Affinity Radio Online (ARO)

We propose the Affinity Radio Online (ARO), an experimental radio station broadcasting from Nara, Japan. The radio personalities are Nobuyuki Ueda, director of the “NeoMuseum”, which exhibits workshops in a museum with no exhibits, and Daisuke Okabe of Tokyo City University. The goal of The Affinity Radio Online is to experiment with the possibility of forming a network of participants based on the talks and videos of guests and personalities. The Affinity Radio Online will be broadcast three times during Connected Learning Summit 2021(July 1st-31st). In each broadcast, participants will watch a talk between the guest and the personality, or a common video. We will broadcast playful talks with our guests how the concept of “Connected Learning” or “affinity online” is spreading in Japan today. The radio participants are then asked to consider “What is the message from Connected Learning?” After the third broadcast, the personalities of the Affinity Radio Online create a concept video by connecting messages and pictures received from radio participants. Through the Affinity Radio Online experiment, we hope to provide an online networking opportunity for Japanese educators, designers, and researchers to connect with the global Affinity Network of Connected Learning. During the month of July 2021, we will develop a mechanism that will provide an opportunity for “connecting the dots”, connecting participants who are interested in connected learning in the Asia Pacific region.