Dec 7th

This class is the first class! My teacher is Tomoko, but mainly Rab will teach us about electronic useful strategy.
I liked that this class would have big connection to our ARW class work. I'm looking forward to create website! I did not know that I can create website using google.

However, I already knew many things I learned in the class such as google calendar, reader, Zotero, Evernote, and so on. Because I had Rab as my ARW teacher in autumn term and I learned very similar things from Rab before. Anyway, this class is still very useful and I hope it's going to be more interesting!

Nov. 7th

This class is the first day of group presentation. Rab randomly decided the order of presentation, and surprisingly, my group is picked as a first group! I was very nervous before I start, because we did not sure that our presentation is match to what Rab is thinking. However, after we started, I relaxed little bit, and try to talk smoothly and confidently. Rab kept saying that be confident even if we actually not have a confidence. It was not that bad I expected. I also think going first is not always bad, because the evaluation would become stricter later. Also, other classmates can learn from our mistakes, so I hope we did well.

Oct. 29th,31st, and Nov. 2nd

Rab had gone for a week to London, so we had a class to prepare for the group presentation. Our group has 3 people and we decided the topic; Korean in Japan. We did research and survey by using the tool we learned from previous class. It is the first time to do presentation in English since I entered ICU, so I and other group members were little bit nervous. We made slides by using the ideas of Zen presentation. It is difficult to do work by ourselves, but it was good that we had a preparation time in actual class time.

Oct. 26th

We had class in the computer room at ILC. Most of the whole class time, we worked on own second essay which due is same day. Rab also gave us back the first essay in the class, so we could avoid to repeat same mistakes and correct them. I was surprised by my grade, because it is much better than I thought. Therefore, I was very glad that I got that grade for my work.

Oct. 24th

In the class, Rab taught us that how to use photography effectively in our essay. Our essay would be visually better with picture. However, we need to care about two things when we use pictures in our essay; choosing the picture which is related to the essay topic and which quality is high (at least 800x600). I knew about how to search image by its size on Google image search, but I did not know which size is minimum ok size for use in the essay or presentation. That information is very important, because the quality of the image has some influence on impression of the essay and presentation. I used the picture on first page of my second essay, and I hope it would make a paper interesting. "Awesome Screenshot" surprised me! I can crop any websites screen shot by using it. It is very useful when I want to use the picture or graph from website. I downloaded it to my computer.

Oct. 22nd

In the class, we firstly did a psychological test. When Rab told us to write the favorite color, animal and water, and the reason why we like, I had no idea what he want to do. Therefore, I could write my real feelings, and it makes the result have reality. I thought many of them are true. It was very interesting.
The next thing Rab told us was very shocking. He showed an example of foreigners in Rabistine. I thought it was horrible situation, but it is exactly same situation as the foreigners in Japan. I was really surprised and shocked. I knew that many foreigners are not treated equally to Japanese in Japan, but never thought it was that BAD. This example reminded me that we have perception unconsciously.
We also questioned ourselves that is the thesis statement of our second essay the thing I really want to say. I realized the research before writing is very vey important. We do not have much time to spend on my second essay, but I will put my effort on the pre-research and write good essay.

Oct. 19th

In the class, we talked about some problems we made in our first essay. I noticed that I need to think about the opposite idea from my side of the topic. Rab told us that do not care about mistakes too much, we would learn from those mistakes and be better writer. I felt little bit nervous about my writing skill, but now I do not feel bad to making mistakes. I hope my writing (especially academic writing) skill would improve. I did two part titles, but I am not confident. I should have improve my skill of creating the title. Also, there were some rules of quotation I did not know or never cared about. I felt we have so many rules for writing academic essay. It was very hard to follow all rules, but we might get used to it, so I will practice a lot.
We little bit talked about the ELA reader. Rab's question was "Why does it have some bad articles?" When I show one of the article in ELA reader to my OYR friend, he said this is not really good academic paper or writing. I was surprised at that time, but now I kind of understand. We could learn from that mistakes and never do it again in our own essays. so that was pretty interesting question.

