Tag Archives: Week3

The first day is always tough!

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Initiators

Fortunately a few of students are excited at the news that I would have to work on a project to set up a platform for all users of our library to look for recommendations of good books to be read. Kirsten spreaded/released the news to them, whom she had encountered right after the lunch time. As she is a real professional teacher, she kindly facilitated the ground, where I could easily get  the project started even though I was not so ready to be confident starting although I had had enough reasons and resources explored beforehand. Kirsten suggested that once I should start, I could easily get to know which areas I prepare more and less.

Easy language

First of all I set up the smart board, where a gathering group of people easily could work on after I explained to them the reason behind this project and the accessible audience of this platform. The whole title of the blog was considered by all of them together, and the easy-language to be used for was suggested by two of the students since students themselves would have to understand the content at first even though the audience would include adults such as parents, teachers, experts and peers.

Readers favorites

They said that this should be a platform, where the students’ perspectives are highly valued. The simple is the best, on which they emphasize, yet to make the usage of language simple enough to be understood clearly could be the most difficult. However somehow they had already been accustomed to thinking of the attractive/objective description to represent the blog. All voices were coming in/out and in the end they all agreeded to ‘Readers Favorites’.

Since this platform idea was attributed to our reading activity called ‘Mystery Readers’, ‘Can You be My Mystery Readers?’ as an example was suggested to them at the first hand. They pointed out that it could not be applicable to everyone, which makes sense to the concept of this platform since it has to be useful one for all users out/inside of this community too. When the title was discussed, they said they would bring up the idea later, yet as they talked to each other during the allocated time, their unexpecting ideas, at which they were even surprised by themselves were coming out of their heads.

Vigorous students and their attention to the audience

They are also all volunteered/vigorous students,who want to ‘create’ something, and they look to me that this project is a part of play during their lunch recess time, which has to be something fun otherwise they would not have taken initiatives. They instantly allocated/assigned their roles by themselves since each student recognized her strength and weakness. There were 4 students gathering, and the first two took their parts in writing/editing and started thinking the descriptive sentences to explain the purpose of the blog to the audience. They were so eager to create the instruction on the welcome page, which needs to be clearly served to the students mainly since adults could understand childrens’ usage of language anyway. The level of the language should be focused on that of students. They seem to be hunger for the opportunity to create something, which is really extended format of playtime. This reminded me of the previous course, according to which play is the golden time to get our unprecedented ideas since all we are so relaxed during the playtime.

The rest of two were more likely to think of the fitted image of the each page according to a grade tab. They did not want to just point to the section of our library to have an image chosen, rather they wanted to create an extended image of the section integrated with those students’ physical expression. One day as I asked one student the reason behind the image they had created/chosen. She told me that selected books shown at the head banner of the G1/G2 page would have readers stop waiting for a second to inspire their curiosity to read the book, which has got the mismatched title with the illustration.

Since they seemed to enjoy the time so much, their ideas were seamlessly coming out/in and they loved editing their first thoughts, which were renewed again and again until they found their right sentences/words.

Challenged-based inquires lead to project-based learning.

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2PBLs and CBL

For me, Project-based learning has got all of the essence of problem-based learning and challenged-based learning. To make it simple, all of the challenging issues in this world or problems relevant to human-beings or this planet could easily bring up projects to be taken actions for otherwise they would disturb our ways of living or lives themselves in unsorted ways.

They are normally unprecedented or unexpected events, which would let us think ahead and be proactive for any sorts of circumstances or situations. If all of those three instructional methods are chronically looked at, problem-based learning(1960s) comes first, and  challenged-based learning(2009) is followed after  project-based learning(1990s).

The basic needs for societies as problem-solving strategies

Although I learn that the pedagogy of those three instructional methods is independent of each other, the fundamental educational needs for human-beings in the 21st century would not be so much different from those of the past if we consider what we would need to learn for living on this planet.

All surrounding environment where we live always have some sorts of problems such as economic issues, political issues, environmental issues, educational issues, medical issues, family issues, which we could not pass through and ignore them. Even working in companies could relate to solving problems in/outside companies, which would let them make money instead. Companies exist or are prosperous in this world because there are so many demands or requests by audiences (or customers), which could be challenged by innovators or inventors or creators or producers to meet their needs.

Companies always look for people, whose ideas are so creative or innovative and they want to employ people, who could find solutions to day-by-day problems(usually cost effective/efficient performance/management in proportion to attractive products or innovative plans)and look for more advanced strategies.

