KUT's Project 2001:

English Department
Online Workshops for Kochi Educators

This project will provide a professional development opportunity for junior and senior secondary English teachers in Kochi Prefecture. Any Kochi teacher who has a computer with world wide web (WWW) capability will be able to join the OnLine Workshop program.
Now in cooperation with Mark Peterson of JAIST (Japan Advanced Institute of Japan, Hokuriku), Lawrie Hunter of KUT's English department is working to design the www interface that will make the OnLine Workshop Program function.

The OLWP will work as follows:

  • There will be six or seven workshops during the first year of the project.
  • Workshops will be on various topics (CALL, critical thinking, reading, etc.) related to current issues in teaching English in Japan, and will last for two days, Saturday and Sunday.
  • Teachers must register one week ahead for the workshop. When a teacher registers, he/she will be directed to the Workshop Website to do the preliminary reading provided there by the paid Online Expert who has been commissioned to direct the weekend workshop.
  • The Online Expert will have placed a variety of readings and www links on the Workshop Website well before the Weekend Workshop begins. This will help participants to understand the intent and scope of the topic, and the range of questions that might be asked.
  • During the workshop period, teachers may ask questions, tell relevant anecdotes, discuss methodology and theory issues. The Online Expert will be responsible for controlling the range of the discussion, and for providing further input for various topics during the weekend.
  • The proceedings of an Online Workshop will remain mounted on the web for reference for a fixed period of time. There will also be facility for participants to make suggestions at the meta level, to give feedback as to how the workshops might be better managed to serve Kochi educators
    Last updated on October 27, 1997
    Copyright (C) 1997 by Lawrie Hunter (lawrie@gol.com)
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