Community
In the 1990s when LD started out as a SIG, it tried to do things a little differently by holding small meetings, without a presenter, where people could talk with each other directly about their interests.
Since JALT2006, members of the Learner Development SIG across Japan have been re-connecting with this original combination of learner and teacher development. Over the last 9 months, different local groups have been getting together to talk about learner and teacher development issues of central concern to those taking part. These local area get-togethers -- enthusiastically coordinated by a whole host of people including Naoko Aoki, Matthew Apple, Umidahon Ashurova, Steve Brown, Robert Croker, Ellen Head, Mike Nix, Etsuko Shimo, Jodie Stephenson and Stacey Vye -- have so far taken place in Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, and Tokyo. What's more, LD SIG members in Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Miyazaki could soon be holding their inaugural local get-togethers before JALT2007.At the annual conference, the LD SIG will be similarly using its forum as an open opportunity for those participating to explore together their individual and different interests in learner and teacher development/ autonomy. If you would like to (re-)connect with these many different conversations and discussions, then please feel free to join the LD SIG Forum and/or the LD SIG Party at JALT2007 in Tokyo. For more information, check our conference activities page from time to time. We're looking forward to seeing you there!
If you’d like to get together with LD members in your area....
- We can put you in touch with your local group, if it is already meeting.
- Or help you to get a new local group going in your area. Your first get together could be a social in a local izakaya for people to get to know each other, or a meeting to share thoughts on issues of learner and teacher autonomy of concern to you, or a bit of both. We can help with the cost of hiring a room for your first get together, and suggest formats that other groups have found effective for organizing informal but focused discussions.
Contact Stacey Vye (stacey.vye at mark gmail.com) or Mike Nix (mikenix at mark tamacc.chuo-u.ac.jp).
Resources
- Second Tokyo Local Gathering Report -- This story from the second local get-together in Tokyo includes reflections from participants. For more information on our local get-togethers, please see the latest issue of Learning Learning.
- Third Tokyo Local Gathering Report -- This story from the 13 May local get-together in Tokyo includes reflections from participants.
- 13 January 2008 Greater Tokyo Get-Together Reflections -- Partipants' reflections on this year's first Tokyo get-together.
- 2006 SIG Forum Handout -- This is the bilingual handout from last fall's national conference in Kitakyushu in PDF format.
"Discuss" mailing list for SIG members
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日本語もじゅんびしています