I learn from the quote by Keisuke Honda

One sentence coming up to my mind is  ‘Be prepared and have no regrets’, which was commented by Keisuke Honda as the Japanese professional football player when he was interviewed after the winning match.

He said that “ the everything is the preparation”. All the difficult path to get to that point goes back to the preparation for that winning tournament.

Title:009/365: on Opening of Asia Cup 2011. Attributions: By Najwa Marafie - Free Photographer ŇÄĵŵÅ Ă. Мǻŗǻƒįę

In my impression, since no ones ever expected Japan team to be a winner of AFC Asian Cup in 2011, few people were interested in the competition at first. For us, it was unprecedented winning outcome, yet for professionals, they believed in themselves what they had prepared for the competition.

What Mr Honda Keisuke means to say by ‘the preparation is the everything’, he simulated his winning  scenario, and he prepared for it step by step to be close to his scheme or strategy as much as possible. This sounds like a project-based learning leading to a challenged-based learning and a problem-based learning since he challenged seemingly an incredible project to have lead to winning the match.

In his vision, winning the match was possible thing since he had prepared everything for the hypothetical winning match as much as possible. The concept of challenged-based learning is to tackle with the real world issues collaborating with in/outsiders even if they look overwhelming or impossible to be achieved so that challenged-based learning has to be a project or big scheme, which should be organized, implemented and reflected in limited time.

When Mr Honda Keisuke mentioned ‘the preparation’, I imagined he had had a big plan or project in his mind, which probably was shared with his teammates. Even for the strategies we would have to think of when real-world problems are needed to be solved. The actual solutions that all well-known professionals in all sorts of areas had taken would help learners to find their own strategies.

Project X: Challengers by NHK

This reminds me of ‘Poject X’ as TV documentary program on air  every week produced by NHK almost 10 years ago. The program was quite popular among audiences, and I am sure it was one of  the greatest hits or phenomenal documentaries welcomed by TV watchers.

Title: Ingo Gunther, The Participation Revolution. Attributions: By AlphachimpStudio Peter Durand.This photo was taken on August 7, 2009.

It was the program that how people working in a company challenged or overcame the difficult time/tasks to keep the company going. Within the documentary non-fiction drama, sometimes an ordinary employee of that company was the hero since he saved his company in his innovative way, and in the other week, CEO was the hero, who invented a phenomenal product. Any members of various companies could have become heros in each week  to have challenged the difficult time within the ‘Project X’. No matter who they are. CEOs, researchers, mechanics, manufactures. This program showed us the whole drama of various projects, which eventually went into success stories although there were trials and errors.

Problem-based learning is not as realistic as challenged-based learning so that learners would not get pressured to get motivated. Project-based learning within the framework to challenge the unprecedented/unexpected problems would make learners  be confident to solve the problems easily since they have got so many realistic and tactic experiences.

Credentials:

 

Hospitality > Presenting

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Understanding presentation design could relate to observing hospitality industry.

Entertainers as TED talks’ spearkers

Presenters shown in TED talks always look to me that they are not only presenters but also entertainers. In TED talks, the  big screen behind a presenter (via data projector ) effectively shows visual slides, which s/he prepares for her/his topic to audiences in order to aid her/his talk.

Such visual aids as well as presenters are good media, which/who could afford entertaining us in addition to a full of information or message s/he wants to deliver to the audiences. When we talk about what presentation is in TED talks, it seems to go beyond the conventional meaning of presentation. In any cases of the numbers of audiences, the presentation itself needs to be communicated with audiences.

Rakugo

Successful presenters seem to be analogous to what we call good actors on the stage or films. They would have to understand very well what they are talking as they think. My previous teacher used to say that he always listens to Rakugo to acquire good communicating skills since he starts his another career as a teaching job in institutions beside his writing occupation.

YouTube Preview Image

 

Rakugo masters use their communicative skills to entertain audiences. As they talk to or introduce some traditional stories such as (sometimes modified patterns of) folk tales or legends or myths (including a sense of humour) to audiences, only one rakugo master is there on the stage. There are little visual aids or sound effects. (Yet these days, there seems to be a contemporary style of rakugo, where some slide shows with sound effects behind a rakugo master are seen.) Nevertheless it lets us learn what communication is.

Not one way but two ways

When rakugo masters talk to audiences, their talks make us imagine the colorful pictures or even slides of the story that s/he tries to tell us. Their effective techniques of communicating with audiences easily let us associate with the scenes the rakugo master is trying to visualize through his/her verbal communication. Such an elaborate technique needs to be spontaneously responsive to the reaction of the audiences. This means that when s/he talks to audiences, what s/he prepares to speak could be possibly altered depending on how audiences react to his/her story.

