2014年4月29日火曜日

Let’s digitalize schools

  In 2009, OECD “Learning speed research” PISA was conducted.  In mathematical literacy, Japan came in 9th and 5th in scientific literacy.  In 2000, Japan ranked 1st and 2nd respectively.  Needless to say, it’s a major drop in learning speed.  Although these figures are increasing now, education in Japan hasn’t got the spark it had in the past.
 The ratio of public education funds to GDP in Japan is the lowest in OECD nations.  We are not blessed in terms of available computers and other digital equipment for education.  Number of students who refuse to go to school are increasing and from an international perspective, motivation towards education is relatively low.
 This is where computerization comes in play.  Today, it’s becoming common knowledge that computerization effectively contributes to the increase of learning power and motivation.  But Japan was too slow.  “A PC for every student” has become a standard in Europe and America.  Today, countries like Korea and Singapore are following this trend.  The Japanese government plans to reach this goal by 2020, a pretty late start.
 “$100 laptop”.  MIT MediaLab started a project that aims to provide one laptop per child and connect them to the Internet all across the world.  They have reached 1,300,000 children in 35 countries.  In Uruguay, they have already accomplished their goal in 2009, providing one laptop per child.  This idea originally came from a team formed by Dr. Kazuhiko Nishi and I in 2001 when we presented it to MIT.  Japan, who came up with the idea itself, is falling far behind.

 But we can’t expect much from the government.  So in 2010, my group established a private association, “Digital Textbook and Teaching” (DiTT).  By 2015, 5 years before the government’s goal, we want to make it so that “Every child has a digital device and is able to use a digital textbook”.  Over 100 firms are involved, and I am head of management.
 DiTT promotes development and diffusion of digital devices, establishing broadband and cloud environment in schools, and development of digital teaching materials.  We are doing case studies in many schools already and in some places we work together with local governments.  To the National Diet and the government, we are demanding funds and legislations.
 There are tons of obstacles.  Who will pay for it?  Is there enough support at the schools?  How would parents react to this change of teaching environment?  We will tackle all of these problems.
 We want to digitalize school environments and make it an exciting place.  I want to make Japan the home of the best digital environment for education in the world.

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