www.crosscurrents.hawaii.eduWork continued in 2006 on Cross Currents, a bilingual multimedia educational Web site that contains extensive content about Japan and the United States and their interactions over the past fifty years. Partially funded by the Japan United States Friendship Commission, Cross Currents is a partnership that includes CRDG, the University of Hawai‘i College of Social Sciences and School of Communication, and Tokyo University. The Cross Currents Web site (www. crosscurrents.hawaii.edu) includes content units that have been written and recorded in both Japanese and English, allowing users to switch freely between languages for both text and sound. Photographs, maps, graphs, documents, film clips with subtitles and scripts in both languages, and virtual reality clips also support the text. Another component of the site, called the scrapbook, allows teachers and students to create and manage interactive projects. Content development and classroom testing in the Laboratory School will continue in 2007. Scholarly presentations focused on Cross Currents were well received at the Comparative International Education Society conference held in Honolulu in March 2006 and the Pacific Circle Consortium conference held in Mexico City in July 2006.
Texas Instruments and CRDG Network in the Mathematics Classrooom Texas Instruments partnered with the CRDG Mathematics Section and the Laboratory School to study the use of the TI-Navigator classroom networked system for formative assessment in tenth grade mathematics classes. Texas Instruments funded the study and provided the University Laboratory School with a complete TI-Navigator system, including a laptop computer and LCD projector, for the classroom and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition calculators for all tenth grade students. The study found the main benefits of using the networked technology to be a higher quality of interaction between teacher and student, more immediate teacher response to students’ specific needs, and, as a result of these, an increased ability by students to fill gaps in their understanding of a concept. The Mathematics Section continued its partnership with Texas Instruments by facilitating outreach activities jointly sponsored by CRDG and Texas Instruments at CRDG, Kailua, and Pearl City. In addition, a three-day summer workshop for preservice and in-service teachers at CRDG, and a one-day handheld technology workshop at Chaminade University for preservice teachers allowed participants to gain hands-on experience with the TI-73 graphing calculator and the TI-Navigator system.
Cross Currents Community Partners
Japan United States Friendship Commission
College of Social Sciences, UHM
School of Communication, UHM
Tokyo University
TI Navigator Study Community Partners
Texas Instruments
Chaminade University
Hawai‘i Department of Education