229. Parties...Hot! Hot! and Hot!

Parties, eating out, Karaoke gathering...those could be some important factors for MTEC pals to socialize.
On Friday (Aug. 1), our big brother Maekawa san arranged a party at the courtyard. It was actually a kind of "bon boyage" party for himself, since he was supposed to leave for China again.







Fun of Saturday was a BBQ party arranged by our party king: Uramoto san!

Not only MTEC participants, participants of other groups and some Japanese staffs joined.






All photos were taken and given by Masaharu Itokazu san. Thanks!

228. Finally? or Already?

The final production of 08dvp started.
Is it "finally" or "already"?

The twelve participants are organized into three groups.
This time, no specific topic was given, so each group needed to discuss on what topic they would produce the video.

Anyway, we hope you have fruitful days.

227. Proud of you, Erapae san!

Mr. Tuai Erapae is an ex-participant in 07tpm course from Papua New Guinea. He has made constant contact with us, especially with Dr. Tokumura, on his Action Plan.
Today we received the report from him.
Those work from our participants makes us more than happy!
We are so proud of you, Erapae san!!

ERAPAE Tuai

226. Tedako Festival

Do you remember Tedako Festival?
It is the festival of Urasoe City, where MTEC is located.

This year, many of MTEC participants and Chiho san participated in there.

I want photos!

Previous Post on Tedako Festival in 2006

225. MTEC Staffs in Thai atmosphere

Yamol san, one of our current participants from Thailand, brought each of MTEC staffs a nice T-shirt from Thailand.
So now, it is a photo time!

Do you recognize all the faces and names??
Front from left: Fumiyo Kaneshima, Naoko Nakama, and Chiho Yoshida
Back from left: Tomoyasu Maekawa, Hiroshi Uramoto, Tomoaki Tokumura, Kenji Kiyuna, and Shuji Nishimura

Aren't us (?) cute??

Well, I wanted Yamol san to join the photo, but she ran away right after she handed us T-shirts.
Anyway, Thank you very much...Kop Un Kah!

224. Happy Birthday to Thiha!

July 18th is the birthday of Mr. Thiha Htun from Myanmar.
He is a gentle and industrious person, if I describe him with a few words.
We offered him a small party at our studio.


Live long, Thiha san!

223. Video Production with ISD model

08dvp participants have been tackling with Video Production with ISD model. "ISD model" stands for "Instructional Design System". Here shows some shots from the production.
Inside and outside, the lighting is very important, isn't it, Kiyuna san?
Always keep in mind to check the list... as Judi does.
Before leaving for shooting.
How we wish this would be an excursion, not shooting.... :D
Happy to go out, Chiho?
Ooops, Maekasa san was left behind!
Don't forget editing.
And audio recording.

222. Congratulations on Solomon Islanders!

July 7th is the Independence Day of Solomon Islands.

At the moment in MTEC, we have Mr. Kafa Peter (left) and Mr. BUKA Benjamin Junior (Right).
At the dining hall, a Solomon cisine is served.
And at the entrance of the hall, some information about Solomon Islands is given.
Congratulations!!

221. Blooger in Thailand

This is Mr. Tawatchai Hanjirakajon from Thailand. He was in MTEC in early 2003, the course "Multimedia Production For Education (B) 2002".
He recently left his comment in MTEC blog, then I got to know that he also has his own blog.
Upon his permission, I am happily announce his blog here!




To link, please click on his name! Mr. Tawatchai Hanjirakajon
He has been writing his blob mainly in Thai (this is one of the advantages of Blogger), but he wrote me he would add English as well for us!

220. Media campaign

"Media campaign" is one of MTEC's new subjects from this fiscal year.
MTEC has invited Ms. Aya Nakazato, an expert in IEC project. Starting her career in the Philippines, she so far has been to Lao PDR, Tanzania, etc.

After the introduction of media campaign that she was involved in Lao PDR, an exercise of campaign was given. It was about "the promotion of banana consumption in OIC".
The participants were divided into four groups. Each result (planning) was presented and evaluated, and the bananas as the prize went to the group by Judi, Junior, and Noo.
Here is a Youtube file found during the exercise. Thanks!

219. Rainy season is now over!

The rainy season of this year is over, as announced today.
Look at the view from MTEC staff room!


