I teach ESL at a K-5 elementary school. My school just started using Imagine Learning English - www.imaginelearning.com - which is really impressive and useful, though expensive. The program has many activities which show videos of mouths making different sounds. Be aware though that the program does not allow you to designate the activities a student works on - it gives an hourlong assessment on first use, and then works on areas where the student is deficient. If you login as a teacher, you can do any activity, BUT it doesn't track your progress then... Still, the program is awesome and anyone interested in Computer Assisted Language Learning should check it out.
As an English teacher at a Japanese elementary school, I'd like to explain a few things about how the commuting works for students here.
Almost no kids in Japanese public schools are driven to school by their parents. It is not against the rules, but is generally discouraged. Public schools generally do not have buses, though some students will take a bus if their parents can afford it and they live far from school. Middle and high school students might bike or take a train, but those are often off-limits for elementary students, who must either walk or come by bus (Kids generally go to the local elementary/middle school, but there are exams for high school, which might require a long trip every day).
In my small rural town (pop. 7000), and in many other places, elementary and middle school students who are walking/biking must follow certain routes to and from school. Teachers are posted at locations along the route to check up on the students. But, they can't be everywhere. The middle school in my town has recently had problems with middle-aged men approaching female students. Students are out in the open for a much longer period of time than in the US and are thus bigger targets.
That said, I don't want to see my students given RFID tags. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it became very popular here. Elementary and middle school students already have tags with their full name and the school's name on it which must be worn at all times. Also, nearly all middle and high schools have uniforms. With all this required attire, it's hard for students to go someplace after school that they're not supposed to be, and this is part of the point. People will even sometimes complain to a school if they see its students doing something they don't approve of. There is already a lot of monitoring in place here, and I don't see this as being a big shift.
Related article - http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle. pl5 ?ek20040520ag.htm
PS - It's not that important, but the CNET article is poorly written and unclear. Osaka city and Wakayama prefecture are completely seperate places, but someone who knows very little about Japan might think that Osaka city is the small "town" in Wakayama where the RFID tags are being tested. Anyone have a better article?
>> A large piece of the meaning and fluidity of a film is lost in translation.
>Well, it depends, who guessed it, on the translator, and the voice actors.
>IRC, there are even some films out there, which were more successful in a different language, because of the translation.
>The translation is a work in itself, which, depending on the ability of the translator, can be a shallow copy of the original, or even better than the original (Especially, if the original is of poor quality)
Couldn't agree with this more! An anecdote to illustrate the last point:
In the spring of last year, I studied abroad in Japan. During that time, Attack of the Clones came out in the US, but not in Japan. So, I used my host sister's laptop to download the movie, and then we watched it together. Her English is not so great, and she found the Anakin/Amidala scenes incredibly romantic!
If anyone is curious as to GW's P2P policy, check out the following email which was sent to all students this week.
From: note@gwu.edu Subject: New KaZaA Application Causes Network Problems
Over the past week, the GW data network has experienced heavy traffic and sporadic problems as a direct result of usage of the new KaZaA Version 2. KaZaA is a popular program used for direct file sharing, usually of media files (music, videos, etc.).
GW's network does not block peer-to-peer applications like Napster, KaZaA and Morpheus in an effort to maintain an open academic environment. However, network administrators do impose some bandwidth shaping on applications such as Napster, KaZaA and Morpheus to lower their priority and keep them from overwhelming all other GW data network traffic.
Unfortunately, the recent release of KaZaA Version 2 is causing network problems. KaZaA v2 is extremely adaptive, and appears to maliciously circumvent all controls and restrictions in place to limit use of bandwidth. As a result, the GW network is being overwhelmed by KaZaA v2 traffic.
Network traffic nearly doubled over the course of a week, overflowing the total capacity. As a result, network latency (the time it takes to return a response) from GW to our nearest Internet provider increased over 200 times. This led to slowdowns to Webmail, the overall GWMail system and other applications.
ISS network administrators have determined that controls built into KaZaA Version 2 prohibit administrators from imposing bandwidth limitations. As a result, ISS has been forced to impose an overall rate-limit on the student residence halls, which produce the vast majority of KaZaA v2 traffic.
Network bandwidth is a shared common resource. Students who abuse this resource are sapping bandwidth from their peers. Please keep your usage of KaZaA v2 at a minimum and within the legal boundaries.
Please also be aware that KaZaA and other file sharing applications allow other users from around the world to download files *from you*, off of your bandwidth, which adds to the overall load on the GW network. GW strongly recommends that all users disable the file sharing option.
Network administrators and ISS management will continue to explore other solutions and, in the meantime, urge each member of the GW community to do their part in managing this shared resource.
Thank you.
(This message has been sent in accordance with George Washington University mass e-mail policy and procedure. This procedure is available online at http://helpdesk.gwu.edu for review. This message was requested by Information Systems and Services and was approved by the Chief Information Officer.)
