2010.06.23

Today we looked at 21st century skills, making wikipages and something with googledocs. It all gets quite confusing, but has a lot to do with collaborative effort, allowing people to have access to a work in progress. Makes me nervous having people getting access to 'my' stuff, but it all has to do with moving into the twenty first century. Gee, and I thought all I had to worry about was learning kanji, vocabulary, and more of the culture and nuances of Japanese society. Instead I find I can't understand any of the directions being offered on the use of all this technology. Not to worry, I don't get the technology well in English either, but being exposed to it all is an important first step in this giant sea of information. I wish I could explain some of the details, but I really can't. I will have to wait and see how it goes and just play with it a lot till it becomes reasonable. And perhaps buy one of those books for idiots when I get back to Maui. Provided I have time I will go back to the computer lab and bring my electronic dictionary to try and figure out what all those little categories stand for in the Japanese interface. That may make a difference. We did some work towards our final project of a thematic unit. Boy, talk about being stretched! I feel I am quite unskilled and ill prepared, and frankly it scares the bejesus out of me. Nothing like facing your greatest fears, huh? Yet, I have confidence that Sachiko and I will put out a reasonable project. We have selected the topic of diversity, having to do with the changing makeup and composition of Japan society, and the various challenges facing Japan in the future. It will also have something to do with the the past history of Japan and it's dealings with "others" normally outside of society. We have gotten some of the focus for this topic from Prof. Saito's presentation from Tuesday. This is a huge topic that bears looking at. As I have never thought in terms of a thematic unit, nor ever done anything like this before, it is an exciting concept to be learning about. How I can incorporate thematic units with my textbook is the next question. Or move to another textbook in the future? To be developed. In the afternoon we saw the movie "Linda, Linda, Linda" It was a curious look at high school life with a group of students who I guess go to a vocational school and are learning various skills. They have permanent 'baitens' or concession stands that have to be attended to during the school days, or they have to work on musical skills (though it doesn't seem to be a school for the musically gifted). They don't have regular classes, though they do have some exchange students who have a separate room that they sometimes spend time in. The young lady from Korea I can relate to, for she seems confused much of the time. They had a few teacher like people in the movie, but they seem weak and mostly ineffectual. Nobody seemed interested in correcting much of the student's behavior and dress, and I thought that to be a huge change from the Japan I knew from 1972. They had many variations in the manner that they were allowed to wear their uniforms as an example, and they seemed to have a great deal of freedom in their lives (the young ladies seem to have no parental guidance or restrictions in their after school lives, are able to stay out all night with no communication with home. It is almost as though parents with this group of girls don't exist.). They seem somewhat melancholy most of the time, but at least are able to focus on one old song that they like, and after what must have been a period of months they were able to get better at performing, and ended up entering a contest in their school that many students enjoyed listening to. It was a fairly cynical look at the educational system, and I think it was showing that the youth of Japan are drifting a bit, uncertain where they are going. Yet I wonder if the author/director truly caught the present day educational system. I would like to know more of these trends and will keep my eyes and ears open to gather more information and develop insight about these concerns.