Recommended Websites

[clay dube]

Many website recommendations should be put under other threads as appropriate (e.g., those focusing on Japanese literature, SE Asian films, and so on), but for more general sites and those dealing with topics that we don't have threads for, please share them (and your evaluation of their strengths and potential uses) here.

One place to begin looking for possible sites is:
Asia via the Web
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/web/asia-web.htm

Two curriculum catalogs worth visiting are at:
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/web/curric-web.htm

http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/web/educweb.htm

Our educational films page may be useful as well. Please don't hesitate to offer comments on those films included. We'd like to add your assessments to our listing.
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/web/asiafilm-web.htm

We were first in this game, but the Asia Educational Media Service now offers some features we do not. Check it out at:
http://www.aems.uiuc.edu/index.las

smiling,
clay
[Edit by="Clay Dube on Jul 31, 5:35:44 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm fascinated by the demographic information which is available about usage of the web. Although this study was presented to a group of marketing executives, who clearly have the goal of reaching teens to sell them even more stuff, the statistics are incredible.

BBK (Beth)

Teens: More Time Online Than Watching Television - Newswire Report 7-25-03

When it comes to kids, the web wins. Yahoo! Inc. and Carat North America, one of the largest independent media services company in North America, yesterday announced the results of a research study commissioned by both companies, which reveals new findings about media consumption by teens and young adults (ages 13-24). Among the key findings of the two-phased market research program conducted by Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), was that the Internet has surpassed television in overall time spent to become the primary medium of choice among the young. Additional findings show the younger generation uses the Internet as their media "hub" and they feel empowered by the abundant media choices available to them.

The results of the study were announced today at "Born to be Wired: Understanding the First Wired Generation," Yahoo!'s conference for marketers, which is designed to further explore and understand the media consumption patterns of teens and young adults, and how marketers can best communicate with this group.

"Born to Be Wired"
While teens and young adults consume many different types of media, the study revealed that the Internet surpasses them all in the amount of time spent, which in an average week is as follows: (1) 16.7 hours online (excluding email), (2) 13.6 hours watching TV, (3) 12 hours listening to the radio, (4) 7.7 hours talking on the phone, (5) Six hours reading books and magazines (personal, not scholastic).

The study, which polled more than 2,500 teens and young adults (ages 13-24) using both qualitative and quantitative methods, revealed that "control" -- the ability to personalize and manage the media experience and content -- emerged as the primary reason this group chooses the Internet over other forms of media. Survey findings also showed that teens use the Internet as a "hub" -- or primary media -- while other media are used as a starting point for the online experience. While other generations are more likely to be wed to a single type of media, the study revealed that today's teens and young adults are not overwhelmed by the abundance of media choices like cable stations, networks, magazines and radio, but rather feel empowered by it and are able to multi-task -- using more than one form of media at a time -- more than any other generation.

On a typical day, a young person is faced with a universe full of media which includes 200+ cable television networks, 5,500 consumer magazine titles, 10,500 radio stations, 30 million+ websites, and 122,000 newly published books. To many adults, this is a daunting, fragmented media landscape. Not so among today's youth generation. They were literally born to a world of media choice that places them firmly in control of their media environment.

"Marketers have been using the same media strategies since television became the primary medium for most market segments in the 1950s. It's time to rethink," said Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer, Yahoo!. "The findings of our joint study confirm that the media landscape is shifting. Our industry needs to evaluate and change our communications approach to successfully reach this key target market. This generation is a revolutionary consumer group, actively in control and entrenched in their media experience, and their patterns will influence the future of media spending."

"It is so important for marketers to understand the sea change that is taking place in media consumption habits. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the teen segments," said Sarah Fay, president of Carat Interactive. "This study gives us insight that helps not only to determine the appropriate media mix for reaching teens, but more importantly the role of each medium, and how the dots connect within that mix. This new information will guide us into the future as consumer media habits continue to morph toward more diverse and fragmented mediums."