And do you remember this view from MMLab?

218. Gender balance in staffs??

Can you believe that MTEC has perfect gender balance now?
12 participants and 10 staffs - both of them!

There are 10 staffs in MTEC now- 6 instructors, 1 special lecturer, 1 training coordinator, and 1 assistant. Just half of them are women.
First time in MTEC history over 20 years, it is the first time to have this balance?

I feel NO inconvenience in terms of gender, though, it is wonderful to see this.
To comemorate this, we had "female staffs lunch".....whatever the reason could be.

217. Lecturing out

Not only in MTEC, but in other training courses...MTEC instructors' coverage is wide.
This week, Nishimura san and I had classes in other training courses.


I (nana) had another session on Presentation Skills on June 9 (afternoon) for "Conservation and Sutainable Management of Mangrove Ecosystems" and "Management and Conservation of Coral Reef Ecosystem in Asia Pacific Region" Courses.


Then, Nishimura san started another session on Basic Photography today, for Coral Reefs Course.


Shooting exercise

Fun to be out of classroom, isn't it? :)


Here is a previous post on the similar topic.
13. MTEC instructor lecturing to JICA Fiji by Uramoto san
134. Dobroe Utro! MTEC lecture in Russian? by nana

216. Welcome to MTEC, again!

This week, a new instructor and a special lecturer joined MTEC. Maekawa san (right) introduced them to the participants.
The left is Ms. Aya Nakazato, the special lecturer in "Media Campaign". With her abundant experience abroad such as the Philippines, Lao PDR and Tanzania, Aya san is expected to deliver a participatory workshop for us.
The middle is Ms. Chiho Yoshida, the instructor in MTEC. She just returned from Burkina Faso after two-year volunteer. Prior to Burkina Faso, she was a short-term intern in MTEC in 2005. Some of you might remember her. Click here if you want to see the previous post about her.


In this fiscal year of Japan, MTEC will launch a new project.
MTEC has had meetings on this these days... and also party! Do you remember the person in the center? Our favorite giant in Kumamoto University now.
(We will anounce about the new project sooner...)

215. What are you performing?

The photo was taken on May 20 during the lecture of "Introduction of Visual Media".
The instructor is, of course, Uramoto san.
His lecture is with full of performance, requiring your participation... yes, very fun to attend!

214. Presentation Skills

As one of the subjects on human skills, "Presentation Skills" was conducted. Of course, this subject required the presentation by MTEC participants.

Gofrey (Botswana)
Exercises
Thiha (Myanmar)
Table Tennis
Junior (Samoa)
Rugby Union
Judi (El Salvador)
Football
In her presentation, two pairs of participants were requested to play Japanese old traditional football "Kemari".
Yamol (Thailand)
Pad Thai (Thai fried noodles)
Beni (Solomon Islands)
Traditional cuisine in Solomon Islands
Rono (Kenya)
Carrots
Pete (Solomon Islands)
Digital Photography
Namgay (Bhutan)
Bhutanese Butter Tea
Tshering (Bhutan)
Tshering Tea (Bhutanese Relaxing Herb Tea)
Caro (Panama)
Ruld of Thirds
Noo (Thailand)
Tom Yum Kung (Thai's shrimp soup)

213. Discussion in MTEC

Discussion is one of the important approach in MTEC training. The participants in MTEC are supposed to have many discussion in several different groups during the training.
The photos below were taken in the session of "Comunication Skills".

From left:
Rono(Kenya), Pete(Solomon Is.), and Tshering(Bhutan)
From left:
Thiha(Myanmar), Beni(Solomon Is.), Uramoto(?), and Namgay(Bhutan)
From left:
Judy(El Salvador), Junior(Samoa), and Noo(Thailand)
From left:
Yamol(Thailand), Caro(Panama), Kiire san(course coordinator - Japan), and Godfrey(Botswana)

212. Meeting with Junior High School Students

We have many visitors in our institute.
Those visitors are guided to have a tour.
Sometimes they are invited to the class to make a brief exchange with our participants. Basically, MTEC welcomes the visitors in our classes.

Yesterday (May 29), the students of Yamada Junior High School visited here.
Uramoto san invited them into the MM Lab, so that they could have a chance to meet MTEC participants.

First, the students made self introduction in English, followed by MTEC participants.