A few weeks ago I came across Tawawa, a “group weblog” written by English students at Mie University (Mie Prefecture) and the brainchild of Rudolf Ammann, a member of the Faculty of Education there. At the time I discovered it (those good ol’ referrer logs), the site (and class, English Composition III — Writing for the Web) had just launched and Ammann asked that I not link to it at that point.
Actually, the site and class have undergone some “growing pains” and Ammann and I have had a fruitful email discussion about some of the issues that having the class weblog brought up, including how to get Japanese students to express themselves, in a language not their own, rather than simple links with a banal word or two about them. Seeing the site evolve over the last few weeks, I’m not sure exactly what Ammann did but the site has started to come into its own and the entries are much more expansive than when the site launched. The students are also started to contribute comments to each others’ entries. Perhaps in the end, the students just needed to become familiar and comfortable with the weblog format, which I presume they previously had not been aware of.
Having solved some technical issues, they are now also creating a group weblog in Japanese as well.
Being involved in education myself, I’m very keen on how blogging and education will interface in the future. One site in particular that I’ve been reading a lot recently is weblogg-ed, which is subtitled “using web logs in education.” This site also features a long list of “educator blogs” in its left margin.
In addition to Tawawa, here are other sites recently added to the “Other Personal Views from Japan” blogroll:
Andrea in Japan — Rambling Notes
The Blog From Another Dimension
Confessions of a Grade School Role Model
The Flounder
Jax in Japan
Jay’s Japan Journal
joshjacobson.net
Josh’s Japan Log
Life in Japan 2003
My Travels in Japan
On my mind…
Sake-Drenched Postcards
Seiji Does Japan
Sonic in Tokyo
Through Rose Tinted Glasses
Yvonna – Journal of Japan
Also, a blogger named James, who doesn’t live in Japan but who claims to be “hopelessly obsessed with Japan and travel abroad,” has created an Interactive Japan Blogger’s map using Javascript, with 47 of us on there. He’s got a bunch listed in “unknown,” so if you’re in there send him an email with your location.
or he could probably get the info if people sign up with GeoURL, couldn’t he?
Ahhh. I knew there was interesting stuff going on in Mie Prefecture. Eh hem!!
Thanks for the plug, Kurt!
I don’t know either what exactly I did, but I do share your impression that my students are beginning to get the hang of this thing.
They’re an amazing class and a pleasure to teach.
Ooh, that geoURL looks spiffy, I might have to use that.
The Tawama site shows that there maybe a spark of inquiry within the Japanese education system after all. However, the test will be its longevity. I have seen Japanese school/student sites before…and they fizzle out after a while.