communication strategies such as asking for a repetition, paraphrasing, asking for an example etc.? If not, the speaker will not really be developing communication skills that will be useful when speaking with real humans from other cultures and language backgrounds.

The Potentials of "Flipped Learning" in EFL

I've been seeing this "Flipped Learning" movement evolve over the last year or so.

I think I blogged on the TED video about Khan Academy, which is one of the leaders in this movement to move INSTRUCTION OUTSIDE of the classroom, and move APPLICATION (like homework problems) and INTERACTION INSIDE.



I believe this change in education is positive and that this flipping trend is going to grow. It just makes sense. This should be the same in EFL.

One-size fits all lectures or monologue explanations by the teacher should be moved online in a movie or interactive form so that students can access them at their convenience, play them over and over, and watch them at their own pace while checking resources for words they don't understand. Interactive quizzes to pre-test their understanding before they come to class should be helpful as well. Lectures in class, where students are forced to come and listen in a non-interactive, not self-directed form, are going to become extinct.

A monologue in person, frankly, has no value over a video. The video is superior because it allows replay and convenient access. The video is superior because it allows annotation, subtitles, and other production techniques to develop understanding.

The value of school/class time is 1) interaction, 2) pressure/atmosphere to be challenged to apply knowledge to a higher level, and 3) opportunities for personal expression-asking questions, stating opinions, making presentations. Students should come to the physical school to interact with the teacher and classmates.

In EFL, lectures about grammar, vocabulary, how to do assignments, and other videos about how to communicate well, format essays etc., the that things that have been traditionally communicated by explanations by the teacher should basically be moved online. Students should access them outside of class at a certain schedule, or at their own pace, and come to class ready to ask questions and work in groups to apply the knowledge.

So, in my current courses, in my current English language program, where do we begin the flipping. I realize that I spend a good 10~20 minutes or so of my class time explaining skills the students may need, or explaining assignments such as how to prepare for the next discussion or how to prepare a writing assignment. Those explanations, ideally, and hopefully, can be moved to a YouTube video...right? Need to give it a try.

Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions (Harvard Ed. Newsletter)

http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/507#home

Teacher: Any questions?
Students: Uh....no?

The importance of students being able to generate good questions has been on my mind for a while and I was happy to see that there is a movement to emphasize this more in education.

When my students start a project for writing or reading, it is extremely important that they are generating questions actively on their own. Of course, I can give them writing prompts or reading discussion questions, but I have refrained from this more and more because I believe that always "giving" questions limits the growth of this key ability within the students. As teachers, I think we need to give the initiative to students and say "You create your writing prompt" "You create the discussion questions" "You develop the research questions to guide the project".

The link above has something called QFT, Question Formation Technique, in six steps.

1. Teachers design a focus - "Let's talk about intercultural communication"
2. Students generate/ask their questions - "Is it important? Why?" etc.
3. Students improve their questions - Change limited, closed questions to more specific, developed, or open-ended ones etc. that can help develop more understanding:  Is it important? --> Why should students know about intercultural communication? How can we use it in the future?
4. Students prioritize their questions - This is very important from my experience. In group discussions, students tend to see all questions as the same importance, but within a limited discussion or meeting time, the most significant or interesting questions have to be prioritized.
5. Students and teacher decide how to proceed with using the questions - start research, discuss them together etc.
6. Reflect on the process above. What was useful? What was difficult.

The authors Rothstein and Santana direct a microdemocracy institute that helps disadvantaged persons ask the right questions to promote advocacy on key issues. Their book Make Just one Change about how to help students ask questions seems very interesting as well.

 

My Summer Reading Reaction: The Giver by Lois Lowry

This summer, one of the books I read was The Giver by Lois Lowry. I decided to read it because one of my friends, who is a Japanese person working as an educational consultant, told me that this book was the first English novel he ever enjoyed reading, and that he started to like to read in English after he read this. To me, the novel looked like a children's novel in terms of length so I was skeptical about how good it could be.

