Cloud, a series of online programs hosted by Learning Unlimited, reached out to high school students hoping to learn anything from Intro to Breakdance to Rocket Science. The first, entitled Rainstorm, included over ten thousand high school students across the US learning from over a thousand college students and volunteers. MIT’s Open Learning participated in this first of its kind opportunity, teaching Beginner Japanese (Written and Spoken). Over thirty students joined the class for the online session. The class consisted of learning basic ‘kanji’ characters in Japanese, followed by short but useful conversational practice where students paired off in virtual breakout rooms and talked about how old they were, or where they’re from.
Sarah Davis, MITx Program Manager, led the class. Having spent six years teaching English in Japan, she flipped the lesson for Rainstorm. “Teaching for me has always been a passion and being able to teach to and with such a great online community was really exciting! I’ve missed being in the classroom, and although online learning wasn’t exactly the same, I enjoyed helping students connect with each other and to the material. It was a challenge to make education effective in such a different space but it made me really look at our materials to make sure everything was used as effectively as possible. The geographic diversity was also really cool because as wonderful as the programs on-campus at MIT are, meeting passionate students from everywhere is a special treat,” said Davis.
Co-teacher, Steve Nelson, brought teaching experience from his days as an adjunct professor in Tokyo at Nihon University. “I really had a great experience living and working in Japan, learning the language and sharing the culture. I was happy to share a small glimpse of that to the students attending Rainstorm.”
The program was open to high school students across the US, if you’re interested in signing up for future programs, feel free to reach out to the MIT ESP team and follow future Learning Unlimited notifications.