Delivering services over the Internet is fast becoming commonplace. Information provider tools like ftp, gopher and the World Wide Web, as well as more basic communication tools like electronic mailing lists and Usenet newsgroups, are making it possible to provide services and information to an ever-widening audience. At MIT, we are engaged in building an information service, which we call JP NET (for Japanese-Network), that is slated to begin service in the spring of 1995. JP NET will be the first service over the Internet to attempt to provide an online infrastructure for an entire field, that of Japanese Language and Culture education. JP NET is based in part on the work already done at MIT using the local Athena network. It will be housed in the Japanese Language and Culture Program in Foreign Languages and Literatures.
For the past two years, the Japanese program at MIT has been developing a series of computerized instructional materials delivered on the MIT Athena network to be used by the MIT Japanese language students outside of class. The applications currently available include: 1) course syllabi and daily assignments; 2) grammar notes and exercises; 3) reading and writing exercises; 4) kanji drills; 5) online Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary (a public domain dictionary); and 6) Japanese word-processing tool (a public domain text editor). Although still in development stage, the availability of these applications has already contributed significantly to the implementation of a demanding communicative-oriented curriculum and also to the overall program management. All the software applications are completely data-file driven so that they can be easily customized to a particular course and curriculum.
MIT has recently received grants from Canon Information Systems, Canon Business Machines and from the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning to expand the local MIT system to one that is global. Named JP NET, the new service will address the needs of Japanese language and culture specialists around the world. The design of the language component will be based on the work already done on Athena. We will have textbook-independent materials for teaching Japanese including:
We hope to establish collaborative relationships with colleagues at other institutions to develop these components of JP NET. The important point to stress is that JP NET is for the entire field, and not just for MIT. The more material that we can put on JP NET, the more useful it will be for the field at large. As an important additional activity, the Computer Administrator for JP NET will develop software to allow users to easily access the pertinent information. Along with language, there will be a cultural component, in which we will create a large textual and photographic database about Japanese culture. Partnerships with specialists in culture (such as kimono) are being established; these partners will contribute cultural material to JP NET. A third component of JP NET will be series of mailing lists for various people to communicate with each other, for example, secondary school teachers around the world. The mailing lists can also make available job postings. As part of this component, the present mailing list, Japanese Teachers and Instructional Technology (JTIT), will be incorporated into JP NET. In addition, there will be a component of JP NET in which lectures about Japanese language and culture will be offered. These lectures will be given by experts in the field, and anyone participating in JP NET may sign up for a lecture. The lectures are non-credit, but what will be offered will in many cases be based on actual courses being taught by the experts at their institutions. We are also working with Japanese library specialists, who are digitizing bibliographic information on their holdings, and who will make this information available through JP NET (among other services). All JP NET participation will be free (or, where cost for duplication, etc., is involved, only the cost of such service will be charged). Technical development for JP NET will include standardization of software for easy input/output of alphabetic/non-alphabetic character combinations, and browsers to search through large databases that store information in both alphabetic and native Japanese orthography.
Shigeru Miyagawa, Project Director
Foreign Languages and Literatures, 14N-305, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
miyagawa@mit.edu, (617) 253-6346, fax (617) 258-6189
Date last modified: July 9, 1995
© Copyright 1995 Massachusetts Institute of Technology