apcampbell

In Ryukoku University’s Faculty of Intercultural Communications, students are have started up Livejournals in an attempt to fulfill course requirements for a reading/writing class that meets once a week throughout the year. What I’m hoping will happen though, is that through authentic conversational interaction online, they will tap into a different type of motivation, one that is more intrinsic to their own needs and desires. Meeting foreign people, learning about different cultures, and living abroad are desires that 90% of the students claim to have. I would describe that same percentage to be very teacher dependent, understandably so given their institutional educational history.

At the moment, I’m having them post assignments to their Livejournals and asking them to comment, thus providing the scaffolding they need to learn about what blogs are and how to comment, link, etc. With the generous help of Anne’s comments and Dana’s Livejournal advice, many of them are off to a good start. Starting this week, we begin the networking process using the ‘friends’ and ‘interests’ features the software provides, which includes the use of an aggregator. We’ll be reading blogs from people all over the world and leaving comments. Eventually we’ll develop habits of writing about the thoughts of others on our own sites. I envision us building up a large network of friends with our classroom right in the middle.

I’ll try writing about more about our struggles and successes throughout the year. Links to the student blogs are listed at The New Tanuki.
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