Oct. 17th

the class, we learned how to use Evernote (online version and desktop version) with web clipper. I was very surprised and thought it is very easy to correct and keep the information by using Evernote. I don't need to add particular websites to bookmark anymore. If I bookmarked the page and use different computer, I could not find the same page. However, using Evernote I can easily find the page I checked on different computers. The one thing I am not sure is about the web page with the video. I used web clipper and saved that page, but on the Evernote, I could not see the video playing. So, I have to find out whether we could clip the page with videos.
Rab also told us the websites "free documentaries", "media education," and "IMDb." We can find the videos from there, and use them as sources for our essay. Before I use them as a evidence, I have to learn how to use videos as a sources in academic essay.
In the rest of the class, we did small activities which related to the new article about race. I confused and now not sure about what is race or ethnicity. How should we major or divide people into some groups. I want to find out or get an idea of the answer to those questions through the ARW lessons and text.

Oct. 15

In the last class, we talked about essay structure. When we write an academic essay, we'd better to forget about our own ideas. In other words, we shouldn't have a bias of what we write about. I kind of knew that we should be neutral first, then after the research, we can decide our position. However, it is hard to follow that way to write essay. When I write second essay, I will try to follow that method.
We also talked about our new essay topic. We made group for peer review. We don't have much time to work on our second essay, so we should work harder! I will help my group members.

Oct. 12

In the last class, we watched a movie about how Arabic people are described in the Hollywood movies. Those movie has lots of negative image of Arab and Arabic people.
I was shocked by that "Hollywood movie" have those racial thing and strongly connected to US politics. I think Hollywood have influence on not only Americans, but also people all over the world. Therefore, those bad images would spread to the world. That is pretty scary! Also, that may causes stereotypes. Not many people know or realize that Hollywood movie is not just entertainment. I think many people should get this idea and hope not be controlled own perception.

Oct. 5th

In the last class, we learned Birk and Birk text from activities. Rab put us into a few small groups and let us to write about his backpack. We should have bias. Our group needed to say only negative points of the bag. On the other hand, some other groups only mentioned good points. We shared each others' paragraph, and I found some things I did not think about the bag. I only thought about bad points and I just focused on them. This is the reason why I did not notice some good way of use. This class help me to understand what Birk and Birk want to tell from the text. We have CWT and we need to mention Birk and Birk too, so it was a good class for preparing. Also, the documents Rab's uploaded on our Google group are very useful and I could be ready for the CWT!

Oct. 1

I missed the class on October 1st. I read some of my section mates' blogs and I also went to Rab's tutorial on the same day, so now I know that they had practice test for CWT. Some of my friends wrote that it was hard, because they did not understand text of Fisher and Barna clearly. Actually, I did not know what authors say perfectly. Therefore, I decided to read them again carefully. Rab also told me that we also need to mention Birk and Birk idea, so I need read it too. He gave me a practice test paper. From blogs, I learned what makes our test grade higher. I realized how helpful blogs are when I missed the class. I want to write a blog which can help my section mates who would absent from class from now on.
I had tutorial on that day. After finished the tutorial, I was very glad to have a chance to talk to Rab about my essay. My idea became clearer and anxiety was reduced.

Oct. 3

In the last class, we talked about our first essay and Birk and Birk article. At the beginning of the class, Rab showed us how to do a survey with Google. We can use result from it for our essay as an evidence. The survey could be very useful when I do not have much sources. Next, he tried to teach how to use Zotero, but none of us had finished our assignment for that day, so he could not. I was shamed and felt very sorry that I did not finish the homework. I will check our class syllabus frequently and try to never miss homework. In the letter half of the class, we talked about Birk and Birk text. Rab showed us some pictures. Some of them are very shocking and some are very surprising. We are sometimes controlled and made to chose a thing. I noticed that the world is filled with collectivism, and it is very hard to know what is collectivism and what is not. Through the text, I want to know about it more. Also, we have CWT on next Tuesday, so I should reread Barna and Fisher text too. I have lots to do, but I will do my best.

Sep. 28th

 The last class was very interesting! Rab showed us many examples of perceptions by using magics and videos. We watched the video of Dan Osman. I felt very scary by just watching it, but he did not look like he has fear to fall or die. I could not believe that. Now I know that other's perceptions are sometimes very different from mine. By the way, the video about Japanese sushi bar was very funny. We are Japanese and know what is the real or not, so we can recognize that video is just making fun and joking. However, foreigner who have never visited Japan might take it as true. I thought that perception could cause serious problems such as territorial problem between Japan and China. Both country think the island is own territory. I think this is one of the perception. We should think critically and try to not look things by one way of view.

