Japanese Universities

I have, I think, always collaborated in some ways with many different teachers and colleagues. For example, my master’s thesis (Cowie, 1997) was entitled ‘Collaborative journaling through email’. It was about developing teaching skills through reflective talk with a peer teacher. We communicated with each other by email which at the time was a relatively new way to communicate. If I were to do that again 23 years later it would probably involve AR, VR or something more up to date.

Whilst working at Saitama University in Japan in the 1990s, I helped to create and organize two teacher development groups: (a description of what this meant in terms of teacher autonomy is included in Barfield et al, 2001). I have also been program chair and president of two Japan Association of Language Teaching groups (JALT): the Teacher Development SIG and Okayama JALT chapter. However, it was not until 2011 when I was working at Okayama University did I start to use technology to facilitate communication with colleagues. I used Google + to create a support group called OkaDai E-learning. In the absence of an LMS I have also used Google + to create about 25 student classroom communities.

The vast majority of academic collaboration has been with my wife, Keiko Sakui. In total, we have produced about ten articles, book chapters and one textbook. In addition, we have presented together many times on technology-related issues. See Google Maps. We have also created three online English language and communication courses using the Udemy platform.

I have also published a smaller number of articles with different colleagues (Claire Ushida and Tim Cleminson) using Google Docs and one webinar (with Russell Stannard and Keiko Sakui) using Adobe Connect. I’m on one journal editorial board and review for about five others. This work is not actually that collaborative but technology is used to enable reviews to take place. Publons is a good tool to showcase your reviews.

I have researched technology use by language teachers in several different countries (see Cowie & Sakui, 2013) and that has led to great friendships and follow-up collaboration. For example, through New Zealand contacts we have been introduced to schools for interviews and observations (see Sakui & Cowie, 2017); and we have introduced Australian and New Zealand researchers to contacts in Japan.

Reflection

I am by nature a communicative and collaborative person which shows in much of my professional work. However, I have not used technology as much as I could to network and enhance communication with others in the same field. This #cmaltcmooc is a great opportunity to try out new tools to do that.

1. Legislation

In this first video, I discuss the issue of ‘academic integrity’ (Gray, Waycott, Clerehan, Hamilton, Richardson, Sheard & Thompson, 2010; Kimber & Wyatt-Smith, 2010; Richardson, Hamilton, Gray, Waycott & Clerehan 2012) and copyright issues. In my own practice I use online videos to teach students about referencing sources and using images and when assessing student projects I use rubrics which include a reference to citations (Cowie & Sakui, 2015; 2016).

I briefly refer to Dublin City University’s INTEGRITY project as an example of an innovative way to approach issues of plagiarism and privacy.

References

Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2015). Assessment and e-learning: Current issues and future trends. The JALT CALL Journal, 11, 3, 271-281.

Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2016). The use of rubrics for the assessment of digital products in language learning. In M. Iguchi & L. Yoffe (Eds.) Mobile learning in and out of the classroom: Balancing blended language learner training (pp. 12-17). Proceedings of The 42nd (2015) JACET Summer Seminar. The Japan Association of College English Teachers.

Gray, K., Waycott, J., Clerehan, R., Hamilton, M., Richardson, M., Sheard, J., & Thompson, C. (2010). Web 2.0 Authoring Tools in Higher Education Learning and Teaching: New Directions for Assessment and Academic Integrity: A Framework for Field-testing and Refining Good Practice Guidelines in Pilot Projects at Australian Universities During Semester One 2010. Retrieved from http://web2assessmentroundtable. pbworks.com/f/altc-asw2a-Guidelines-draft-Feb2010.pdf

Kimber, K., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2010). Secondary students’ online use and creation of knowledge: Refocusing priorities for quality assessment and learning. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 26 (5), 607–25.

Richardson, J., Hamilton, M., Gray, K., Waycott, J., & Clerehan, R. (2012, December 3–5). In what ways does policy on academic integrity, copyright and privacy need to respond in order to accommodate assessment with Web 2.0 tools? Paper presented at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems. Geelong, Australia. Retrieved from http://acis2012.deakin.edu.au

2. Policies

In the second video, I describe how I have tried to use digital technology to implement one of Japan’s Ministry of Education’s 16 higher education policies. This concerns the Internationalization of Japanese Universities and in particular Global Human Resource Development.