I'm Rab Paterson and I'm originally from Glasgow, Scotland and now based in Japan, living the Slow Life in the foothills of the Japan Alps in a hand cut, fully eco friendly loghouse. As a counter balance to that traditional way of living I try to be modern and up to date in my classroom style. I teach Academic Writing, Critical Thinking, Digital Literacy, and Presentations classes at universities in Tokyo (ICU, Todai, Dokkyo and JCSW) and employ a range of creative Web 2.0 / I.T. / Personal Learning Environment (P.L.E.) tools in my teaching. Also I give seminars and workshops on these topics and tools to other teachers, staff and students at the universities where I work. For their research efficiency I really like cloud based solutions to modern digital research problems and actively promote Zotero and other such tools and have given presentations / workshops on these on campus, at other universities and at the Apple Store in Ginza. I also utilise Google Apps for easy peer review and collaborative writing and presenting by students. Furthermore I encourage students to develop their own P.L.E. toolbox and have online portfolios of their work and have an appropriate web presence to display their work. My experiences, and the extensive research literature conducted by others, has lead me to firmly believe that proper use of such digital research tools in a Constructivist pedagogical way improves students' academic output, performance, and leads to better overall academic work and happier students. So I actively practice what I preach in terms of making my classroom a digital one. You can find some of my ideas and experiences on my main site www.technology-n-teaching.com/icu and I hope you find it useful in bringing your students into the digital age!
