1. Crossing Boundaries ...

2. CROSSING BOUNDARIES:
SHARING KNOWLEDGE
IN AN ONLINE
COMMUNITY FOR
JAPANESE CHILDREN IN
THE U.S. AND IN JAPAN
Mie Buskirk
ELT 650-653 Collaborative Action Research
M.A. in Learning Technologies
Pepperdine University

3. Connect Japanese Children
in the U.S. and in Japan

4. Tie ZPD (Zone of Proximal
Development) to My Action Research

5. Use Wikispaces for a Collaborative
Online Learning
This is an example of
messages exchanged
between Japanese children in
the U.S. and in Japan. A
student at Tokorozawa
Elementary School posted
his research about 50 states
of the U.S. and asked a
question which is the largest
state in the U.S.

6. Student-centered Learning
in Cycle One
Japanese students in the U.S. and in Japan participated in a collaborative
online class to research Universal Design (ユニバーサル デザイン).
They posted their research results and exchanged their ideas and
information.
Slo
Braille block pe
for
cha phy
llen sica
ged lly
Bathroom for
physically challenged

7. Peer-to-peer Interactions
in Cycle Two
Japanese students in the U.S. and in Japan participated in a collaborative
online class to research American geography, American culture,
American industry, and American politics and space development. They
posted their research results and exchanged their ideas and information.

8. Japanese Student’s Academic Interests
Data Analysis and
Evidence:
1. Both Japanese
children in the U.S.
and in Japan
preferred to
exchange messages
with their own
schoolmates.
2. Japanese children
in Japan posted
their responses on a
particular Japanese
student’s message.
She posted the
message about
Thanksgiving Day
in the U.S.

9. Share knowledge within a group
in Cycle Three
Japanese students in the U.S. and in Japan participated in a
collaborative online class to research exchanges between Japan and
the countries of the world. They posted their research results and
exchanged their ideas and information.
FIFA
World Cup
ma nce
Eunic i pe rfor
Shriv e Kennedy Kabuk
er and
in Spe athlet
cial O es
lympi
cs

10. Action Plans, Analyses, and Evaluation
Cycle One Cycle Two Cycle Three
Student-centered Peer-to-Peer
Action Plan Building Knowledge
Learning Interactions
Intermediate to
Qualitative Basic Japanese Use of Social
Advanced Japanese
Analysis writing skills Studies terms
Writing Skills
Evaluation of Sentence Some Students can
Lack of sentence
Qualitative structure with write and exchange
structure
Analysis basic expressions ideas and information.
Frequency of Frequency of Frequency of
Quantitative
exchanging exchanging exchanging online
Analysis
messages messages messages
Evaluation of Exchanged with Continued Some Students can
Schoolmates. exchange ideas and
Quantitative Very few exchanges with exchanges with information with a partner
Analysis a partner school. Schoolmates. school.

11. Final Reflection
CROSSING BOUNDARIES ...
Sharing Knowledge in an Online
Community for Japanese Children in the
U.S. and in Japan
FINAL REFLECTION
My action research ended here and could
not continue to the next cycle at this time.
However, I learned much from this action
research that Japanese children’s motivation
in learning was more complex than what I
expected. Because of the diversity in
academic interest, it is difficult for them to
build their confidence and knowledge in
Japanese learning. I made every effort to
reach the outcomes that I expected.
Although the research showed limited
findings and results, I felt I could continue
my action research further to find out more
about the learning behaviors and motivation
of Japanese children in the U.S. It is my
quest to inspire Japanese children so that
they can gain confidence and build
knowledge for Japanese learning.