電気通信大学 ASE II: 1/21 board notes・1月21日のボードノート

Hello! 

How are you? Above are the board notes for our class on 1/21. This is what you should have in your summaries. 

I'll look forward to seeing all of you next week for your final presentations. 

Take care and good luck!

Image: Personal photograph. All rights reserved.

電気通信大学 ASE II: Fall semester final presentations ・後期末プレゼンテーション

Hello!



Our fall final presentation topic will be your choice! 

Semester themes review

Here is a review of the themes of this semester:

• Comparison & contrasting educational systems in different countries
• Japan and the future

Deadline (締め切り)

We will do these on January 28th (1/28), so you have the next 4-5 weeks to prepare these. That will seem like a long time, but we will go through topic selection and review, plus presentation practice that I will coach you on. 

This process is very important, because as always, I would like to see you make the best presentations you can, so I would like to continue to guide and coach you  - that is why we will take time to prepare and practice! 

Here is our remaining schedule after the holiday, and what we will do in it:

1/7 - open class time for idea/topic generation, developing topic summaries
1/14 - topic summary review, open class for preparation
1/21 - open class for preparation, final presentation practice
1/28 - final presentations 

Guidelines

You can choose one (1) of these themes, but with these guidelines:

1. Developing a topic comparing & contrasting quality of science education in different countries

You can focus on the quality of science education in different countries, in any area of science, with Japan as one of the countries you can focus on. 

Like our two presentations we have done this semester, you must present a two-sided argument about the merits or demerits of the area of science you focus on. 

Special note: If you have focused on science in your presentation on educational systems before, you must present on something different than what you did before, such as a different country for comparison or a different area of science – do not present the same thing about the same country(s) that you already did!

2. Developing a topic about the merits and demerits of the social impact, in the past or present, of key inventions or discoveries in science & technology

You must present on something different than what you did before – do not present the same thing on the same topic that you did also!

In this topic, you can take a historical view - focus on an invention or discovery in science or technology in any area of science you are interested in (chemistry, physics, math, or an applied science like engineering or technology like IT). What has been – or is becoming –  the social impact of the invention or discovery? 

Like our other presentations we have done this semester, you must present a two-sided argument about the topic, and what you would do.

Special note: Once again, you must present on something different than what you did 
before – do not present the same thing about the same invention or discovery that you already did!

3. A topic of your choice
For this, see me on what you have in mind for a topic. It should be science or technology-oriented, and something that you have not done before. 

You should work towards a two-sided argument within your topic choice.

Supporting links
1. Here are some video links to things that relate to the first two theme ideas above. Each one will take you directly to the TED website. With each one you can download the written transcript of the talk in either English or Japanese. (Note - the first link is a longer video than the second.)

  

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. 

• Cesar Harada - How I teach my kids to love science (2015.10) - click on this link  for this talk. 

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

2. Here is a link about outlining on a separate blogpage about outline (あらすじ) writing. Go to this link to see it if you wish to try writing an outline. 

I hope these links can help get you going on ideas. 

Good luck! See you in 2020!

Image: By Vanillase - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17300496

電気通信大学 ASE II: 12/10 board notes・12月10日のボードノート

Hello!

How are you? Here is a short post of the board notes for our class for 12/10. 

Here are the other notes: 

See you next week!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

電気通信大学 ASE II: Presentation topic 4・プレゼンテーション 4

Hello!

How are you? Today I will introduce our 4th presentation topic - on Japan and the future. 

Topic

Here you can present about scientific, technological, social, or cultural trends and issues that you see could happen in Japan in the future. 

This is a little different kind of topic as this will be more of an imagined sense of what you feel or see for Japan in the future – though any data you can find and show will strengthen your content, and you should work to make a basis in fact.

You must work towards a two-sided argument about what you see or believe for Japan in the future – things such as technological or scientific breakthroughs, but also some social and economic difficulties and dangers that you believe Japan should take care for, and work to avoid.

Deadline (締め切り) 

We will do these on December 17th (12/17), so you have two (2) weeks to prepare these. Aim to make a presentation of around 5 minutes, including a Q&A from others you will present to. 

Guidelines

1. Prepare a summary (要約) about what you want to present on. The summary will be due next week for check on December 10th (12/10). 

On 12/10, bring a computer or tablet with you and I can give you time in class to work on your presentation and practice it. 

2. Finalize your presentation outside of class and be ready to present on 12/17!

Now here are the board notes for our class on 12/3:

Good luck! See you next class!

Image: By ころぞう - Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2149120/Board notes - personal photographs. All rights reserved.

