2020広島韓国Forum

Today was forum day in Hiroshima together with Prof. Yasutomi and Prof. Hong. With topics ranging from the Korean Peninsula to the relationship of Asian countries with the U.S., I was surrounded by political scientists. As the Dean of Faculty, I was invited to do the opening speech (which was great, by the way). It was nice to be around so many scholars again. Of course, with masks and social distancing.

2nd year students’ orientation

Today it was the first orientation session before the semester starts. Second year students came to campus, in the big auditorium, and we had many people from the administration speaking to them. Of course today’s main menu was the explanation about the study abroad program. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we were unable to send our second year students to their abroad program, and almost all students were waiting for the announcements in order to know what is going to Read More …

From online to face-to-face

Last Monday was the first day we had first year students on campus for face-to-face classes this semester. I was quite pleasant to see so many new faces and a vivid campus. One not so pleasant surprise was to see how much some students have to catch up. Because of the online classes, some students are not taking it seriously, and as a result, have not done the practice homework I have assigned since the beginning of the semester. It Read More …

One month with Zoom

Isn’t it amazing? one month has already passed since we started classes online using Zoom. I would love to have time and put everything we have learned and experienced in a paper, or some sort of tutorial so other people could learn and avoid making the same mistakes. Yes, maybe that is the way to go: a Zoom best practices in online education. Well, not sure if this idea will fly, but definitely enjoying the experience.

Second year of the ARC program

One month into the new year, and students are already making use of the ARC. Our assistant is working hard on the new TOEIC workshops and the schedule should be available soon by email to all students. For more information about the program, here is the official page: https://www.mic.ac.jp/student/ARC  

After Golden Week…

… we will have tests!!! That is he bad news for all my students in the first year (Intro to ICT), and in the upper division (Algorithms). This year we are having a holiday for 9 days straight, and I want to make sure students do not forget about the first 4 weeks, otherwise we will loose too much time on reviewing content. I believe (and I hope), that because we have a test after the holidays, everyone will study Read More …

The New ARC Program

Since the beginning of this semester we are starting a new program for our Academic Resource Center (ARC) in which students get assistance with homework and some guidance studying for the TOEIC test. April was a little slow due to book purchases and setting up of computer and printers, but in May we saw some students visiting the ARC regularly and asking assistance from our TA (who has been hired with the main duty of conducting this program). Well, last Read More …

First classes DONE.

The first classes o the ICT course were done already. Wow, it was really exciting to enter the classroom again and see the new faces. Unfortunately, due to the size of the computer classroom, I got two huge classes. A big change from the small classroom sizes I had last year. The good part is that I got an assistant this year, and he is really working hard. This makes a huge difference because he also helps me keeping control Read More …

Too busy to be true

Tomorrow is our 21st graduation ceremony and today everyone is very busy preparing and rehearsing for tomorrow. Also, we will have TC certificates handled to students in a small ceremony and later, thesis highest honors certificates. Of course these are not the only things going on. Today students will be trying the gowns and filling up an exit survey among other things. I am sure a lot of people will be crying tomorrow, so I hope I can write a Read More …