Here’s a Japanese cartoon “explaining” the Fukushima situation here in Japan to kids by making comparisons to stomachaches and poo. Hmm…

I have been living here in Japan for over 10 years now and have gotten used to earthquakes. However, the quake on March 11, 2011 was the first to rattle me. First of all, thanks to all that have contacted me to inquire about my safety. I am safe. Yokohama is located 330+km (206 miles) south of Sendai, though we did feel the quake rather strongly. I was teaching grade 6 art at the time and at first we thought it was a typical minor tremor. However, it continued and increased in strength. The students went under tables as they have been regularly trained to do and were rather calm. Fortunately, no damage was done to the school and no students were hurt. After my class finished, I viewed the live stream of the tsunami. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Cell phones were the first things to fail. Instead, students logged onto Facebook to make contact with family and friends almost immediately. Trains were disrupted and students were not dismissed until a parent came to pick them up. I stayed at school (with students) until 7pm. I then walked home to a blackout in my area to turn off my apartment breakers etc. There was no severe damage apart from a fallen lamp and picture frames. As I had no electricity, I returned to school to use the internet in an attempt to get in touch with my wife. Several staff and students were still stranded, but most found homes to stay in for the night by 9:30pm. My co-worker and I returned to my apartment around 10:30 as he had no way to return to his Tokyo apartment. I finally made contact with my wife around 11pm who was safe.

Our school decided to close for the week, which also fell just before our two week spring break. Since then, we have been following the news, having tremors, following the news, tracking radiation reports and following the news. Several teachers and families took “holidays” early and I can’t really blame them. I am stuck here as my wife still has to work, though she is staying with her parents. For the last 4 days, I have been home alone watching coverage on NHK World.

Though physically alone, I am “not.” Through Twitter, Skype, Gmail and Facebook, I have been able to communicate with other friends here and with friends overseas. Thank you for your updates and messages. It’s hard to answer when people ask why I am not leaving. I originally had a scheduled holiday trip to Canada on March 22. My wife is still working (!) and I am not going to leave her behind. It’s getting hard to get flights. I am still not sure what to do with that scheduled flight I have booked as I was going alone. Hopefully things regarding the reactors get under control.

On this note, I must stress that things in the Tokyo area are rather calm. Of course there are shortages etc., but people are not heavily panicked. Watching NHK World has been a godsend. BBC coverage has also been informative. However, for my friends watching overseas, CNN and Fox have not. I have CNN here and watched it at times. I did not appreciate the dramatic title sequences with their cinematic and emotive musical scores. They instilled fear. I had to reassure my mother Friday evening that I was not seriously affected by the quake after her watching news reports.

Though I do not want it to appear like everything is truly fine and I am unaffected, I do wish to remind family and friends not to start rumours or spread panic like the French embassy incident.

Thanks again for all your comments and warm messages. It has also been pleasing to note how people do pull together during times like these and some of our students and alumni have also been trying to figure out how to help through here, here and other charitable groups. If you can, please try to donate or support a group. Thank you again for your support. Thank you NHK World and Yukio Edano for your coverage and updates and especially to the last 50 workers currently trying to find solutions. No thanks to CNN etc.

Nancy Duarte does a good job explaining the difference between the power of story and a report in this video.

If you read The Back of the Napkin, you’ll understand how diagrams solve problems and sells ideas. SimpleDiagrams is a free “…desktop application that helps you express your ideas quickly and simply. There’s just enough functionality to describe a thought or capture a process.” There is an upgrade available as well. Features include:

• Drag, drop and size symbols from libraries
• Add photos and post-notes
• Various background styles (chalkboard, whiteboard, etc.)
• Save diagrams on your computer
• Export your diagram to PNG

SimpleDiagrams is built on the Adobe AIR™ platform so it will run smoothly on Mac, Windows and Linux.

(Note: installation required)

What drives people’s behaviour in the modern workplace? This 9 minute video sums up Daniel Pink and his new book pretty well. (Thanks to Shane M. for the tip)

[video link]

Being a Canadian, I am happy to hear about this. Following on from my previous post and advertising, Adbusters has won a landmark case for the right to show its ads on television and in newspapers. You can read more about it here from Art Threat. This will hopefully lead to more anti-commercial commercials. Don’t you think we need to see more of this on TV?

From NME: Apple could shut down its iTunes music store this week, if a verdict from the US Copyright Royalty Board forces the company to pay higher royalty rates.

The association wants to increase rates by 66 per cent, from nine cents to 15 cents per track, whereas Apple wants a decrease to 4.8 cents per track, reports CNN (full story here).

Sorry for the delay. It’s been an annoying week. I have repeatedly been asked to change my password details to login here and a few times I couldn’t get in due to site maintenance. Another annoying item has been the appearance of Google Ads. Apparently they (EduBlogs) are experimenting. If these little ads appear, simply click refresh and they should magically disappear into the ‘internet cloud’ (hopefully forever).

I have also been busy creating a presentation on CyberSafety for the upper elementary classes at my school (grades 4-5). The video provided has been made as a reference for students and their parents to link within our website. The version done in class will be more interactive with greater discussion. Topics covered are posting profiles on social networking sites, netiquette, cyber-bullying, computer security (spam, viruses, worms, phishing, spyware, trojan horse, P2P) and guidelines for staying safe on the internet. View here.

In other news:

1. Facebook will impose it’s new facelift (story here).

2. New iPod range. Shake and shuffle! Great, now my Nano will look old. They have gone back to elongated style. (BBC video here)

3. Noel Gallagher uses GarageBand!

As the exclusive interview with Music Radar reveals, Noel Gallagher is a big fan of Apple’s GarageBand, which he prefers to his high-tech recording studio at home!

“I had my own fully functioning recording studio with an EMI II desk and a really cool Neve desk. But I kind of got sick of it because the demos were starting to sound better than the records,” Noel told MusicRadar’s US Editor Joe Bosso. “We actually do our demos now in Gem’s bedroom on his little GarageBand computer”, says Noel.

4. MacTubes 1.2 is an excellent free YouTube video player and downloader, with an interface similar to iTunes that is easy to use. (I haven’t tried this yet but will after this post. Will it will be better than Tooble?).

Download here. It’s free, but only for Mac.

FEATURES

• Create Customized Playlists
• Country Selection Option
• Search By Keyword Or Related Videos
• Search By Author
• Enter Video URL Or ID
• Download Video Files
• Much More

5. A few posts ago I mentioned how I was converted in posting items to YouTube and especially TeacherTube. Well in 23 days my simple addition has become a featured video and has been viewed 2991 times (as of now). Though it’s not in the tens of thousands, a teacher from the UK and the US have contacted me asking to use it. We have also exchanged other ideas with each other as well. Why aren’t we doing more of this in our classrooms?

Welcome to my blog. Here you will find various types of information regarding IT, the arts and learning in the 21st century. Most of the items you find here will help guide you in solving some of your IT problems and hopefully help generate new and creative ideas for yourselves or your students.