[Anonymous]

Altavista's Babelfish Altavista's Babelfish is the best, most convenient and easy to use translation program I've found.

知道什么"这" 意味? (Know what "this" means?) What about, how to say, "Thank you Professor Ye"?

谢谢Ye 教授。

You can enter up to 150 words and get translations English to (or the reverse) in Chinese,
French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian to English.

You can also add Babel Fish to your website.

One of the classes I'm going to be teaching is Language! I will have some flexibility about the read-alouds I do and some of the independent reading books my students will have access to. I hope to be able to include some lesson plans on words, syntax and grammar of other languages (as Language! emphasizes that in the pre-selected lessons, which take up most of the 2 hr blocks).

I'm sure I'll include something for the final project here which deals with words and translations, but I haven't figured that out yet.

[Edit by="bkennedy on Jul 29, 5:26:32 PM"]I meant to give everyone this web reference when I posted the message. So this isn't really an edit, it's a post, but since I had a blank message with my name on it, here it is.[/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Were we given a website in the lab yesterday that offers a guideline on how to critique websites?

Also, should all website critiques be located in one thread so we don't have a new thread each time one posts a critique?

[Anonymous]

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn

This is the BEST online library of education sites. Each applicant is evaluated in terms California Standards and only the best are included. Sites are clearly described and rated. Blue Web'n is user friendly and quite consistently and professionally maintained by PacBell’s nonprofit arm, but you will occasionally find a defunct site left on the list. Comprising 1800+ Internet sites, categorized by subject, grade level, and format (lessons, activities, projects, resources, references, & tools), it can be searched by grade level (Refined Search), broad subject area (Content Areas), or specific sub-categories (Subject Area) as well as combinations like grade level and subject. When teachers ask me for for online resources, particularly reference data bases, this is usually the first place I look. (My second favorite education metasite will be my next post.)
Each week 5 new sites are added, and you can easily sign on to have the update emailed to you.
On a first visit, I suggest clicking on your content area on the opening page grid and browsing the full list just to get an idea of it’s richness. Eventually, you may want to use their "filimentality" template to create your own webquest. Remember that materials on this site are usable without copyright worries.
I searched for “lesson plan” combined, first with "Asian Literature", then, with "Japanese Literature" and so on. No luck, but I did find a unit based on The Samurai's Tale. I also found several data bases related to children's literature world wide.
Lou

[Anonymous]

Beth,
The article you posted was most interesting. If teenagers are spending that much time on the net what exactly are they doing? If it really does include reading information other than e-mail, then things are better than I suspected.
Bucky

[Anonymous]

A tremendous amount of time is spent on email and instant messaging -- communicating with each other ... there's another web survey that details where people are spending their time -- and how much, if you'd like to see it. The interesting aspect is that the communications are now web and cell phone based, not TV, Film or print. That's a major change.

BBK

[clay dube]

Here are several must visit websites:

Infonation
http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_infonation.htm
The site allows for easy comparsion of countries. One can, for example, compare literacy rates among four Asian nations.

World Development Indicators 2003
http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2003/index.htm
Produced by the World Bank, this annual publication offers mountains of statistics and tables, often in .pdf format. Students could draw from it or you might use some of the graphics they've prepared.

UNESCO
Many resources available here, including a photobank and information about the Associated Schools Program.
http://www.unesco.org/general/eng/
To illustrate one of the things the ASP does with students, check out this student created animations.
http://webworld.unesco.org/education/m_media/ciak_1_big.ram
Here's the link to the photobank:
http://upo.unesco.org/photobank.asp

smiling,
clay

[clay dube]

The Japan Foundation publishes a quarterly newsletter with book publishing news. I ignore most of the articles, but the cover graphic is always interesting and there's usually at least one article on a topic that interests me. For example, one can see great charts showing readership trends, publishing trends, interest in translated works, and so on.

