[clay dube]

I've attached a guide to using the forum. It includes a section on why forums work better than email discussion lists for some tasks, plus information on how to post your ideas and how to respond to others.

A couple of quick notes:
1. Put seminar specific comments/questions in this forum. These include discussions of presentations and your projects.
2. Put more general comments/questions that other teachers would be interested in in the Asia in My Classroom forum or one of the other forums.
3. Rather than starting a new thread (topic) with your post, please try to put your post into an existing thread. This is much easier for readers. So to post something to the film festival thread, go inside that thread and click on the "reply" button. If your subject is different, change the subject line. This will make it easy for readers to scan.

Please click on the icon below to download the guide. It is in "pdf" format. You'll need a copy of the free Acrobat reader (you probably already have it on your computer) to read it. Try clicking on the icon and see what happens. If the file opens, or you are asked if you want to open it using Acrobat, you're all set. If not, you'll need to download and install Acrobat. It's pretty easy to do. Just go to:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Acrobat is handy and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac computers. Because it preserves formatting and is a standard, the US government (e.g., the IRS) uses it to distribute documents.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,

I've attached a guide to using the forum. It includes a section on why forums work better than email discussion lists for some tasks, plus information on how to post your ideas and how to respond to others.

A couple of quick notes:
1. Put seminar specific comments/questions in this forum. These include discussions of presentations and your projects.
2. Put more general comments/questions that other teachers would be interested in in the Asia in My Classroom forum or one of the other forums.
3. Rather than starting a new thread (topic) with your post, please try to put your post into an existing thread. This is much easier for readers. So to post something to the film festival thread, go inside that thread and click on the "reply" button. If your subject is different, change the subject line. This will make it easy for readers to scan.

Please click on the icon below to download the guide. It is in "pdf" format. You'll need a copy of the free Acrobat reader (you probably already have it on your computer) to read it. Try clicking on the icon and see what happens. If the file opens, or you are asked if you want to open it using Acrobat, you're all set. If not, you'll need to download and install Acrobat. It's pretty easy to do. Just go to:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Acrobat is handy and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac computers. Because it preserves formatting and is a standard, the US government (e.g., the IRS) uses it to distribute documents.

[clay dube]

A copy of the seminar assignment is attached. In addition to attendance at and active participation in every session, you are expected to complete three tasks.

1. Exchanging ideas via the discussion forum. Substantative posts are the norm. In evaluating websites, provide details on who created the resource, what are its particular strengths and weaknesses, and how might it be used by teachers. In reviewing films, summarize the story and focus on how teachers could use it to teach about Asia. What issues does it explore? Is it an accurate representation of a particular time and place? In discussing seminar readings or presentations, feel free to raise questions, offer interpretations, and brainstorm on classroom applications for the materials or concepts. For example, how can these primary sources be used to develop student skills?

Remember to post website evaluations and film reviews to the Asia in My Classroom forum. Put seminar-specific posts in this forum. Please put AsiaMedia (http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu) and Asia Pacific Arts (http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu) posts in the appropriate public forum. General discussion of Asia Institute articles or things you see in the newspaper should go in the Asia On My Mind forum.

2. Create a website for use either with your students or your fellow teachers. You may combine this assignment with the curriculum development task. Your website should have a minimum of three different pages. Be sure to check your spelling and grammar and to properly credit your sources of information and images. You may post your website to our web server (your URL will be http://international.ucla.edu/asia/lessons/yourfirstinitialyourlastname -- be sure to name your homepage "index.html") or elsewhere (your school site, your ISP, or on a free website host such as GeoCities). Please include your email address on the website so that interested colleagues may contact you.

3. Develop a set of lesson plans covering two - five days. These lessons should be appropriate for the students you have in class everyday. These plans should be fully developed with discussion questions, handouts, vocabulary lists, and so forth. Alternatively, you may write an essay discussing how you will bring ideas and resources from the seminar into your classes and to your colleagues.

Download and print out a copy of the assignment. Try to meet the discussion forum requirement by the end of the year. Start working on your webpages right away (while the techniques are fresh in your mind). And begin thinking about your curriculum project right now. Everything must be satisfactorily completed and submitted by February 10, 2006 for you to be eligible for the summer 2006 tour. If you are not applying for the tour you have until March 1, 2006 to submit everything.
[Edit by="Clay Dube on Sep 9, 5:36:39 AM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

A copy of the seminar assignment is attached. In addition to attendance at and active participation in every session, you are expected to complete three tasks.

1. Exchanging ideas via the discussion forum. Substantative posts are the norm. In evaluating websites, provide details on who created the resource, what are its particular strengths and weaknesses, and how might it be used by teachers. In reviewing films, summarize the story and focus on how teachers could use it to teach about Asia. What issues does it explore? Is it an accurate representation of a particular time and place? In discussing seminar readings or presentations, feel free to raise questions, offer interpretations, and brainstorm on classroom applications for the materials or concepts. For example, how can these primary sources be used to develop student skills?

