Re: [tlug] Corona and schools in Japan

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On 28/4/2020 6:19 pm, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:
> > On Apr 28, 2020, at 18:45, Christian Horn <chorn@example.com> wrote:
> > Anybody having a deeper insight into how schools in Japan are doing?
> 3 universities I know: Takamatsu University / Kagawa University / Shikoku Gakuin seem to be totally unprepared for online teaching. I was actually surprised to see that the engineering department of Kagawa University was the last to react and the least prepared.


I don't know much about Japan (sorry!) but I think everyone 
has been caught off guard with the sudden pressure to teach 
online.

I think "online degrees" have always been frowned upon and 
it is a bit ironic that traditional educational institutions 
(whether they are universities or high school) now have to 
do online teaching to remain relevant to the current times.

In the few times in my life that I had taught in the 
university (i.e., very few and a long time ago), we 
certainly never received training to do online teaching.  I 
don't know at that time, whether there was a contingincy 
plan within the university that was sealed in a box with a 
"Do not open unless online teaching required" note on the 
front.  I guess no...and everyone has been trying to 
formulate a plan.

Certainly non-mandatory education like cram schools or adult 
education ought to be worried.  They could lose business and 
have to close down.

Ray

PS:  I'm actually studying Japanese here.  When they 
switched to online teaching, I dropped the course :-) .  I 
don't think I would be getting anything from it.  Online 
teaching also has issues like homework and exams [i.e., how 
do you know the student isn't cheating].  Of course, cram 
schools don't need to worry about this.