This week's lecture we learned that we will be collaborating with students from Kansai University in Japan to create a video about social media. I was a bit surprised that we are doing a collaboration video project in this class because I did the same project last year in Dr. Peter's class. Last year's project went very well and it was nice to meet new people from the other side of the world. Furthermore, it gave me a chance to practice some of my Japanese speaking.
I am very optimistic that this project will come out well. I am excited to find out who I will be working with on the Hawaii side and Japan side. Last year, my group collaborated with two students from Kansai University on Google Hangout which necessitated that I learn how use Google Hangout. We once spent fifteen minutes of our collaboration meeting playing around with the different visual features of Google Hangout before we got down to any work. However, playing around with each other was good for building rapport and making everyone feel more comfortable with each other.
When it comes to this year's video project, I am curious about what topic my group will ultimately decide on. However, I would like to do a video that compares the social media website that is most common in Hawaii and Japan, what people of both countries can use their social media to accomplish, and how often they use it. I unconsciously believe that Hawaii's social media usage must be very different from Japan but I won't be surprised if I find out that we use the same social media websites for the same reasons.
Aloha Coby,
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see that you have had experience with this type of project in the past and that it went well. I also found it interesting that you used Google Hangouts. I really like using Google Hang outs for collaboration and it sounds like you and your group mates had a lot of fun as well!
Yes, I am also very curious about the topic that will be chosen for this years video project as well. I actually saw an article published in the Japanese Newspaper a few months ago comparing the use of social media use in Japan vs. America. It was a really interesting study, if you google search you might find some results that could help you pave your way into doing your final project.
In my observations, I know Facebook and Twitter are stronger here in Japan, while there are more instagram users in America. It was an eye opener when you consider that the Japanese iPhones are actually not allowed to take photos without a shutter sound. This being due to the fact that there have been too many illegal uses of camera phones on woman in the past. This may be contributing to the fact that Japanese people might avoid taking photos in public.. I know I get stares if I take photos and sometimes heads turn or whip around when people hear the shutter sound. It is very interesting.
Anyway just thought I would share and thanks for sharing about your experience with collaborating with students in Japan.
Mahalo,
-James