Remember to post website evaluations and film reviews to the Asia in My Classroom forum. Put seminar-specific posts in this forum. Please put AsiaMedia (http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu) and Asia Pacific Arts (http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu) posts in the appropriate public forum. General discussion of Asia Institute articles or things you see in the newspaper should go in the Asia On My Mind forum.

2. Create a website for use either with your students or your fellow teachers. You may combine this assignment with the curriculum development task. Your website should have a minimum of three different pages. Be sure to check your spelling and grammar and to properly credit your sources of information and images. You may post your website to our web server (your URL will be http://international.ucla.edu/asia/lessons/yourfirstinitialyourlastname -- be sure to name your homepage "index.html") or elsewhere (your school site, your ISP, or on a free website host such as GeoCities). Please include your email address on the website so that interested colleagues may contact you.

3. Develop a set of lesson plans covering two - five days. These lessons should be appropriate for the students you have in class everyday. These plans should be fully developed with discussion questions, handouts, vocabulary lists, and so forth. Alternatively, you may write an essay discussing how you will bring ideas and resources from the seminar into your classes and to your colleagues.

Download and print out a copy of the assignment. Try to meet the discussion forum requirement by the end of the year. Start working on your webpages right away (while the techniques are fresh in your mind). And begin thinking about your curriculum project right now. Everything must be satisfactorily completed and submitted by February 10, 2006 for you to be eligible for the summer 2006 tour. If you are not applying for the tour you have until March 1, 2006 to submit everything.

[clay dube]

Hi Ed,
Please do use the "attach" button to upload a few of your photos. I imagine many would love to see a few and then check out the full array at your website.

I'd also welcome some discussion of attitudes in Bali, perhaps comparing the gov't's response to the tsunami with its response to the Bali bombing of three years ago. Also, since you left, there's been big news about the long standing rebellion in Aceh. I wonder what Balinese think about these developments.

Aso, perhaps you might share a few photos in the Japan 2005 thread as well. You weren't part of this year's trip, but as it happens, you also visited Japan this summer and you certainly know a couple of the participants.

[clay dube]

Retired UCLA pediatrician Jim Yamazaki recently interviewed Shigeru Sasamori, a bombing survivor who came to the US through the efforts of Norman Cousins. You can read the text of the interview or show the video interview to students:

http://international.ucla.edu/asia/article.asp?parentid=20488

[clay dube]

In 2004, the Thomas Fordham Foundation underwrote the review of high school history texts which it subsequently published as A Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks. The full report can be downloaded at http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=329#1021.

Those of us interested in the Foundation's reviews of high school world history texts may wish to visit the website above or see those reviews by clicking on the icon below for that 20 page section of the report.

One of the report's conclusions is:
"Although the reviewers rate some texts as better or worse than others, on the whole they find striking similarities among them. The books are of identical size and heft. They are graphically gorgeous. They have beautiful multi-colored images on every page. (Some actually seem to allot more space to graphics than to text.) With only relatively minor variations, all relate a similar narrative about the development of the United States or the world."

In general, the reviewers found the books poorly written, riddled with errors, and too ambitious in their coverage.

The authors of the report conclude that the problem is that textbooks are prepared with the state adoption committees/processes of just a few states (California, Texas, and a few more) in mind. They argue that "The states should set their academic standards, align their tests to those standards, and leave teachers free to select the books, anthologies, histories, biographies, software and other materials that will help students meet the standards."

How did the book you use fair in this review? Do you agree with the comments made by the reviewers?/

Here is the report's description of the reviewers:
Lucien Ellington, Co-director of the Asia Program and Professor of Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He holds advanced degrees in history, economics education, and education and is founding editor of Education About Asia, a journal for instructors published by the Association for Asian Studies. He has authored three books on Japan and currently is series editor for ABC-CLIO's Global Studies: Asia. Ellington was a high school world history and economics teacher for eight years.

Marc A. Epstein, an Advanced Placement world history and American government teacher at Jamaica High School in New York City. He is a world history teacher and holds a Ph.D. in Japanese-American diplomatic history from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Margaret C. Jacob, Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles. She is a past president of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies and a member of the American Philosophical Society. She is a specialist in the history of science. Her recent books include: The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford, 2001); Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West (Oxford University Press, 1997); and, with Larry Stewart, Practical Matter: The Impact of Newton's Science, 1687-1851 (Harvard University Press, forthcoming).

Walter Russell Mead is Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His most recent book, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Routledge, 2002), received the Lionel Gelber Award for the best book in English on international relations in 2002. He is currently working on a book entitled Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America's Grand Strategy in A World at Risk (Knopf, April 2004). Mead writes regularly on international affairs for leading newspapers.

Theodore K. Rabb, Professor of History at Princeton University. Among his many books are Enterprise and Empire (Routledge, 1999); The New History (Princeton University Press, 2002); The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe (Oxford University Press, 1975); Climate and History (Princeton University Press, 1981); Renaissance Lives (Random House, 1993); Jacobean Gentleman (Princeton University Press, 1998); and The Making and Unmaking of Democracy (Routledge, 2002). He has chaired the trustees of the National Council for History Education.[Edit by="Clay Dube on Aug 3, 5:52:01 PM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

In 2004 the American Textbook Council (http://www.historytextbooks.org) published a review of secondary school world history texts. It was written by ACT director Gilbert T. Sewall. Mr. Sewall previously taught at Phillips Academy and wrote for Newsweek. The review was underwritten by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Bodman Foundation, and the Maytag Family Foundation.

