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Comment on New Reports on Technology in US Schools: The Changing Divide by Why Schools should Incorporate Computers more in School « The WA English 8 Blog

Fri, 04 May 2012 02:23:49 +0000

[...] being used in school with old operating system, thus making it the computer slower( All facts from http://papyrusnews.com/2010/10/26/new-reports-on-technology-in-us-schools-the-changing-divide/). Then students will be fed up with these slow computers and be discouraged to use them. Even now [...]

Comment on Enrolling my Kids in Japanese Kindergarten/Daycare (Hoikuen) by Mark Warschauer

Mark Warschauer — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:01:33 +0000

I think your best bet is to post your inquiry on the Education in Japan email list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/edn-in-jpn/. People there will have more info on this topic than me.

Good luck!

Comment on Enrolling my Kids in Japanese Kindergarten/Daycare (Hoikuen) by Misa

Misa — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:52:11 +0000

This was a great post! I was wondering if you had any information on summer school? My parents will be moving back to Japan and I would like to come for the summer and enroll my little girl in preschool as she currently attends a Japanese preschool in the states. She will be 4 by that time. I am half Japanese and my parents will be there, so we are hoping to potentially arrange it ahead of time. Any tips or reference sites would be so helpful! Thank you!

Comment on How to Write a Statement of Purpose for a Ph.D. Program by Rahul

Rahul — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:41:06 +0000

Thanks, Mark. You made my work easier (writing the SOP). I wrote a SOP for my Master of Science program, three years ago. However, i was not sure, what my SOP for Ph.D should look like, and the contents it should have.

I think your blog on ‘How to write a SOP for Ph.D program’ seems to be really helpful.

Again, thanks a lot !!

Comment on Enrolling my Kids in Japanese Kindergarten/Daycare (Hoikuen) by Mark Warschauer

Mark Warschauer — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:25:45 +0000

We submitted our income tax form from the US and they accepted that. However, we both had visiting scholar positions lined up in Japan and got letters from our Japanese universities indicating our time commitment for research, etc. Without two working spouses, I’m not sure if it’s possible to qualify for a hoikuen, though a yochien might presumably be possible.

Comment on Enrolling my Kids in Japanese Kindergarten/Daycare (Hoikuen) by LittleJapanMama

LittleJapanMama — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:14:01 +0000

Thank-you so much for this post! Just what I was looking for!
I have a question. I called a kuyakusho to ask about this, and they told me that I need an income tax return and a certificate of witholding tax from the previous year, *from Japan!*. However, we have been living in Australia until we move to Japan. Does this mean that we cannot apply for childcare for the first year? Or is a tax return etc from Australia ok? In this article it seems that you were able to enroll in childcare pretty much immediately after moving to Japan. My husband is Japanese and I’ll be on a spouse visa.

Comment on About that Silicon Valley Waldorf School by John

John — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:41:07 +0000

I think these silicone valley execs know something the rest of us don’t. I.E, kids don’t need technology in education until they are older. I think it has little to do with the elite nature of the school, but rather a pronounced rejection of computer technology in the learning environment. I don’t think it’s about being in an ‘elite creative environment’ either. My son goes to a public Waldorf charter school. He’s in a large class (no 9 to 1 ratio here) and he learns and reads voraciously (just finished 7 Harry Potters in 3rd grade). I don’t know about private waldorf schools but our school ‘allows’ tv watching, computers and the like on the weekends, and my son eats that up too. He loves star wars and video games when we allow him. I would just take issue with the concept that we need computer technology in the classroom in order for kids to learn. My personal experience has shown the contrary.

Comment on How to Write a Statement of Purpose for a Ph.D. Program by kamal

kamal — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:59:04 +0000

thanks Mark, really helpful…

Comment on What Happened to “Hole-in-the-Wall”? by John Handy

John Handy — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:39:24 +0000

Only a racist mind that did not believe that 14 year old Indian slum dwellers were not as intelligent as 2 year old Euro/Americans could have loved the experiment called “Hole in the Wall”.

Just think what it did: It just placed a screen with a keyboard or touch screen in front of some slum children who had no access to anything in life. They did something with it as they would do with anything and someone went to make a career out of it, tried to found a business and EVERYONE who was pressured to buy the idea in India is so upset with it but that was the power of NIIT and their networking that they could push it down the throats of several junior bureaucrats and get several experiments started.

I remember someone who chastised a European or American film maker who came to make a film on Hole in the Wall and when he said that, the guy was told to get his brain checked.

In fact its one of the dumbest ideas promoted by a nice guy who looks quite agreeable and I hear that even a man like Negroponte was taken up by it because it could have aided his cause.

But take off your charmed glasses and just begin to think about it. What a dumb idea and what a mileage good networking and public relations could give it?

Comment on About that Silicon Valley Waldorf School by Mark Warschauer

Mark Warschauer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:37:59 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Stephen. They reaffirm one of my main points, which is that the main issue is creativity. I noted with interest that George Lucas also sends his children to Waldorf. Lucas is obviously not against technology in schools; the organization he founded and directs, Edutopia, is probably one of the strongest proponents of technology in schools in the country. The goal is, as you say, to foster imagination, creativity, and understanding, with the appropriate tools at the appropriate time.