After I read it, it became one of my favorites. The story takes place in a fascinating “perfect” human community in the future which has chosen to implement a social system of “Sameness.” The sameness policy is designed to eliminate all risk of danger or instability in human society in order to minimize pain and maximize equality and happiness. For example, there is no sex, because sexual urges lead to competition for mates and possibly violence. All reproduction is done artificially and children are born through women called “Bearers” who give birth as their job. Sexual urges are suppressed by taking pills and control of emotions and language and thought is taught to children. There are no colors either. Also, obviously, since there is no sex, there are no real families. People live in “family units” with no biological relationship that have been formed by the guidance of the Council of Elders, a group of wise persons who make all important decisions. Weak, disabled or old persons are “released” from the community so that they do not become a burden. The economy is also very stable, with jobs being also decided by the council; when children turn twelve years old, they are assigned to a work unit that is perfect for their personality and level of ability. The story focuses on the new job of a twelve year old named Jonas, who is selected to be the “Receiver of Memories.”

There is one special person in the community called the Giver of Memories, and he is the only person who has access to the memories of human history prior to the Sameness policy. In other words, he is the only one who knows of a world that includes both pleasure and pain. He is getting old, so he needs to pass on the memories to young Jonas, the Receiver of Memories.

The most meaningful theme in this novel is the dilemma that Jonas faces when he is exposed to the “real” human world that you and I live in today. He sees memories of family love, and pleasure. Then he sees memories of war. Is it better to live in a society that suppresses individual happiness for the stability of society? Or is it better to live in freedom with some risk of emotional pain by love and competition, and possibly war due to desire that grows into greed. Where is the balance and where is the position of Japanese society in this dilemma? As I read The Giver, I pondered the balance between suppression of freedom (choice) and suppression of inequality and risk. Is it better to have freedom to make mistakes? Or is it better for the “council” to make “wise decisions” for us. For example, in Japan, should elementary school teachers and principals be allowed to create their own curriculums freely, or should the central monkasho hand down their wise decisions from above??

I hope all of you will consider reading this novel and ponder some of the themes above. 
Leave me a comment!

好久没有写我中文博客。。。得努力一点

欢迎大家来评论评论！

http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1252316131

Moodle, Google Site, or....? What's the best way to manage a course?

Sorry everyone, I'm just brainstorming here since I can't make up my mind yet even though my fall term classes start tomorrow.


Last year I used a Moodle site for my fall Academic Reading and Writing for functions such as posting documents, discussion forums for students to exchange ideas, wikis, and tutorial sign up (Google Spreadsheet). I also have an interactive Moodle quiz for the readings we do.

That worked mostly well, so I could just fall back on using my Moodle site again. That would be the easiest option.

However, what I don't like about Moodle is that there is no student ownership of the content, like students would have with a blog. I want students interacting with each other, but I also want them to list their ideas, reflections, essay drafts etc. in a portfolio fashion so that they can have a set of ideas that they can "own" and keep in the future (I'm assuming students want to do this--I need to ask them a bit more explicity). They would also own the comments they get. In the future, they can decide whether to take the blog offline, expand it, show it to friends, graduate schools etc. So, I want to do student blogs.

So...what is the solution? Can I combine Moodle with a set of student blogs? Rather than using a forum, can I just post the assignment on Moodle, and then have students write on their blogs, and then click on each other's blogs and leave comments? Hmm...so I just need a page that has links to students blogs...but how will I know when students post an article or comments. For that, I guess I'll need to set up RSS feeds on Google Reader. Each student will have to do that as well if they want to know whether their classmates have posted something. Hmm...there are pros and cons. Can I set up a feed so that their postings are automatically posted on a Class Blog? That may be one solution to help students see all of the ideas that are flying around.

Also, Moodle wikis seem to have trouble, and sometimes I'll want all students to be able to collaborate on documents, so having a Google Group is needed so that I can share documents with the whole class as editors. I tried that a few terms ago and it went mostly well, though some students had trouble becoming Google Group members.

So...Moodle + Blogs + Google Group + RSS Feeds is the solution? Isn't there an easier way to do this?

Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (in the US and Japan)

Just finished reading this. It is a quite detailed and ambitious research report trying to establish that US university students are NOT learning what they need to learn, namely the ability to read, think, and write critically and analytically at an advanced level. 

