Asian Pilot Project based on constructivist theory

                         Nihon Fukushi University

                                          Makoto kageto

 

Firstly , I would like to express my deepest thanks to Taiwanese people who have tried hard work to make the bid success of ASEP2008.

I could remember every impressive scenes shared with my old brothers and new friends.

 

WYM and ASEP

International Collaborative Projects (ICP) naturally led students to use English communication and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).  I have been devoting a lot of work to it because I believe in the great potential for effective use of the Internet.  These competences regarding ICT are really needed in today乫s knowledge-based society. The more I joined the international collaborative Project like ASEP or WYM, the more confident I became. Also, I have been seeking to create a theoretical background to extend effective Internet-based educational functions. The World Youth Meeting (WYM) has been held annually since 1999 and ASEP also have been held in Kaohsiung since 2000.

 I will also talk about observations that were made about the English presentations.  English presentations in collaboration with overseas learners require media literacy, information application and English education.  Knowing the fundamentals of the Internet greatly assists students in acquiring these skills.  Various cultures come together in international collaborative events.  The ability to make public speeches and to interact with an audience is a relatively new field of study in traditional Japanese education. From the viewpoint of constructivism, participating students perform activities within a time limit and are required to solve event management and intercultural problems.

 

Basic philosophy

Observing these two big ICP , we have been keen to find the way to improve international friendship breaking through the conflict caused by the differences way of communication based on cultural diversity and the different competence of English utilization.

 This year my old close friend Dr.Chen pointed out 2 terms 乬competition乭 乬 collaboration乭 based on friendship. I absolutely agree with this opinion, but I would rather add one more term 乬 conflict乭,

We should welcome 乬conflict 乬 to enhance ICP and intercultural understanding for the students who shoulder the 21th century. While facing the conflict, they are enforced to complete the collaborative presentation for ASEP or WYM. Finally they surely became the sense of accomplishment. Feedback on the process might be a resources to enrich younger days.

Like these, two big ICP were composed of the theory of Constructivism; Students are are able to Learn by doing , learn by teaching and learn by reviewing.
In education, constructivism means that leaner actively construct their own knowledge and meaning from their prior knowledge than passively receiving  knowledge from the environment around them.  It can be thought of as a cognitive perspective on learning with the connection to the theories of Piaget, Vygtsky, and Bruner .

 

Proposal

We expect coming ASEP or WYM become to be nicer one than ever, I would like to point out my suggestions as followings.

 

1)      Schedule

We already get used to the approximate schedule , we should clearly point out  our proposal in advance.

 University students have a lot of interest for School visit.

2)      Criteria

 We should clarify the criteria to evaluate the collaborative presentation.

I hope you will refer to the appendix.

3)       Education for the audiences

Prof. Igarashi kindly suggest us how to create the good relationship between presenter and audiences.

From the view point of English education , how to learn the ropes from presenters is crucial one. But sometimes we miss this aspect.

 

4)      The previous preparation

The fundamental of Internet have been improved year by year. TV-conference or SNS became available.

Prof. Chen kindly introduced his Learning Management System including Conference system and Blog.

 

5)      After the event

Why don乫t we try to design the stage which invite participated students to improve English communication.

They surely need such a stage because the Internet narrow down the distance divide.

 

Refering to these suggestions helps us enhance our ICP as pilot porject when completing the schedule and design for comming WYM and ASEP.

丂

we could have a splendid time with Taiwanese friends.

While remembering the warm-hearted hospitality, I can survive the heavily complex environment, even if we are in such a rapidly changing field of endeavour.  

 

Appendix

 

The Criteria of the Collaborative Presentation

The criteria to evaluate collaborative presentations consist of: 1) Composition, 2) File making and 3) Speech competence.  They are classified in Table 8.2.  Designing questionnaires and Sophisticated Impact Images are effective to draw the interest and interaction of listeners.

 

Elements

Category

Analysis of the situation

1, listeners   2, purpose   3, time

 

Point 1   Composition

4, invite interaction of the audience

5, data choice    6, communication design

 

Point 2  File making

7, media choice   8, graph the data

 

Point 3  Speech competence

9. nonverbal communication ( eye contact, facial expression, hand gestures )

10. articulation, use of microphone