TEFL FORUM: ELT in Japan in 2010

These feature articles and articles in brief are under development for publication in 2010 at the sister blog, ELT-J Online Magazine:

1. Vocabulary activities (semantic mapping) for the conversation class.
2. Vocabulary activities (semantic mapping) for the beginning-level writing class.
3. Teaching English /l/ vs. /r/ (applied phonology).
4. Introducing a different sort of audio-visual electronic dictionary for FL learning (follows up on the previous article about units of phonology, the 'visually salient articulatory gesture').
5. Variations of and considerations for the multiple-choice vocabulary question for FL practice and assessment.
6. A look at schema theory and its applications for ELT.
7. A look at 'phonemic awareness' and 'phonological awareness'--what are they and how might they apply to ELT.
8. Analysis of the issue 'phonics vs. whole language' from an ELT perspective.
9. An adaptation of 'semantic feature analysis' to the classroom study of EFL vocabulary.

Waseda professor leads way for Android OS in Japan

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080827/156975/

excerpt:

Japanese Community Formed to Open Shop for Android Apps


A community will be launched to promote the diffusion and development of Google Inc's "Android" platform for mobile phones in Japan Sept 12, 2008.

The community is aimed at succeeding and advancing the activities of the "Android Study Meetings," which have been conducted to give engineers the opportunities to share information about Android.

Professor Fujio Maruyama of Waseda University revealed a memorandum of intent to establish the community at the 9th Android Study Meeting on Aug 25. An opening ceremony will be conducted at Fujisoft Inc's Akihabara Building from 19:00 Sept 12.


See linked article for full information.

GOOGLE APPS FOR INSTITUTIONS

While popular in the US, apparently only one institution in Japan has moved to Google Apps to carry much of its IT services burden. That is Waseda University, a top private university in Tokyo and one that is at the center of Google's Android OS development for Japan.

To see why Google recommends Google Apps for institutions, see:

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/appsatschool.html#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=oa&utm_source=en-oa-na-us-gonegoogleuni-ihe-blogs&utm_term=ihe-blogs-appsleads

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/index.html


Top 10 reasons to use Google Apps

excerpt:

>>  1. Students will love you for it

Schools tells us that when they ask their students what email they'd prefer, they overwhelmingly say Gmail.

"Our students approached us about a year ago, saying that we needed to improve our email and collaboration services. We actually had our student government tell us, 'we want you to implement Google Apps.'" - Wendy Woodward, Director of Technology Support Services, Northwestern University

2. Free up your IT

Focus your IT on activities that add value instead of worrying about the uptime of your email services.

"Google Apps has allowed us to get out of providing these commodity type services - such as maintaining an email and calendaring system - and focus on the things that we are uniquely equipped to do, like providing more resources to be able to better support teaching, learning and research." - Todd Sutton, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services, UNC Greensboro

3. Easy to deploy

No software to install, no hardware to buy, just validate your MX records and create your accounts to get started. To integrate with what you already have, we work with open standards, have created a multitude of APIs, can point you to open source solutions for common integrations, and have approved partners with experience deploying Apps in schools. <<

See link above for all 10 reasons.

My YahooBlogLog information for Japan HEO

For those of you blog and read blogs from the Yahoo side of things:

http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/japanhighereducationoutlook/