Louise Smith and Jennifer Johnson are high school teachers of Japanese seconded to AccessEd, a branch of Education Queensland (the state Education Department).
Jennifer Johnson has been teaching high school Japanese for almost 10 years in Queensland state and private schools. She has also taught EFL in Japan and ESL in Brisbane. Jennifer has been a part of the Virtual Schooling Service Pilot Program since its commencement in January 2000, and has enjoyed the experience of working completely in an online environment. (Jenny particularly enjoys the absence of playground and bus duty!). As from mid 2001, she has also been writing and developing materials for an online course in EFL for Japanese high school students which will be trialled from November. Jennifer is almost at the end of her M Ed in TESOL, and canŐt wait to finally achieve those 3 letters!
Louise Smith originally trained in Special Education: Hearing Impairment. She taught in this area early on in her teaching career. She thinks this has greatly influenced her approach to mainstream curriculum and dealing with students especially non-achievers. Louise has been teaching high school Japanese and English (even a small stint of German) for 9 years with Education Queensland. Although she has no formal qualifications, she has taught ESL in Senior high school in Japan as part of the Queensland Saitama teacher exchange programme. She is currently studying 3rd year psychology at the University of Queensland. Louise joined the Virtual Schooling Service Pilot Program in January 2001, writing curriculum for, and delivering, Year 9 Japanese.
The Virtual Schooling Service is an initiative of Education Queensland (the Qld Education Department) in Australia. Now in its second year of delivery, the VSS serves students based in Queensland state schools who otherwise would not be able to take certain subjects due to small class sizes or the unavailability of specialist teachers. This benkyoukai is an introduction to the trials, tribulations and successes of delivering Japanese online in both real time and asynchronous modes.
Jennifer sensei and Louise sensei's paper is at
http://www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/about/jennylouise.html
Also refer to the special benkyoukai page at
http://www.openaccess.qld.edu.au/home/japanese/vss_kai/index.htm
So read the paper above and go to TAPPED IN. There will be Jennifer sensei, Louise sensei and other participants. TAPPED IN is open to everybody and the presentation will be done in English.
This event is open to anybody who is interested in the topic. It will be at After School Online Room at http://www.tappedin.org
Instructions to log in as a guest and get to the After School Online Room:
1. Go to http://www.tappedin.org
2. Click the "Guest Login" Button on the TAPPED IN home page
3. Be patient while loading
4. When prompted in the bottom window, erase the text next to the word SAY, and type your name and hit return.
5. When loading is done, you will be in the Reception area.
6. To talk, type in the message in the window next to the word SAY. Then press the SEND button or the ENTER key
7. In order to get to After School Online room, you can click on After School Online in the map.
Download and print this document. It will explain the interface really well. http://www.tappedin.sri.com/info/docs/TAPestry3.pdf
If you have problems connecting from a school computer, you may be behind firewall. Please read Firewall explanation in FAQ..
If you still need help, please mail TAPPED IN staff at contactus@tappedin.org
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Manager of SenseiOnline, Keiko Schneider at kschnei@sabotenweb.com
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