電気通信大学 ASE & AE2Y II: 11/26 board notes・11月26日のボードノート

Hello!

How are you? Here are the board notes for both the ASE and AE2Y II classes for 11/26. At the top are the board notes for the ASE II class.

Now here are the board notes for the AE2Y II class:

See you next week!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

電気通信大学 ASE II: Timelines of things from past to present & future・過去、現在、未来のタイムライン

Hello!

How are you? Today let's look at more ideas about the future, but from a different viewpoint - from timelines of things from the past to the present, and what we could imagine about the future. 

Look at the picture above. It comes from a magazine in the U.S. called Popular Science. It has been published for a long time, and this picture is from 1947. In one of their magazines from 1947, Popular Science had a report about the future. It imagined many things about it. From the picture, what do you see that it imagined about the future? Talk about it!

例えば：In the picture at the top, maybe they thought all our electricity (電気) would come from nuclear power plants (原子力発電所) in the future. 

Now look at this short video. It's the opening and closing credits to an animated cartoon from the early 1960s that was popular in the U.S. It was called The Jetsons and it was about an American family living in the future. What sorts of things do you notice in the video? 

What do you think of that? Every culture has its own ideas about what the future looks like. The Jetsons video clip plus the picture at the top are very some American ideas, especially after World War II and into the 1950s and 1960s, about what the future would look like. Would any of these ideas be the same as some Japanese ideas at that time about the future?  

Activity
Now how have some things developed and changed over time? Here are two (2) other short videos for all of you - one is about money, and the other, about cars. 

In a pair or group, choose one (1) video. Watch it and note how things have changed with the topic - either money or cars - over time. 

Then - get together with another pair or group who has watched a different video. With the other pair or group, compare and contrast (比較対照して) what you have seen in your video - and give each other some ideas about the future with the thing you watched about (either money, or cars). 

About money

About cars

Have fun! See you next time!

Image: Screenshot of illustration uploaded to Popular Science website. 

Uploaded for educational purposes only. I do not own the rights to this illustration. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). 
Videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the animation or other content within. All rights reserved to the copyright holders. Uploaded for educational purposes only.

電気通信大学 ASE II: Japan & the future・日本の未来

Hello! 

How are you? A big otsukaresamadeshita on the presentations last week. Good job on those! 

Now here is a post on the future - this time, Japan and the future. 

Look at the picture above. It shows an average Japanese family having dinner, and it comes from a Japanese magazine article from 1954 about home life. Is there anything different about family dinner time now than from then? 

Activity
What kinds of social or cultural changes can you see happening in Japan in the future? Japanese society and culture has already been through many changes since World War II. 

Take a look at these next group of pictures. They show some changes that have happened in around the last 50 years or so, up to now. What do you notice about the buildings, or the cars, or the way people dress? How do you feel that things have changed? 

Chuo-dori, Ginza, Tokyo, late 1960s

Chuo-dori, Ginza, Tokyo, today

Japanese young people, early 1960s

Japanese young people, today

Some contemporary fashions in Japan, late 1960s

Some contemporary fashions in Japan, today

Now let's take a look at this video about the Tsukuba Expo in 1985. This was almost 20 years later, but already things had changed since the 1960s: 

I have just two questions: 

What was the theme of the Tsukuba Expo? 

What kinds of achievements did the Tsukuba Expo want to show?

Other questions to think about:

So what kinds of changes can you imagine happening in society or culture in the future from now? What sorts of fashions might people be wearing? For example, would long hair come back into fashion among men? Would women wear mini-skirts again? Or - would men wear skirts and women wear suits? How about music? What would it sound like in the future? 

What designs in cars could you see in the future? Would we see a return to some older designs in cars? How about buildings? How might they be different? Perhaps would we see something in the future that people 50 years ago would never have imagined! 

Now here are the board notes for our class from 11/19:

See you next week!

