2015 June 27 | Rob Fritz | The (Intercultural) Language Classroom

Thanks to everyone who braved the rainy weather to make it out! 

Notes from the presentation

Part 1: Theory

Rob Fritz

Despite the Ministry of Education's (MEXT) aims to produce globally-minded citizens, the recent educational climate in Japan is that of students who are inward-looking, or uchi-muki. The problem is exacerbated by the implantation of language education that remains focused on grammatical accuracy. To achieve the Ministry's stated aims, Mr. Fritz argues that language education must incorporate culture into the curriculum in a meaningful way. He advocates the following changes:

• Deep adjustment to the educational infrastructure
• Deep awareness of development of self 
• Awareness of how sociocultural factors influence our subjective world view

2015 April 12 | Nagasaki JALT Executive | Poster Sessions: Meet YOUR Nagasaki JALT Executive

Thanks to everyone who came out for the April meeting. The executives presented on a range of topics, providing something for everyone.

Thom Rawson (President) presented about making a digital textbook.

Thom Rawson

• By making learning materials digital, teachers are better able to engage students where they spend much of their time and attention already: online and on their digital devices.
• Digital textbooks allow for immediate feedback to students through automatic grading. This not only saves time for the teacher but can motivate students.
• There are a variety of platforms available for creating digital coursework, including the following:
• • LMS: Moodle, Blackboard, Manaba
  • Google: Google Docs, YouTube, Blogger