Slashdot Mirror
I teach ESL at a K-5 elementary school. My school just started using Imagine Learning English - www.imaginelearning.com - which is really impressive and useful, though expensive. The program has
many activities which show videos of mouths making different sounds. Be aware though that the program does not allow you to designate the activities a student works on - it gives an hourlong assessment on first use, and then works on areas where the student is deficient. If you login as a teacher, you can do any activity, BUT it doesn't track your progress then...
Still, the program is awesome and anyone interested in Computer Assisted Language Learning should check it out.
3.2 Megapixel Phone Camera in Japan with VGA LCD
v 904sh/index.html
http://www.vodafone.jp/english/products/model_3G/
As an English teacher at a Japanese elementary school, I'd like to explain a few things about how the commuting works for students here.
. pl5 ?ek20040520ag.htm
Almost no kids in Japanese public schools are driven to school by their parents. It is not against the rules, but is generally discouraged. Public schools generally do not have buses, though some students will take a bus if their parents can afford it and they live far from school. Middle and high school students might bike or take a train, but those are often off-limits for elementary students, who must either walk or come by bus (Kids generally go to the local elementary/middle school, but there are exams for high school, which might require a long trip every day).
In my small rural town (pop. 7000), and in many other places, elementary and middle school students who are walking/biking must follow certain routes to and from school. Teachers are posted at locations along the route to check up on the students. But, they can't be everywhere. The middle school in my town has recently had problems with middle-aged men approaching female students. Students are out in the open for a much longer period of time than in the US and are thus bigger targets.
That said, I don't want to see my students given RFID tags. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it became very popular here. Elementary and middle school students already have tags with their full name and the school's name on it which must be worn at all times. Also, nearly all middle and high schools have uniforms. With all this required attire, it's hard for students to go someplace after school that they're not supposed to be, and this is part of the point. People will even sometimes complain to a school if they see its students doing something they don't approve of. There is already a lot of monitoring in place here, and I don't see this as being a big shift.
Related article -
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle
PS - It's not that important, but the CNET article is poorly written and unclear. Osaka city and Wakayama prefecture are completely seperate places, but someone who knows very little about Japan might think that Osaka city is the small "town" in Wakayama where the RFID tags are being tested. Anyone have a better article?
>> A large piece of the meaning and fluidity of a film is lost in translation.
>Well, it depends, who guessed it, on the translator, and the voice actors.
>IRC, there are even some films out there, which were more successful in a different language, because of the translation.
>The translation is a work in itself, which, depending on the ability of the translator, can be a shallow copy of the original, or even better than the original (Especially, if the original is of poor quality)
Couldn't agree with this more! An anecdote to illustrate the last point:
In the spring of last year, I studied abroad in Japan. During that time, Attack of the Clones came out in the US, but not in Japan. So, I used my host sister's laptop to download the movie, and then we watched it together. Her English is not so great, and she found the Anakin/Amidala scenes incredibly romantic!
Go Exoticism!
If anyone is curious as to GW's P2P policy, check out the following email which was sent to all students this week.
From: note@gwu.edu
Subject: New KaZaA Application Causes Network Problems
Over the past week, the GW data network has experienced heavy traffic and sporadic problems as a direct result of usage of the new KaZaA Version 2. KaZaA is a popular program used for direct file sharing, usually of media files (music, videos, etc.).
GW's network does not block peer-to-peer applications like Napster, KaZaA and Morpheus in an effort to maintain an open academic environment. However, network administrators do impose some bandwidth shaping on applications such as Napster, KaZaA and Morpheus to lower their priority and keep them from overwhelming all other GW data network traffic.
Unfortunately, the recent release of KaZaA Version 2 is causing network problems. KaZaA v2 is extremely adaptive, and appears to maliciously circumvent all controls and restrictions in place to limit use of bandwidth. As a result, the GW network is being overwhelmed by KaZaA v2 traffic.
Network traffic nearly doubled over the course of a week, overflowing the total capacity. As a result, network latency (the time it takes to return a
response) from GW to our nearest Internet provider increased over 200 times. This led to slowdowns to Webmail, the overall GWMail system and other applications.
ISS network administrators have determined that controls built into KaZaA Version 2 prohibit administrators from imposing bandwidth limitations. As a result, ISS has been forced to impose an overall rate-limit on the student residence halls, which produce the vast majority of KaZaA v2 traffic.
Network bandwidth is a shared common resource. Students who abuse this resource are sapping bandwidth from their peers. Please keep your usage of KaZaA v2 at a minimum and within the legal boundaries.
Please also be aware that KaZaA and other file sharing applications allow other users from around the world to download files *from you*, off of your bandwidth, which adds to the overall load on the GW network. GW strongly recommends that all users disable the file sharing option.
Network administrators and ISS management will continue to explore other solutions and, in the meantime, urge each member of the GW community to do their part in managing this shared resource.
Thank you.
(This message has been sent in accordance with George Washington University mass e-mail policy and procedure. This procedure is available online at http://helpdesk.gwu.edu for review. This message was requested by Information Systems and Services and was approved by the Chief Information Officer.)