This is certainly the style of two ways of communication even though there are no chances for audiences to respond to his/her story directly back to the speaker at that time. If visual aids could foster two ways of communication, they could be effective supporting tools.

Three dimensional nature

When I read the quote by Steve Jobs in Garr Reynolds’ article, I was impressed with his insight into the meaning of presentation, which could be or not be replaced with power point.   He seems to have implied in his message that power point might distract or stop our thinking during our implementing presentations although it is supposed to aid or empower our opinions or ideas. I was also surprised to know that he did not like using power point to do any kinds of presentations.

I think this reason could be seen in the presenter’s reliance on the dualism of materials (like power point slide shows) and the presenter although the presentation has to have 3 dimensional nature. If you always think of audiences at the first priority, how the design of slide shows should look like, how the presentation should be produced/directed, how the total coordination of the presentation including the time/space, the communication with audiences,  and the production should be implemented would be automatically clear.

Credentials:

  • “What is the meaning of hospitality and hotel industry” by ACS distance education.  Blurt it. February 2012. Online.

 

  •  ”TED talks ideas worth spreading” by TED. TED. February 2012. Online.

 

  • “English-Rakugo What’s rakugo” by Daily Yomiyuri. English Rakugo. 2002. Online. English Rakugo. February 2012.

 

  •  ”Steve Jobs: People who know what’s is talking about don’t need powerpoints” by Garr Reynolds. Prezentation Zen. December 20, 2011. Online. Prezentation Zen-Garr Reynolds’ blog on issues related to professional presentation design. February 2012.

 

  • “桂三輝 Katsura Sunshine English Rakugo Jugemu” by Katsura Sunshine. YouTube. February 27, 2011. Online. YouTube. February 2012.

 

 

The Ideological Gap Between Human-beings and Computers

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Intellectual Property/Copyright V.S Our Wisdom(Ideology)

It seems to me that library is not a museum but a place for users to enjoy in/visible intellectual property as much as possible.

‘Five Laws of library science’ by Ranganathan Shiyali Ramamrita(1892-1972) are as follow.

  1. Books are for use.
  2. Every reader his [or her] book.
  3. Every book its reader.
  4. Save the time of the reader.
  5. The library is a growing organism.

This is one of my favorite fundamental philosophy or ideology(mission statements) of library subject. These laws are applicable to the ones in this century if we look at what Seiter writes in her book, The internet playground, Seiter(2005). She says

“ The internet is more like a mall than a library; it resembles a gigantic public relations collection more than it does an archive of scholars”.

This is my view that if books can be replaced by all virtual entities(digital information) acquired via media within cyberspace, laws of intellectual property and copyrights have to be kept challenging by our wisdom more than ever.

Intellectual Property

Attribution: By books live; Ben Williams on Flicker. Image: From Edison to iPod.

Yes, all laws of intellectual property rights and copyrights are relied on our thinking process.

Tangible Human Beings V.S Intangible Attributions

It is or will be a big problem if users step beyond those laws, and we have to know that lawyers are interested in not the content of information you get through the hyper-connected line or space but where you actually find and own it for your property when it comes to those issues.  Since there are no more definitions of primary source, secondary source and tertiary source in the regime of cyberspace compared to off-line world, the original sources of all digital in/visible products or materials gained or created through the on-line system are hardly attributable to due to the inherent mechanic system of computers, where information cannot simply belong to anywhere.

Since human-beings are tangible living things under the big assumption that we should or could in some way find or detect those sources (or originals), and so are lawyers, there are ideological gaps among computers(autonomous artificial intelligence), digital consumers/citizens including lawyers/prosecutors and policy-makers. The computer scientists do regard this fact not as ‘a mistake or deficiency’ but as something, which ‘we have worked so hard to become so’ thanks to the development of IT(Information Technology) according to Ansuz’s view. It is apparent that we should not assume or take it granted for the way that we used to manage or know how to find tangible attributions to the location of original information just like before the advent of this hyper-connected society. Such complicated or intangible reason behind this fact can be referred to the following passage by Ansuz.

 ‘If I add 39 plus 3 and get 42, and you do the same thing, there is no way that “my” 42 can be said to be different from “your” 42.  Given two bit-for-bit identical MP3 files, there is no meaningful (to a computer scientist) way to say that one is a recording of the Cage composition and the other one isn’t.  There would be no way to test one of the files and see which one it was, because they are actually the same file.’

