Japan’s Nintendo English lessons
p2pnet news | Advertising:- “It’s a sort of high-tech spelling bee,” says an Associated Press story.
“When the students got the spelling right, the word ‘good’ popped up on the screen, and the student went on to the next exercise.
“The first five students to complete the drills were awarded colorful stickers.”
It was all part of an English language lesson at Tokyo’s Joshi Gakuen all-girls junior high school —- with the Nintendo DS game box as the teaching tool.
“The drills, which the school began using earlier this year, are the first linked to a widely used Japanese public-school textbook series, according to Yasuhiro Yamamoto, manager at software maker Paon Corp., which made the DS English program,” says the story, going on >>>
The DS, which is being used in a handful of school on a trial basis, was part of a course that included video of an American ordering at a fast-food restaurant, as well as audio of the dialogue that the students listened to on headphones and repeated.
“Two hamburgers and two colas please,” they chanted together.
“Very good. Good job,” exclaimed teacher Motoko Okubo, who seemed to have little to do but cheer the students on, as they switched from one gadget to another.
Okubo acknowledged she has never before seen the kind of enthusiastic concentration the DS classes have inspired in her students.
‘It does get the Duke name in the headlines’
This may be new in Japan, but it isn’t in the US where Apple’s iPod was and, presumably, still is, established at university level.
In 2004 Duke University blew a staggering half-a-million dollars on iPods.
“This is BS,” wrote a p2pnet reader, going on:
“I just graduated from Duke last May and this has me really annoyed. And mind you, it’s not so much that I don’t get an iPod, b/c frankly I’d rather have an M3L or an iRiver, but rather the excessive expenditure on the progam.
“Despite having raised vast quantities of money the university somehow doesn’t have enough money to fund its dining service and the Art & Sciences school is running at a deficit of $1.4 million!
“They can’t hire new or good profs due to lack of money but somehow they can dole out $500,000 for friggin iPods? They have no real academic purpose or use that cannot be covered by existing resources like the library and the computer network.
“But it does get the Duke name in the headlines so they must be happy.
“Both the Big Four and Duke can sit on it and rotate!”
‘Verdict is still out on the educational value of DS’
In Japan, “Principal Tsuneo Saneyoshi said that views about the initiative were mixed among teachers who are more accustomed to keeping games and other distractions out of classrooms, not welcoming them,” says AP, adding:
“The school is getting 40 DS machines and free software for agreeing to be part of a test in a real classroom.”
But, “Some teachers aren’t quite convinced this is good.”
Of the Duke fiasco, on a site modeled after the Apple iTunes site, “students also can download faculty-provided course content, including language lessons, music, recorded lectures and audio books,” p2pnet posted.
“They also will be able to purchase music …….”
And in another story, “Apple was able to convince Duke that iPod mp3 players are important educational devices,” we said, but, “instead of taking that dubious route, Duke could perhaps have assigned its Pratt electrical and computer engineering unit a development project, namely:
“Design and build a small, light record-and-playback unit that`ll interface with the school network so students can download faculty-provided course content, ‘including language lessons, music, recorded lectures, and audio books’. Then sell, or preferably give, the specs to other schools so they can make improvements, such as adding WiFi.”
Same in Japan, which is bursting with high-tech development companies.
.
.Stumble It!
Associated Press – Nintendo DS teaches English in school, June 26, 2008
half-a-million dollars – Duke gets free iPods, July 21, 2004
dubious route – Duke and iPod reloaded, July 25, 2004
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June 26th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Here’s a much better Japanese to English lesson (NSFW);
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xY-KMOmrG4