How It Works

Below is a sample work flow from a successful project called Jidaimatsuri: Festival of Ages organized by one of our partner schools, Kyoto Gakuen, in Japan.

Step 1: The teachers and students in Kyoto, Japan want to share a traditional festival experience with partners in the US, Australia and New Zealand.

 

Step 2: Using freely available communication tools, the teachers discuss the details of the project, and set a date for the event.

 

Step 3: The Japanese teacher creates an online unit to provide background information and details about the event.  The Learning Units allow for YouTube videos of the real festival to be embedded on the page along with images, audio, and text.  The Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders can begin the learning process before the virtual world event begins.

 

Step 4: In the meantime, the students are preparing the virtual environment by building temples, shrines and castles found in their hometown of Kyoto.  Others design kimonos or samurai armor to place on their avatars.

 

Step 5: During the event, Japanese students role-play famous figures from Japanese history while the Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders ask questions and complete their assignment.

 

Step 6: After the event, the teachers discuss which things worked well, and which ones need to be improved for future projects.  Evidence of the event is recorded as a blog entry posted to the website, or produced into a YouTube video to be shared with the rest of the world.