This claim is based on a standardized test called the CLA, or Collegiate Learning Assessment, which has questions like this (click). According to results of the CLA, many college students don't improve in those key abilities from their 1st year to their 2nd or 4th year.

The open ended writing prompts like these seem to assess very practical abilities, and I am happy to see that these are quite similar to the liberal arts core learning that we emphasize in the ELP at ICU where I work.



The following sample question is from this paper on the CLA "Facts and Fantasies" 
 

Figure 3: Example of a 30-Minute Break-An-Argument Prompt
The University of Claria is generally considered one of the best universities in the
world because of its instructors’ reputation, which is based primarily on the
extensive research and publishing record of certain faculty members. In addition,
several faculty members are internationally renowned as leaders in their fields. For
example, many of the English Department’s faculty members are regularly invited
to teach at universities in other countries. Furthermore, two recent graduates of the physics department have gone on to become candidates for the Nobel Prize in
Physics. And 75 percent of the students are able to find employment after
graduating. Therefore, because of the reputation of its faculty, the University of
Claria should be the obvious choice for anyone seeking a quality education.

Hopefully, my ICU students will be able to take this argument apart and critique it successfully in an organized English paragraph that points out the main weaknesses of the claim "obvious choice".

Basically, the book Academically Adrift is a call to universities to boost the quality of their undergraduate programs, especially in terms of challenging students to read, think, and write critically. Professors and professors in training need to learn how to challenge students to engage in rigorous learning, and need to be given support and evaluation systems that encourage them to facilitate learning in an effective way.

I support this. I remember how my University of Washington undergraduate program (and graduate program, actually) rarely ever included any requirement for revising and improving a research paper. I rarely ever got more than a grade and a one line comment such as "Nicely researched but argument needs development. B+"  Being forced to write papers is good, but formative feedback is most likely critical to any substantial improvement in writing skills.  I had one professor, a young guy teaching me applied linguistics, who tore up a paper I wrote and asked me to revise it prior to a second deadline. I really enjoyed that process and learned a lot.

US universities will benefit from having more curriculum design with tasks that force the young writer to re-think and re-articulate the argument, and the same goes for Japanese universities, where the "academically adrift" situation is actually much, much worse.

The FOOOOOOOSBall TABLE: A family project

It was a rainy Saturday and we had nothing to do for a few hours.

My son picked up a broken toy wood xylophone that we were planning to throw away and said,

"Let's make something with this."

"What do you want to make?"

"A soccer game. See Dad, these wood things are the guys."

"OK...and we can use that empty clothing case..."

That got our brain gears turning on what turned out to be a two day project.

Drawing the characters was the easy part. To start off, Mom, Dad, Michael and Mei (with help) each drew one.

But how are we going to connect the guys to the poles?

Off to J-Mart, our local DIY store. We got a bunch of 90mm x 20mm stainless steel plates with 3mm holes (45yen each) to bend around the poles and screw onto the wood players. And we needed green felt for soccer turf...and a 20mm diameter drill bit for the holes...and a pack of 3mm x 10mm screws...and a few more 15mm diameter x 600mm poles and we were in business. About 3000yen altogether.

And 500yen to rent an industrial impact drill with enough torque to open 20mm holes through the plastic box. I tried my own old B&D 12V home use drill and it started spewing black smoke! The motor fried. Oh well, it was almost ten years old and I I needed a new one anyway.

At this point, Megumi kindly pointed out that it may be cheaper to just buy a Foosball Table on Amazon. Yes, this is true, my love, but we are making a special one-of-a-kind foosball table. And J-Mart loves our business. 



Michael did a great job on taping the lines and with decorating the players as well as sawing the board and poles, hammering in nails, drilling the holes, screwing on the metal strips. Mei and Megumi helped by drawing the characters. We have some good nadeshiko members on the field.

The player pieces made from xylophone keys are all different sizes, so the poles can't be spun like real foosball, but it works well enough.

As final touches, we need some nets for the goals and some handles and stoppers on the poles...and a scoreboard. We'll work on those.

















All done! Time for some family foosball!