Mayumi Matsumoto – Particle Passport

Summary

Mayumi Matsumoto, Clinical Associate Professor in Japanese language, created the Particle Passport for her Elementary and Intermediate Japanese language courses. It utilizes the collection game mechanic to incentivize students to learn Japanese particles and local regions of Japan through various types of activities. By successfully completing in-person and online activities, students earn stickers or “passport stamps” for their passport. The Particle Passport has been used since Fall 2018 in her Elementary and Intermediate Japanese classes, and has coincided with increased student performance in mastering the particles and demonstrating increased knowledge about the regions of Japan.

Learning Outcomes

1. Apply the particles successfully by completing lessons to earn passport stamps.
2. Demonstrate the recommended amount and type of practice methods necessary for language acquisition.
3. Recognize the cultural uniqueness of the various regions and prefectures of Japan.

Student Experience

Students receive their Particle Passport, which includes empty spaces where students can earn stickers by successfully completing various activities.

  • particle passport
  • Japanese Assignment
  • Japanese Particles

Outcomes

On the final exam of Fall 2019, 8.7/10 was scored with the students who participated in the particle passport project while 7.6/10 was received with the students who didn’t participate in the project. At the end of each semester, students are more interested in visiting local regions of Japan and they have specific ideas of what they want to do there.

Technology Resources

The Particle Passport uses multiple tools in various ways. While the initial passport booklets were physical objects made out of paper, the switch to remote instruction during the pandemic required a pivot to digital passports created in Google Slides. Since students seem to prefer having a physical passport, Professor Matsumoto is considering a return to paper passports in Fall 2022.

The in-person activities involve polls given through Kahoot, which is an easy to use online polling software. NYU provides access to Poll Everywhere, which has more robust polling options. The digital flashcards were made in Quizlet.

The online digital practice modules were created using Articulate Storyline and provided to students through NYU Brightspace. These SCORM modules need to be created and updated using the Storyline software, which requires a yearly paid subscription. FAS Ed Tech is currently exploring open source alternatives for creating these kinds of online learning modules.

Lessons Learned

Professor Matsumoto has found that preparing a variety of materials to reach students with different learning styles is important to effective language instruction. Since practicing a language in various ways helps retention, Particle Passport incentivizes students to try various forms of practice in and outside the classroom. Additionally, distributing surveys to students at various points in the semester and adjusting the materials based on their feedback allows an instructor to adapt their teaching and learning materials to their students’ needs. As this project is well received by students, she is thinking about expanding this method to other areas such as vocabulary, Chinese characters, and grammar learning.

Susanna Horng – Creative Cartography: The City as Site of Cultural Production

Summary

Professor Susanna Horng (Liberal Studies) uses project based learning to guide her first-year Writing II students in the creation of digital maps. Students are asked to research and design an unwritten chapter for one of the following course texts: Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi, or Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas edited by Rebecca Solnit & Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. Students use ESRI Story Maps software to create interactive, city-based narratives/digital humanities projects, which interrogate the urban and visualize what it means to be a Global Citizen.

Learning Objectives

  • Creative cartography offers multi-modal methods of synthesizing research, narrative mapping, analysis of sources, and data visualization.
  • These activities allow students to flex multimedia and presentation skills. Image, video, and sound selection creates meaning or supports text.
  • The project engages students’ critical thinking, time management, and executive functioning skills.
  • This practice hones students’ digital literacy.

Student Experience

First-year Writing II students are asked to create layered maps with images, videos, hyperlinks links, QR codes, and lyric essays. After instructor contacts Data Services, students are sent email invitations for NYU institutional ArcGIS accounts. Students then create free ESRI Story Maps accounts using NYU Institutional ArcGIS Account. The instructor then creates a private ArcGIS Group for class so students share projects with classmates only. To develop their projects, students work with large amounts of data, longitude and latitude coordinates, and create Excel/Google spreadsheets as research tools.

Technology Resources

  • Data is stored in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
  • Story Maps software:
    • Uses ArcGIS (Geographic Information Software)  to integrate maps with text, images, videos, hyperlinks, and sound.
    • Free NYU Institutional Accounts through Data Services
    • Digital Studio, Bobst 5th floor

Outcomes

  • Students will synthesize research, analysis of sources, narrative mapping, and data visualization through the practice of creative cartography using Story Maps software.
  • Students will create an effective presentation and create meaning through multimedia: image, video, and sound.
  • Students will apply digital literacy, critical thinking, time management, and effective functioning skills.