Some of you may have already become members of 'MySpace', 'Facebook' or another Internet network. These kinds of interactive web-based networks are called Social Networking Services (SNS). SNS focuses on the building of online social networks that enable people to share interests and activities and/or find others who are interested in exploring similar interests and activities. An SNS provides various ways for members to interact, such as email/messaging, chatting, video chatting, voice chatting, file sharing (sharing pictures, video and music files), blogging (writing a personal diary), forum/discussion groups etc. SNS has become popular, and is fast becoming one of the main services of the online network. Behind this trend is the qualitative change in Internet technology called Web 2.0, and the recent trend of 'social constructionism' in education is closely related to this. In this issue, we will briefly explain the concepts of Web 2.0 and social constructionism. We will then introduce an SNS site for secondary school students all over the world called Tsunagaaru, which was developed by the Japan Forum（TJF）, and report on how it is being used in the Australian school situation.
   
  What is 'Web 2.0'?
  This word refers to the new web technology that has developed from the traditional 'www' technology referred to as Web 1.0. In the days of Web 1.0, each website or service was a complete entity and users just looked up the site or service. With Web 2.0, websites are set up to connect with other sites or software, and users are able to combine web services and make their own contents or tools. So users are not just looking at web pages or services, they are participating in creating their own site or service with the web designers.

'Collective intelligence' is one of the key concepts in Web 2.0, as users are not just receivers but sharers of information and services. For example, in a blog or an SNS, the process of discussion between bloggers or the participants in an SNS is itself a kind of collective intelligence. Another example is Wikipedia, where articles on various topics are contributed by users using Wiki technology.
   
  The concepts of 'social constructionism' and 'Web 2.0'
  'Collective intelligence' is based on 'social constructionism', which is one of the mainstays of learning theory. In this learning theory, learners do not only receive information, but learn actively through the process of exchanging ideas with other people or the process of participating in a social activity.

With Web 1.0, users are not given a chance to participate in social activities on the web. Web 2.0 technology enables users to interact and learn by participating in activities on the web, so it has the potential to be an educational resource. In order to maximise the benefit of using Web 2.0 as a resource, users need to be actively involved in the community, and not just observing or gathering information. This could have a positive influence on students' motivation and promote autonomy in language learning. The technology is also potentially useful for teachers as a tool for professional development. Here we will focus on using it in the Japanese classroom situation. In the era of Web 2.0, technologies such as SNS will make communication more active, so it is necessary to teach students about web communication strategies and manners. Moreover, as it is possible to copy and paste, it is important to fully understand copyright issues.
   
  Using SNS in Japanese classes
　

The safety of various SNS sites for use in classrooms is a serious concern for educators. In order for a site to be used for educational purposes, it needs to protect the privacy of members and provide a safe environment for school students to learn and interact with others. Moreover, relatively few sites allow the use of Japanese script, and some Japanese sites only target Japanese people and are not aimed at learners. However, The Japan Forum (TJF) has recently developed a new SNS site for secondary students worldwide, called Tsunagaaru, which means 'connection'. This site is unique because it provides tools to allow posting of essays/comments and discussion/forum groups in a safe learning environment where secondary school students worldwide can share information and interact with each other in Japanese and/or other languages.

In the following section, we would like to introduce Tsunagaaru and suggest some task ideas using the site.
   
  Tsunagaaru: A Site for Secondary Students Worldwide
   
 

http://www.tsunagaaru.com/

What is 'Tsunagaaru'?

Tsunagaaru is a communication website utilizing social networking service software. Tsunagaaru is a space for connecting secondary school students all over the world, no matter where they are and what language they speak.


Participants

Secondary students of Japanese all over the world, Japanese students of foreign languages (e.g., English, Chinese, and Korean), or students interested in intercultural exchange.
   
  What TJF hopes Tsunagaaru will achieve
 

Mutual understanding amongst junior and senior high school students around the world
Tsunagaaru will seek to transcend national boundaries and language barriers to promote mutual person-to-person understanding among junior and senior high school students around the world. It will make possible exchange among multiple countries and languages, and in multiple directions.

Transmission of culture via individuals
Tsunagaaru will transmit information about language, culture, and society from the viewpoints of individuals. This will provide opportunities for understanding of diverse cultures and social conditions through the experience of contemporaneous individuals.

Foreign Language Study
Tsunagaaru will make it possible for students to use the language skills they are learning in actual communication experiences, and we hope thereby to heighten their incentive to pursue foreign language study.
   
