After using Voicethread

Voicethread is a powerful tool of communication. Just like facebook, myspace, mixi, and other
blogs, voicethread is now used by people from all over the world. Over two weeks, I created and participated in the activities through Voicethread.

Through the voicethread project, I created a voicethread and talked about atheism. The topic first seemed a bit too controversial for a blog like voicethread because there can be only a limited amount of information shared through such short conversations. Also, I, at the beginning, was worried about the fact that people might become quite immature and talk about the issue very lightly. However, people who participated in the debate were relatively serious and took an academic approach to the subject.

In fact, I enjoyed the way how people commented on my blog on the basis of what they learend in other classes. Commenting back on the comments people left on my voicethread came to me as a very exciting event because I personally liked to interact with peopl involved in the project, using the knowledge that i gained from outside the computer studies class. Overall, I think the Voicethread project has been such a fruitful and meaningful project. I look forward to use this in my life afterwards as well.

Week 5

There has been the problem Japan has had for a long time. It is Futenma problem in Okinawa. It is the American military base that is in Okinawa, and the base is not far from where the population is concentrated.

Several months ago, the-then-priminister Hatoyama announced that he would do anything that it takes and move the military base to somewhere else. He also announced that the failure to do so will mean his resignation as a priminister of Japan. He promised that the base would be moved by the end of May. However, his words did not come true and the mass media criticized him for him being incompatible as a priminister. As a result, now-the-ex-priminister Hatoyama has declared his resignation. This brought about many significant changes to not only the politics, but to the economy.

There has been a substantial degree of changes in stock market and the exchange rate. According to Voanews.com, which is a website regarding financial times, there have been many fluctuations in stock prices. In fact, Nikkei's stock price was reduced by 1.1 percent. Last week around this time, the exchange rate of Yen to Dollar was 91.79 to 1, to 91. 28 to 1.

I think the change that has been made is favorable because Japan has been suffering from the sluggish economy caused by the high exchange rate. This, I think will definitely promote the advance in trading in the future. However, I am concerned that the unstable market attributed to Hatoyama's resignation might affect negatively to the Japanese economy.