 He actually pointed out and tried to explain how hard it is to locate and find the authentic/original record /file of the composition, whose music Ansuz’s friend would like to compress with MP3 compressor. There are so many identical records within hyper-connected society, which we assume should be exactly the same, yet are not really the same ones according to the mechanic system of computer.

Insufficient Ideological Infrastructures of Intellectual Property and Copyrights

 All matters of copyrights and intellectual property are part of or result from ideological products, which our countries or political institutions (and each citizen) have mainly established. That is to say, those conceptions or definitions of copyrights and intellectual property have been made, reviewed and revised by policy-makers according as our needs grow to be caught up with the technological development. However the infrastructure for us to live with those rights are incomplete and have so many deficiencies.

Even if we try to look at an innovative side of those laws as one of the global projects : creative commons, which is something intellectual activity or an effort of human beings in this century, you could see some fights over ‘who is responsible for the image?’among Flickr Group ; Creative Commons ; a photographer ; Virgin Mobile ad, which can be referred to the article ‘Suit exposes flaws in Creative Commons’ .

Since the economic depression in the last few years, there are more people to utilize or come to library physically/digitally in Japan, where they could enjoy intellectual resources (on/off line materials) since it is actually more cost-effective or free for them to search and get information from library than profit organizations (on/off line book or media-audio-shops). Thanks to the development of our society/culture, you could find many public libraries, where citizens are welcome to be main users. Public libraries in Japan are supervised under the ‘Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’, which makes the overall of ‘Fundamental Laws of Education’ although local public body has more authorities over its own regulations (systems )or laws.　Every citizen in our democratic society has his/her right to access /enjoy information, and to pursue or promote his/her autonomous self-directing lifelong learning.

As long as the state has such an ideology to encourage every citizen to enjoy all the information via media, those intellectual property sides of laws need to be renovated or re-established upon the certain understanding of the fact that we are not the same mechanism of computers(artificial intelligent), and completely different styles of such laws, which could challenge the present ‘copyright laws’ and enforce the idea of ‘fair use’  need to be established and implemented.

Dilemma and Contradictions

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Blog your reflections for this week.

Creativity and Innovation

According to standards for the global age in the digital age,

 ‘……in fact, the globalizing economy and technological advances continue to place a premium on a highly skilled labor force.’

One of performance indicators for students based on international society for technology in education(ISTE) is said to be ‘creativity and innovation’.This idea could lead to Edutopia’s Digital Generation Project supported by MacArthur foundation, which announced

‘a $2 million open competition for ideas to transform learning using digital media. The competition seeks designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and others to build digital media experiences – the learning labs of the 21st Century – that help young people interact, share, build, tinker, and explore in new and innovative ways.’

Geeks are welcome to this digital society?

It is my view that what these associations or foundations would expect to see more or less in the future is geeks. The definition of geek itself could be referred to writings of ‘Geeking Out’ in ‘Living and Learning  with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project(2008:18)’.

Then to what extent will geeks likely to be appreciated in our coming age? Are they only to be what we call freaks? Could they challenge the ethics in the digital age? How far would their performances of participating in their intensified social networks be constrained to existing social rules or regulations? Do such administrative/social policies give more motivations to interest-driven social network participants to inspire their technological knowledge or techniques, which could eventually lead to not only illegal area but also innovation?

Dilemma and contradictions

There seem to be challenging contradictions between the directions of ideal digital society, which those foundations hope to see in the future and the dilemma of applauding geeks on one side and setting/providing the digital environment to tempt them to pursue their willingness to go beyond the fuzzy restricted zones on the other side.  In Mizuko Ito’s book(2010:71), ‘ Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking out’ , computer geeks seem to have come out of restricted digital society and  invisible constraints of social rules or limitations could promote their driving force to challenge their current limited technical capabilities or skills to enter the gray zone in order to explore/participate in more specific communities of their interest. This could enhance their technological abilities and help them to create an innovative social network property or craft in the end. In addition, it is said in MacArthur’s article

“They promote learning together with others, by interactively doing, trying, sometimes failing. When we think of laboratories, the image of beakers and microscopes come to mind, but learning labs help us reimagine and expand our understanding of learning across all domains of knowledge.”

It is understood from this quote that the experimental stage seems to be important process of learning whatever or however digital inventions are implemented. They would come across gray zones to experiment. Those risky attempts by interest-driven participants in social networks might be paid-off by their innovative digital products, which would not otherwise be even released to the public unless they could be geeking out. Therefore my question is how administrative/socialized ethic views could challenge giving away ‘breeding ground(Ito, 2010:71)’ to geeks and enjoying what they eventually could bring prosperity to our digital social networks.