  Main Content: A Registered Members-Only Social Networking Site
  マイページ (My Page)
Here each participant will have a personal page to post a profile, essays (diary-like messages), etc. This page gives each member the opportunity to give expression to his or her personal thoughts or discoveries in the form of text and photographs. Other members can post comments to these pages, promoting exchange of ideas and views about the content posted. From their own My Page, participants can also access their favourite members' essays and community postings.

コミュニティ (Community)
This is a forum where participants can propose topics and discuss them in depth. This is also the base for class-wide research projects.

   
 
  Features
 

Multidirectional Exchange, Multiple-Language Use
As a common forum where junior and senior high school students of multiple countries and regions can engage in multi-directional exchange of ideas and information, Tsunagaaru goes beyond the kind of two-way exchange previously common between, for example, Japanese and Australian high school students or between Japanese and Chinese junior high school students. To facilitate this exchange, the site enables viewers to freely view and post comments in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean. TJF will introduce Internet machine translation sites that might be of some help.

Exchange in a Safe Environment
In order to protect the privacy of members and secure the social networking environment, TJF will check the student status of those who register for the site and obtain the assent of their parents or guardians. Texts posted for the site will be checked to ensure the content does not contain personal information or inappropriate expressions.

Enhancing Face-to-Face Exchange
Opportunities TJF will conduct programmes that organically tie together exchange via the website with actual face-to-face exchange programmes. We will have participants in direct exchange programmes join Tsunagaaru in the preliminary stages and work together in preparation for the programmes beforehand. They will also report on the results of their direct exchanges on the site.
   
  How to Participate
  To register your students, please go to the Tsunagaaru website: www.tsunagaaru.com.
   
  Note to Teachers
  Tsunagaaru is, in principle, a site open only to secondary school students; however, TJF will provide open access for one week to teachers who contact us desiring to introduce it to their students. Teachers who want to create a class-wide community on Tsunagaaru should contact us for details on how to proceed. For examination access for teachers and other queries, please contact TJF by emailing tsunagaaru@tjf.or.jp.
  * Please note that the Japan Forum (TJF) and the Japan Foundation (JF) are different organisations. If you have questions or comments about Tsunagaaru please contact TJF directly using the above email address.
   
  Task ideas for using Tsunagaaru
  The following tasks are based on the tasks created by Pamela Carpenter at Killara High School in NSW.
  Pre-tasks:
  The following exercises are designed to help students develop the language skills they need to use the website.
   
  1. Match the section titles by writing the number as in the example [ ]
 
 
Japanese
English
1
 マイページ My community [ ]
2
 エッセイ My profile [ ]
3
 マイプロフィール Essay [ 2 ]
4
 マイコミュニティ My page [ ]
   
  2. Recognize the topic names listed in Community by matching them with comments: しゅみ、きょういく, etc
  3. Grammar: In regular language lessons, focus deliberately on the grammar needed to interact in Tsunagaaru. For example, giving opinions, giving reasons, expressing preferences and comparing. Supplement the regular textbook language with samples of authentic text from Tsunagaaru.
  4. Reading and responding practice: (Exercises might include cloze exercises, sequencing, matching, true or false.) Select and read a range of personal profiles and letters of introduction etc from Tsunagaaru, textbooks or other resources.
   
  Task 1: My Tsunagaaru Journal Level: Years 9 /10
 

Students create a journal to display on Education Week and to show Japanese visitors. This task can also be used as an assessment task.

Outcomes:
Students will be able to

  • Read and respond to personal profiles and comments
  • Develop their own profiles and self-introductions with a real purpose
  • Develop inter-cultural awareness by interacting in a global community
  • Access data, attitudes and values in Japanese youth culture
  • Develop accuracy and fluency in Japanese and/or other languages
  Preparation:
 
  1. Teachers register students as Tsunagaaru members at www.tsunagaaru.com.
  2. Students prepare an exercise book with a title: マイつながーるジャーナル (My Tsunagaaru Journal)
   
  Procedure:
  Step 1:
Students go to the My Profile page and create their own profile. Students should handwrite the drafts in My Tsunagaaru Journal in class before they write online. After they upload their profile online, they should print out their final online versions to paste into their journal.

Step 2:
Teachers encourage students to explore the Tsunagaaru site freely and to become an active participant in the communication by reading and posting messages on other people's essays and interesting topics in My Community over at least 8 weeks. Students should also handwrite these drafts in their journals and print out their online versions to paste into their journals. Teachers may introduce rikai.com (www.rikai.com)* which helps students to read Japanese text, especially kanji; but some English use may be allowed for the purpose of interacting fully with other members.
* Rikai.com is linked from the 'Useful Sites' section of Tsunagaaru.