Images: Top - by Unknown - Japanese magazine "Photograph Gazette, May 1954 issue" published by Government of Japan., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17850644/Ginza in 1967 - by Roger W from Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. - Tokyo - Chuo-Dori, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60804070/Ginza in 2017 - by Gary - DSC08269 - Chuo-dori Ginza, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40961932/Japanese young people in 1964 - screenshot taken from Japanese+youth,+Tokyo,+1964+(11).jpg/Japanese young people today - screenshot taken from https://www.google.co.jp/search?biw=1199&bih=746&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=w2dXWpWxAcr08QXcjLHAAg&q=japanese+young+people&oq=japanese+young+people&gs_l=psy-ab.12...0.0.0.37755.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c..64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.ZsHKi1iiTEI#imgrc=VXhxXXgo1PeJ-M:/Fashions in the 1960s - screenshot taken from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggSgihLQJ00A84oVxNXdnaTdsbeTOGyngG-Cw7QCFjOczG3LECPdEbMZn_H9xcCV5UGrB9aZYdZqsodtUNL0InEGB4x1qi37sgsipFgP8_t3ThGqxbukg0V5zUJZvTYyx5ZwU6YWul76k/s1600/Street fashion today – screenshot taken from images on Instagram.
I do not own the rights to the images originally posted on Instagram. All rights reserved on original images to the copyright holders. Screenshots of images uploaded for educational purposes only.

電気通信大学: ASE・AE2Y II 10/29 board notes・10月29日のボードノート

Hello!

How are you? Here are the board notes for both the ASE & AE2Y II classes from 10/29. My apologies to all of you for getting these notes up late!

For the ASE II class - if you need a review of our first topic presentation assignment, go to this link. 

Above are the notes for the ASE II class on 10/29. Now here are the other notes for the 10/29 ASE class:

Now here are the board notes for the AE2Y II class on 10/29: 

If you need a review of our Topic 1 writing and presentation assignment, go to this link. 

See you next week!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved. 

電気通信大学 ASE II: Presentation topic 3・プレゼンテーション 3

Hello! 

How are you? Our 3rd presentation topic for the year, and first for the fall semester, will be about comparing and contrasting similarities and differences in educational systems between Japan and another country.

Before we begin, here are the board notes for our class from two weeks ago on 10/15:

Now let's look at the theme and task!

Theme/task

Choose any country to compare and contrast with Japan to make a two-sided argument about the advantages and disadvantages of education between Japan and another country, with an encouraged focus on science education.

While I showed you the videos on the blogpost about education in Finland, India, and South Korea, you should find other videos and/or readings on educational systems in other countries for your comparison and contrast. 

You can choose any level of education as your point of comparison and contrast –elementary, junior high school, high school, or university. (Please remember to compare and contrast the same levels of education – for example, advantages or disadvantages of elementary school in Japan with elementary school in Germany, or advantages or disadvantages of high school in Japan with high school in Russia, and so on).

I encourage you to focus on science education, though you can focus on other areas of education if you wish. A focus on science education, however, may be more interesting for you. How does the quality of science education in Japan (or in your own country if you are not from Japan) compare with the quality of science education in another country? What would arguments for the strength of science education in Japan (or your country) be versus any strengths of science education in another country? Where might Japan be strong – and not so strong – in different areas of science education?  

Deadline (締め切り) 

We will do these on November 12th (11/12), so you have two (2) weeks to prepare these. Aim to make a presentation of around 4-5 minutes, including a Q&A from others you will present to. 

Guidelines

1. Prepare a summary (要約) about what you will present on. The summary should be ready for review next week on November 5th (11/5).  

*I would like you to refresh yourselves on what a good summary should include. Go to this link from earlier this year for a review of what should go into a summary. 

The link is a post about summaries and outlines - for now, only look at the part about summaries! I hope this can help you in your summary writing. 

2. Be ready for me to review your progress next week (11/5) and for you to practice your presentation in-class. You can practice with me and/or other students. 

3. Finalize your presentation outside of class and be ready to present on 11/12!

Good luck! See you next class!

Image: By Anna Frodesiak - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19067711

電気通信大学 ASE II: Foreign educational systems・外国教育

Hello!

How are you? Today I will introduce our first theme of the new semester - education. 

I have three (3) short videos for you about educational systems in three different countries - Finland, India, and South Korea. 

You can watch one (1) of the videos in class - you choose which one. Answer these questions after you watch:

1. Do you see anything like your own educational experiences in the country's system you watched?

2. Is it anything like your experience? If so - how is it the same? If not - how is it different? 

Here are the videos. The first one is about education in Finland: 

This next one below is about India.

This last one is about South Korea.

Homework

Watch the other two (2) videos we did not see in class and make some notes about your impressions. Now answer these two questions:

3. Which educational system is the most different from your experience?

4. If you could bring some things together from all three (3) of these countries into a single educational system, which parts would you take from each country? Which do you think are the best parts? 

Post your impressions as comments to this blogpost. I'll be interested to read what you have to say and will value it greatly.

NEW - here are the board notes for our class on 10/8:

See you next week!

Image: By Laboratorio de Escritura - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18242352/All videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to these videos. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom purposes only.