Linda Menton, Noren Lush, and Suzanne Acord began work in 2004 on a bi-national, bilingual, Web-based digital resource for the Cross Currents project. The resource features Japan and the United States, and the way the two countries haveinfluenced each other over the last 50 years.
It includes multimedia features such as Quicktime virtual reality images, film clips, charts, maps, and documents, in addition to pictures and text. The text is available in written and audio form in both English and Japanese.
Cross Currents is funded by the US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) and the Japan-United States Friendship Commission. The project team at the University of Hawai‘i also includes Dr. Pat Steinhoff from the sociology department, Dr. Colin Macdonald from the communication department, and a host of graduate students.
The first theme developed for the site, Work and Workplaces, is now live at www.crosscurrents.hawaii.edu. Future themes, Annual Cultural Cycles and Family Life are in progress and will be available on the site soon.
CRDG’s role is to create student activities, including a student scrapbook, for the site and to develop workshops for teachers.