See the last several years of this newsletter online at:
http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/media/publish/jbn/index.html

smiling,
clay

[Anonymous]

Just found a great website for free fonts, web templates, animation, buttons, etc. Really easy to use --
www. elated.com.

Emily

[Anonymous]

http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/Friends, I was searching for a “one stop shopping” online reference to answer questions arising from the different religions that inform so much of the literature we are reading. I didn’t find one, though I found many sites of varying levels of sophistication when I searched by specific religions. (More on that later)
Even better, perhaps, is Encyclopedia Mythica , an encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, and legend. It contains thousands of definitions of gods and goddesses, supernatural beings and legendary creatures and monsters from all over the world. I found here the Korean, Hindu, Japanese, and Chinese personages we’ve met in folktales and myths. I did not find the subjects of the South East Asian folk tales we discussed 8/4. Although I didn’t find much on doctrine and theology of the different religions, all the major people and events are discussed briefly, each in it’s own article. There is also a nice overview of Hindu mythology.
The reading level is fine for Middle School but articles don’t have images “attached”. By clicking on images in the table to the left of any page, you get a page of links to images, mostly of gods from the Western traditions. Many cosmologies are “in development.”
The select, rated and quite interesting group of links is REALLY worth looking at.
I found the simple keyword search easy and adequate, but there is instruction on how to search the site should you be looking for a needle in the haystack.
Just like all the sources found on BlueWeb’n (yep, that’s where this came from) articles may be duplicated (with attribution) and/ or you can link to the site. (In fact banners are available to link from your web page). Before copying huge segments, check with the site’s guidelines. Lou

[Anonymous]

There are several versions of this myth but this one seems to be pretty thorough. If I used it with students, I would read the Shanta Rameshwar Rao version first and then offer students extra credit if they wish to go this site and read it and then present the class with new information. The Rao version we were provided doesn't have an ending so the students can also go there and see how it ends. It is simply the story and all they have to do is read.

The Mahabharata
http://www.investindia.com/newsite/religion/mahabhar.htm
[Edit by="jrobinson on Aug 5, 1:47:20 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I'm not familiar with this Japanese myth but this site seems to cover all the bases and it's easy to get through. They have six categories including a biograghical sketch of Murasaki
Shikibu and a character section where they briefly describe the characters. Again, I would give extra credit to students if they could provide the class with some insight on this myth.
They seem to have taken great care in putting the site together.

The Tale of Genji
http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/genji/homepage.html

[Anonymous]

After spending a few days on class rules (and thank you everyone for your suggestions, and if you have them. sending samples of your rules and/or contracts), I will start the PERSPECTIVES year-long unit with a lesson on AUTOBIOGRAPHY. So I am particularly interested in websites with autobiographical information (in addition to using some of the material we've been exposed to in class).

I started my search for websites at: Asia via the Web
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/web/asia-web.htm

That in turn, took me to "An American in Japan, 1923 Diary" which is a diary of Mr. Blauvelt and the time he spent in Japan during the year, 1923 (an interesting contrast to the almost contemporaneous Mori Ogai "Maihime"). As a website, it's rather simplistic (from August 6 through September 12), and the diary, at times, is very simplistic. however, the descriptions of the September 1st earthquake is something many of our students will be able to relate to, based on their personal California earthquake experiences.

[Anonymous]

The unofficial Akira Kurosawa website is a fan website, but one that's constructed very well. It contains a Filmography, Biogrpahy (on a wonderful timeline), a Graphic Gallery, Scenariolist and a place for Memorial messages (Kurosawa died in 1998).

Kurosawa, born in 1910, directed many of the most seminal films of the 20th Century, including Rashomon (of particular interest to me, given the nature of my lesson plans on perspectives) and The Seven Samurai (remember The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brenner? An adaptation of The Seven Samurai). The Graphic Gallery includes posters from Japan for the films, still photos and scenes from the films. It even includes a Kurosawa Zippo lighter!

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