東京理科大学 情報工学科技術英語: Supporting post for final presentations・期末発表のサポート

Hello!

How are you? Here is a supporting post for all of your final presentation projects - a series of TED Talk links that treat different areas of the internet, WWW and AI, and issues concerning views on internet regulation.  

Video links
Here are the links. Each one will take you directly to the TED website. With each one, except one, you can download the written transcript of the talk in either English or Japanese. 

The Japanese subtitling on the videos that have them may still not be exact for the topic, but it generally is better than on most YouTube videos. In the same way, the Japanese transcripts may not be exact, but generally give you good guides that you can follow for a topic if you need them. 

1. Margaret Gould Stewart – How the hyperlink changed everything (2018.03) - click on this link for this talk. 

2. Chris Sheldrick – A precise, three-word address for every place on earth (2017.08) - click on this link for this talk. 

3. Kenneth Shinozuka – My simple invention, designed to keep my grandfather safe (2014.11) - click on this link for this talk. 

4. Keller Rinaud – A mini robot – powered by your phone (2013.02) - click on this link for this talk. 

5. Pratick Shah – How AI is making it easier to diagnose disease (2018.07) - click on   

this link for this talk.

6. Olga Yurkova – Inside the fight against Russia’s fake news empire (2018.4) - click on this link for this talk. 

7. Trevor Timm – How free is our freedom of the press (2016.2) - click on this link for this talk.

8. Daniel Engber – How the progress bar keeps you sane (2018.3) - click on this link for this talk.

9. Tamas Kocsis – The case for a decentralized internet (2018.11) - click on this link for this talk. 

Important notes:
Talks #6 and #9 do not have Japanese subtitles or transcripts, but both show some timely issues with the internet. Talk #9 is also longer - at 10 minutes - but again, is a powerful talk and is the latest one here, uploaded to the TED website in November. 

NEW - Presentation tips and example
Here are two (2) videos for you on presentation that may help you as well. Rather than making a separate post, I have decided to include them here.

The first one is a funny, but important one on good and bad presentation habits:



The second one is a TED Talk from a 12-year-old app developer. It's a great model for a confident, informative, and interesting presentation:



I hope these links and videos will be interesting and informative for you. 

Take care!

Image: By GEDA_screenshot2007.png: Stefan Salewskiderivative work: Wirepath (talk) - GEDA_screenshot2007.png, GPL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8894381

東京理科大学 A英3: Final writing assignment support post (Part 3)・期末作文のサポート(Part 3)

Hello!

How are you? Here is a third support post for any students who are interested in doing opinion writing for the final writing assignment (期末作文). 

You can take your ideas from the news - either from TV, or the internet, or newspapers or magazines - and you can base your topics on anything - politics (政治), society (社会), sports, movies, music, and so on. 

Task preparation

When writing your opinion, follow these guidelines:

First, show the issue or problem and where you first saw it or heard about it - on TV, the internet, radio, in the newspaper, and so on.   

After that, show what impact the issue or problem has or is having in Japan - with a certain type of people (for example, older people, or university students, or workers, or children, and so on), or in a certain area (the Tohoku, Okinawa, the Kanto, and so forth), or in a certain field or industry (companies, shops, schools, universities or other parts of the economy). Try to find out and show details (詳細) where you can. 

Finally, bring in your opinion of the issue or problem - what do you think of it, and what solution (解答、答え) would you propose for it - if you feel you can propose a solution or answer to the problem or issue? 

You do not have to do a big or heavy topic if you don't want to! Here are some ideas for you if you can't think of any on your own. Choose one (1) of these: 

• Voting (投票権) age - in Japan, it is 20. Should it be lowered to 18 years of age, as it is in many countries? 
• Tattoos - in Japan there is a big taboo (禁物) against them. But do you think they are really a big problem? 
• Smartphone access and use among children - this has become a big issue lately. Is it okay for children to get access and use smartphones, or should there be an age restriction (制限)? 
• Foreign immigration (移住) to Japan - this has also been a big question lately. Should Japan allow some numbers of immigrants (移民) to come in to help increase the numbers of workers?   

Good luck! I hope these ideas can give you something to write on if you can't think of what to do for our final assignment.

Take care! I look forward to reading your great writing on this task.

See you next week!

Image: By Louis Moeller - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30508393

東京理科大学 A英3: Final writing assignment・期末作文

Hello!

How are you? Today I will introduce here the final writing assignment for the year. 

While I have given all of you the handout about the assignment, I will post it here as another way to help remind you about it, and what you can write on.  

Review of topics

For our final writing assignment, you have a choice of themes! This semester, we wrote about these themes:

• Comparison and contrast (比較対照)
• Cause and effect (原因結果)
• Future jobs, careers, lifestyles, and places to live (将来、未来の職業、キャリア、ライフスタール、住んで所) 

This was a little different from what I put on the syllabus, but I thought the changes were good ones for you that would be better than what I had for the syllabus.

Task

For the final assignment, I have two very different, but equally interesting themes for you. Choose one (1) of them:

• A review theme with a different concept – comparison and contrast of two different pieces of music that I have posted on my blog as of today – or – 

• Two different famous scientists you admire, and what you think of their greatest achievements – or –

• A new theme – opinion writing on a topic or issue you think about (such as something in the news about Japan or the world, or something in your hometown or the place you live in, or something in the university)

Special note: For this new theme, you can look at Units 11 or 12 in the textbook for hints, ideas, and language such as words and phrases for showing opinions. While we have not done these units in class, they have good points on them about opinions and how to express them.

Take a look these pages for ideas on what to write about, if you want to do this new topic but need some ideas: Page 87, and 89 Section 2 “Get information” (for Unit 11), and page 93, with a good example of a short opinion paper on page 95 (for Unit 12).  

I know this new theme might be a little more challenging because it’s something we didn’t do in class. But you have shown a lot of development in your writing over the year, and I think you can bring a lot of your own views and ideas to it. You have a lot of freedom about writing on any opinion you choose, but look at these pages and units in the textbook to help you. 

How much to write

I would like you to write as much as you can, around 4-5 paragraphs' worth of writing. 

Deadline (締め切り)

It will be our last day in class next week, on January 22nd (1/22), so you do not have a lot of time. I want you to work on your first draft (下書き) in class today in your notebooks in pencil, plus work on this outside of class.

The final version should be typed up on a Word document, with the correct formatting as I have shown you before about name, class, period, and that it is the final writing assignment, with a title and the correct spacing, and handed in on January 22nd. 

Good luck! I'll look forward to reading your great writing on these themes. 

See you next week!

Image: Courtesy of PANPOTE/FreeDigitalPhotos.net