Sep. 26th

 In the last class, I shared my essay on Google docs with some section mates who are working on similar topics. My essay topic is relationship between music and learning language. Anyway, peer review might be make my and friend’s essay better. I usually have grammar mistakes, so I hope my friends would correct them. However, I need to work on my essay as soon as possible, or no one could check my essay. I will work hard.

 We also learned about Zotero. In the P&D class, we had a lesson about similar things of Zotero such as how to store the information and synchronize them to my zotero account. However, Zotero is useful tool for writing academic paper (Every time I heard about Zotero, I am always impressed.)

 In the rest of the class, we talked about Fisher’s article little bit. Rab showed some staffs and see how each person’s perception is different from others. We watched stereograms. I could not see anything, but some of my friends can see the actual picture. I really feel my perception is different from others and other’s are different form mine. It makes us to understand the article easier, and we kind of get an idea of it.

Sep 24

In the class in September 24th, Rab taught us what we should aware of when we are writing academic essay by showing examples from our summer reading book review. I knew some rules Rab talked about, but some I didn't know or care about. Steve (our spring term ARW teacher) told us about personal pronouns, contraction, and indent many times. However, I'd never heard that we shouldn't use phrasal verbs and we should avoid using words which is not accurate such as "thing." I may used the word  "thing" in my essay or book review a lot. I'll never do this again (try!). Also I will use more quotations in my essay. Using Zotero makes it easier, so I feel now I can do it. It is very hard to write good length sentence, not too short or too long. We learned so many rules of writing academic essay from Rab's lectures, and I found many problems I had. However, that means I can be a better writer, so I try to be very careful of them when I write new essay as much as possible I can. Those lessons are very useful for me. The only thing I need to do is write an essay, check those rules, and get good grade!!

Sep. 21

In the last class, we learned how to write an academic essay. I kind of remember that he had similar lesson at the start up program a year ago, so this is good review time for me.

 Firstly, Rab taught us 5A for choosing topic. That is very useful information, because I always cannot chose my essay topic and decide what I will write about. I was surprised that we can choose anything we would like to write about. After choosing a topic, we connect it to academic issue. Moreover, I tend to think that is this topic academic or not, but I noticed that I also have to consider about other 4As (Attractive, Argumetative, Access, Achivable.)  Secondly, we leaned about Rule of 3. Rab told us how long and how may sentences should be in each paragraph, so now I see the structure of a 5 paragraph essay more clearly. Finally, he talked about how to make title. I knew that title is very important part of the essay, bad I also knew that I am bad at it.

 Through whole class, Rab's examples are very helpful to understand each theory. Now I have an idea of how my essay should looks like. However, wrting essay might be hard work for me, but this idea maybe help me a lot while writing.

Sep. 19

In the last class, we learned how to use Google reader. I was surprised that I can search any words from particular web sites by using Google reader, even though the web site does not have a search box. It is very useful, and I can save much time for research. Now, I can see my friends’ blogs too. I can check what we learned in the class any time. Moreover we can share own thoughts, idea and feedback.

Rab’s class is interesting and useful for me, because we learn not only the things every other student learn in ARW class, but also computer skills that we can use in of course ARW class and other classes. For example, Zotero, Google docs, drop box and so on. I like it and I make much use of them.

Sep. 14

In the last class, we talked about Barna's article.
Rab put us into the group of several people, and we discussed the differences of different nations or areas. We shared things which we noticed from our own experiences. It was very interesting class, because it was not the class which teacher just talk and teach about the articles. It is easy to understand the issues (in this case, non-verbal communications in the different countries) by connecting them to our real lives. Therefore, those classes are very useful and fun. Just one point, how should we prepare for quizes or CWT. That is only one thing I'm worrying about.

Sep.12

In the last class, I learned some computer stuff. Google tasks are very useful, because I don't need to write assignment down any more! It appears in my calender too, so I can see when is the due date creally. I can use google taskas on my iPod, so I can change or check it at everywhere! That is pretty amazing!