Among Sewall's conclusions is a claim that four corporations (Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Harcourt, and Houghton Mifflin) now determine the prospects for improving history textbooks. He believes their commercial interests work against such improvement. Among his principal complaints is the "unauthored" nature of these texts. By this he means that writers are brought in for particular tasks and books lack coherence and a clear narrative voice.

Sewall also believes that bringing more of the world into world history textbooks has resulting in the excising of crucial materials on the history of the West. He writes, "To make all cultures equally significant and consequential, new topics, heretofore unknown golden ages, unnoticed epochal events, and pressing identity themes have not only become dominant in world history; they are becoming the only [emphasis his] world history."

Sewall further argues that the West is held to different standards than other regions when "social relationships, ethnic conflicts, and barbarism" is addressed. "World history textbooks avoid subjects of tyranny and anarchy, of economic failure, and of cultural repression when they reflect badly on contemporary non-Western nations, or they blame Western imperialism for these conditions."

Ultimately, Sewall accuses publishers of sometimes being "agents of global misinformation."

These are Sewall's views and not my own. His complete report is available at the website listed above or by clicking on the icon below. It's a 35 page .pdf file.

Is your textbook an agent of global misinformation? Is Sewall's assessment accurate?

[clay dube]

Courtney's nicely summarized the LA Times article. The Times is stingy on access, but you might take a look at "Driven to Be Made".

Also, the Christian Science Monitor published a series in Dec. 2004 looking at how prosperity is changing Chinese families. Go to "For Love and Money" to see the series.

[clay dube]

Here's a report Thuy-doan Nguyen composed regarding her visit:

January 28, 2005

The Getty and the Huntington Museum Conference on Chinese Gardens

Unbelievable! I took away so many insights on gardens and arts that day that I wanted to create my own art garden at home or should I say when I own a home. It’s incredible! The presentation included numerous presenters with so many different yet wise ideas. I’ve seen some of the artwork that was presented during the PowerPoint presentation of Philip Hu “Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion: From Poetry and Calligraphy to a Landscape of Cultural Memory” and the handouts of Steven Carter “Tonna’s Trees: The Poetics of Garden Space in Medieval Japan”, but never did I thought of how old or how artistic these things were until I attended this conference. After attending this conference, I really felt the need to be exposed more to these things. I love art, flowers, and nature that they all came together in this conference. During the lunch break, which was absolutely not enough time, walked around the rose garden, the lotus lake, and the Japanese garden I was astonished by the beauty and the art. I feel at home, at peace, at harmony, and a sense of total balance between the mind, the spirit, and the body. I’m not really happy that I had to miss class and attend this conference for make up. However, as a result of missing a class, I was able to take away something so valuable and something that I’ve always dreamt about.

The most enjoyable presentation that day was on the winding cup of ancient China to present day architecture. It was amazing how so many different architectural recreation of this artwork were and are priced by the visitors around the world near the hotels, restaurants, recreation centers, and even museums. I just wish I could visit one of those sights in my lifetime.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,

Thanks, Albert, for getting us started sharing the products of weeks of research and writing. May I suggest that you simply copy your introductions into the message area and actually upload your papers as attachments. This will allow folks to quickly see your topic and point of view and then to decide whether or not to open the paper.

To attach a file, just click the attachment button below the message area and navigate to the requisite file. Click open and then click post.

[clay dube]

Interested in Tom Plate's musings on Asia and the world? His twice a week column is published in AsiaMedia, which also features a comprehensive Plate archive. You can see the column Kari mentioned at:

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=24029

The Plate archive is at:

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/tomplate.asp

[clay dube]

Wang Dan visited UCLA not long after his release from his second prison sentence. He was released in part because of improving relations with the US/Clinton administration and in part because the Chinese sought to advance those relations still further:

photos/report on the talk
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/wang-dan.htm

Clinton visited China a few months later
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/web/clinton.htm

[clay dube]

Here's a link to the LA Times story about the Yasukuni Shrine. Unfortunately, the Times archives their articles after about a week, so act quickly and save a copy of the article if you think it might be useful.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-koizumi6jun06,1,6630999.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Here's the Yasukuni Shrine website:

http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/

Here is a page of photos of the shrine (by Robert D. Fiala):
http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/tokyo/yasukuniindex.htm

[clay dube]

The University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies is engaged in a long term project to prepare extremely high quality lessons on China's material culture. Thus far, four units have been published to the web:

Women and Art in Early Modern China
Marty Powers

Women and Childbirth Text
Yi-Li Wu

Culture and International Relations in the 18th Century
Richard Strassberg

China and International Law in the 19th Century
Lydia Liu

It would be wonderful to read reviews of each of these lessons. Please take a look at them and share your thoughts on how you might employ them with your students.

The China Mirror

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