Comments for Machiko Romaine

Comment on Course 5 Final Project Reflection by Kim Cofino

Kim Cofino — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:57:30 +0000

Awesome! You and Reiko have done a fabulous job! Thank you for including so many student examples. I really appreciate your thoughtful reflection of your work. Can’t wait to see your final presentation on Dec 1!

Comment on Interim Report On Our Final Project by Kim Cofino

Kim Cofino — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:44:44 +0000

Awesome! What do you think was the most challenging part? Why do you think they aren’t understanding the cultural side? What kinds of improvements did they make from the first project to the second? Why/How do you think they learned those things?

Comment on We still have a lot of work to do. by Kim Cofino

Kim Cofino — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:42:28 +0000

Wow! You’re right! I didn’t hear anything about this. What a scary story. I wonder how those four people got stuck in that terrible situation. Have they been released now?

Comment on Schools not meeting students technology needs? by Kim Cofino

Kim Cofino — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:40:11 +0000

This must be a really challenging environment to work in. How can you use these experiences to help build a more productive class time in the future? Especially for video resources, maybe a flipped classroom model would be more useful. When you said you ended up having a typing session instead, why? What did you mean?

Comment on How should we help increase students’ ‘critical thinking skills’? by Kim Cofino

Kim Cofino — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:36:05 +0000

I’m curious how critical thinking skills and greetings go together – can you explain this idea more? How would you teach those skills to students through the concepts of greetings in Japan (where they are so important, as you explained).

Comment on Where should we start? by Kim Cofino

Kim Cofino — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:33:53 +0000

Agree, we all need to be involved in morals and ethics, like copying and cheating. I like your description: “As a language teacher, when I read submitted work by a student, I can see his or her face in the writing. I can even hear him or her reading it.” I know the feeling!

Comment on Course 5 Final Project Reflection by Final project » Reiko's blog (^_^)

Final project » Reiko's blog (^_^) — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:47:33 +0000

[...] Machiko ‘s link – [...]

Comment on Interim Report On Our Final Project by Course 5 Final Project Reflection - Machiko Romaine

Course 5 Final Project Reflection - Machiko Romaine — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 01:31:02 +0000

[...] I wrote in my interim report, we found many unexpected obstacles in giving online classes. We could not watch the VoiceThreads [...]

Comment on Schools not meeting students technology needs? by mromaine

mromaine — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 05:45:28 +0000

Jamie,

Thank you for sharing your comments. It is interesting to know that the educational philosophy driving US public education is still controlling the quality of the curriculum and pushing teachers to produce a workforce suited to following managers’ directions at assembly lines, where innovative ideas are not required. In order to achieve this, according to current school administrators, constant standardized testing for students and frequent evaluations of teachers are highly necessary.

At overseas international schools, where most of the parents are college graduates and hold leadership positions in their jobs, I believe it’s easier to implement cutting edge educational reform than in schools in the United States.

Tony Wagner (http://www.tonywagner.com/) is worth studying and inspiring. Thank you again and Gambatte! Keep up with your good work!
Your comment

Comment on Schools not meeting students technology needs? by Jamie Richard

Jamie Richard — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:51:30 +0000

Hi Machiko,

Some of the obstacles that you are facing with your online course resonate with me, as I have been thinking and reading a lot about how the current model of education in the U.S. is becoming more and more antiquated. Two books by Tony Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap and Creating Innovators, raise some very interesting questions about U.S. educational practices, offer some compelling case studies, and looks into possible solutions and / or ideas about reform. Among Wagner’s discussions is a look at the Finnish school system in a documentary called, The Finland Phenomenon.

9http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/05/02/the-finland-phenomenon-inside-the-worlds-most-surprising-school-system/

While Wagner is not suggesting that this is a model that will fit work for the U.S., as the country is so different in many ways, he does contend that U.S. should note what is happening here as we work to improve our current model. When you mentioned in your post, that students could not view Internet videos at school, it prompted me to think about how much more autonomous Finnish schools are than those in the U.S. I’ve found these resources fascinating.

It’s great to see how your online course is evolving. Thanks for sharing.

Jamie