Step 3: Students choose three members who are their favourite members and write why in 100-150 ji in their journals. Over the 8 weeks, students should have written the following items in their journals as a portfolio. Teachers can use this マイつながーるジャーナル which also include students' final online versions for their assessment.
 
  • マイプロフィール My Profile (in Japanese)
  • エッセイ　Essay ( 150 ji in Japanese)
  • 他のメンバーのエッセイへのコメント Comments on other members' essays (50-100 ji in Japanese)
  • コミュニティー Participation in Community (100-200 words in English and/or Japanese)
  Step 4:
As an additional task, teachers may ask students the following questions to raise their inter-cultural awareness. This can be done in English.
 

a. What did you notice when you read other students' essays and comments?
b. Did you find that you had anything in common?
c. Did you find that you differed from each other in any way?
d. What have you gained from being a member of Tsunagaaru?
   
  Task 2: Research project Level: Years 10-11
  Students form groups based on a topic of common interest, and groups conduct research to work on a collaborative project in Tsunagaaru. The following is an example of a research project in which students create a menu for an imaginary restaurant in Japan with the help of a Japanese native friend on Tsunagaaru.

Preparation: Teachers have students register as members of Tsunagaaru.
* This activity is based on activity ideas from Sensei's Pages in Omusubi No.12 (Winter 2007) (http://sensei.jpf-sydney.org/winter07/sensei_01.htm).
   
  Step1. Getting information about Japanese images of Australia and Australian food
  1. A group sets up a new community on the Community page (in this case under the title 'Daily life' → 'Food, cooking') and explains the objective of this community in Japanese and in English in the description box.
例：「 このコミュニティーは日本にあるオーストラリアレストランのメニューをいっしょにかんがえるコミュニティーです。日本語のクラスのプロジェクトワークです。よろしくおねがいします。
This is a community to create a menu for an Australian restaurant in Japan, which is project work for our Japanese class. Please join and give us your opinion!」
  2. In this community, students set up a new topic asking about Japanese people's images of Australia and Australian food.
例：「 日本のみなさんにしつもんです。日本でどんなオーストラリアりょうりがゆうめいですか。日本にはどんなオース トラリアレストランがありますか。オーストラリアのイメージ、オーストラリアりょうりのイメージはどんなもの ですか。
We have questions for those of you who are living in Japan. What kind of Australian food is famous in Japan? What kinds of Australian restaurants do you have? What is your image of Australia or Australian food?」
  3. To let the other members of Tsunagaaru know the existence of this community, students write a message in their essay.
例：「 Australian restaurant in Japan というコミュニティをつくりました。日本にあるオーストラリアレストランのメニュー をいっしょにかんがえるコミュニティーです。日本語のクラスのプロジェクトワークです。よろしくおねがいします。
We have started a community called 'Australian restaurant in Japan'. This is a community to create a menu for an Australian restaurant in Japan. This is our Japanese class project. Please join this community and give us your opinion.」
   
  Step 2. Making a draft menu and seeking comments and feedback from Tsunagaaru members.
  After getting information from Japanese members, students make their own imaginary menu for their imaginary restaurant. They then put up a new topic on the Community page, asking for feedback and comments about their menu.
例：「 日本でオープンするオーストラリアレストランのメニューをつくりました。どうおもいますか。高くないですか、やすくないですか、日本でにんきがでるとおもいますか。
We created a menu of our imaginary Australian restaurant in Japan. What do you think of this menu? Is it too cheap or too expensive? Do you think this restaurant would be popular in Japan?」
   
  Step3. Making a final version of the menu in collaboration with members of the community.
  Students repeat Step 2 several times until they have created a 'better' menu (better not only in terms of language but also cultural aspects). This activity gives students a good chance to find the cultural 'third place', which is one of the goals of Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning (ILTL), and also to improve their thinking skills). When students make a final version of their menu, they can put it up on their Essay page.
   
 
  • The Japan Foundation, Sydney would appreciate any reports or information on use of SNS or other technologies. Any format such as email is welcome: koji_matsumoto@jpf.org.au
  • Please note that the Japan Forum (TJF) and the Japan Foundation (JF or JPF) are different organisations. If you have questions or comments about Tsunagaaru, please email TJF at tsunagaaru@tjf.or.jp.
   
  This section jointly written by Language Consultants Himiko Negishi Wood, Koji Matsumoto and Cathy Jonak from the Japan Foundation, Sydney; Naomi Muronaka from The Japan Forum; and Pamela Carpenter from Killara High School in NSW..
   
   
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