The accomplishments made by the Association of Digital Textbook and Teaching (DiTT)

The following is a summary of the accomplishments made by the Association of Digital Textbook and Teaching (DiTT). It is split into two sections:  accomplishments made in the first 2 years, and accomplishments made afterwards.

1. Campaigns and accomplishments made in the first 2 years

Due to the successive lobbying of our vision and proposals, the government took a clear stance on the promotion of the digitization of education and worked out a policy for it.

1) Action plan and vision

Immediately after our establishment in 2010, we unveiled our action plan and vision.

“1) Giving students the opportunity to have the world’s knowledge at their fingertips no matter where they live, 2) A top-quality environment for students to foster creativity, expressiveness, and communication, 3) The immediate implementation of the means to connect students with their friends, teachers, and family.”

http://ditt.jp/action/policy/vision.html

2) 2012 Proposal

In April 2012, we issued the “2012 DiTT Policy Proposal”. Our three proposals were the institutional reform for the realization of the standardization of digital textbooks, financial measures for the spread of digital textbooks, and the formulation/execution of a comprehensive plan for the digitization of education.

http://ditt.jp/action/policy/aim.html

3) Digital textbook law

We established a WG for the consideration of this law, and announced its outline. Among other things, it incorporated revisions for the School Education Law, the Temporary Measures Act for the Publishing of Textbooks, and the Copyright Act.

4) Statement for the promotion of the digitization of education

We announced a statement calling for institutional reform, budget allocation, and plan formulation. The statement was endorsed by academic circles, experts, representatives of the private sector, as well as the heads of 50 municipalities.

http://mirainomanabi.net/2012/index.html

Accomplishment 1: Influence on 2010 government policies

In response to our initial movements, the government made clear its policy position to both the IT Headquarters and the Intellectual Property Headquarters.

(i) A new IT Strategy 2010.5.11

“The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology will decide on a basic policy for the digitization of education, promoting the enrichment of education content such as digital textbooks and teaching material (paraphrased).”

(ii) 2010 Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2010.5.21

“Digitizing education content (interim): Promoting the enrichment of education content such as digital textbooks and teaching material. Lead departments: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.”

Accomplishment 2: Clarification of the 2012 Intellectual Strategic Program policies

Our successive lobbying reflected into the government’s policymaking, and on May 29, 2012 at a meeting at the Intellectual Property Headquarters, the institutional policy for digital textbooks was decided on as a “Intellectual Strategic Program.”

2. Other activities and accomplishments

1) Public awareness activity: symposium

Since our establishment, we have held approximately 20 symposiums.

2) Collaboration with municipalities

Started a mailing list with the 70 municipality supporters of our education digitization statement for information exchange.

Made the mapping of 180 municipalities who use ICT available on the internet.

3) Collaboration with leading teachers

Shared examples of the implementation of digitization by teachers from schools who have taken an advanced stance towards it.

4) 2013 proposal

In June 2013, we issued the following 8 proposals.

1. The establishment of a task force for the digitization of education, 2. The formulation of the “Digital Textbook Law,” 3. Moving forward the project for the digitization of education, 4. The standardization of a digital education system, 5. Placing promotion areas around the country, 6. Support for super digital teaching staff, 7. The expansion of digital creativity education, 8. Allocating budget for the digitization of education.”

5) 2014 statement for the digitization of education

In December 2014, we issued a new statement with proposals. It was endorsed by over 110 people, including 40 municipality heads, members of the Diet, and experts.

6) Enacting a law for the promotion of the digitization of education

In June 2015, we issued a proposal calling for the enactment of a law for the promotion of the digitization of education.

Accomplishment 1: Formulation of a National Diet caucus

In February 2015, we formed the “Diet Caucus for the Promotion of the Use and Application of ICT in Education.” Ichiya Nakamura participates as an advisor, and DiTT serves as the executive office.

Accomplishment 2: An investigative committee for the positioning of “digital textbooks.”

In May 2015, the “Investigative Committee for the Positioning of Digital Textbooks” was established in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. DiTT expressed its opinions and also held a symposium, inviting committee members to discuss the issues. The government’s report expressed the same position as DiTT.

Accomplishment 3: The practical use of radio use fees

As the financial foundation for the promotion of the digitization of education, DiTT proposed to raise funds by using the 80 billion JPY earned annually from radio use fees. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications implemented this solution.

Accomplishment 4: Formulation of a private member’s bill

DITT’s proposal for the “enactment of a law for the promotion of the digitization of education” was taken into consideration by the bipartisan Diet caucus, and in October 2016, the caucus moved for the law’s enactment.

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The Association of Digital Textbook and Teaching (DiTT) has powered up

The Digital Textbook and Teaching Association (DiTT), of which I am the managing director of, was established in 2010 as a promotional organization in response to the stagnation of Japan’s digitization of education and its contentedness with being an undeveloped country. At the time, the government was not very concerned with these issues.

http://ditt.jp/

However, the former University of Tokyo president Hiroshi Komiyama became our chairman, and we took over the administration and established a private volunteer company, conducting our activities with the support of former Kyoto University president Makoto Nagao and former Keio University president Yuichiro Anzai. The company would later set about in earnest in regards to the business dealings of this field. We teamed up with the heads of municipalities that had taken an advanced stance towards this issue, and also formed a bipartisan National Diet caucus.

From the mention of digital textbooks in the Intellectual Property Strategic Program, the mention of the promotion of the digitization of education by the IT headquarters and other organizations, the government decision to provide one PC per student by 2020, the standardization of digital textbooks, the application of the radio use fee, and the new requirement for programming education in schools, we can see that DiTT’s proposals have become reality.

And now, our bipartisan caucus has formulated a bill on the promotion of the digitization of education. Members of DiTT are participating from the private side. There have already been results in the Diet, government, municipalities, schools, and the industrial world.

However, Japan remains an underdeveloped country. It is no exaggeration that in this field, we are at the lowest level of all OECD member countries. Now that we have finally begun to tackle the issue, we must bring ourselves up to a higher level immediately. While the Diet and government work from their end, the private sector must also do its part.

This is why we at DiTT have decided to fall back on our original ideal, intensify its function, and boost its propulsion. Our first goal is to team up with the government, municipalities, and schools to allow for the further promotion of our research and proposals.

We are also developing the following new features:

1) Promoting programming education

DiTT will team up with NPO “CANVAS,” which has created a platform for programming education of which we will work as the core.

Reference: CANVAS’ Computer Science for ALL Project

                     http://csforall.jp/

2) Developing a scheme for the copyright processing of teaching materials

We require a private scheme for the smooth processing of digital textbook/teaching material copyrights. We will develop a framework to regulate the relationship between the textbook/teaching material industries, copyright holders, and users.

3) Improving internet use literacy education for young people

In order to advance the digitization of education, we must enhance safety countermeasures for the internet use of young people. We will team up with the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the National Police Agency, and concerned bodies/industries, who are all working towards solving this issue, and work out countermeasures together.

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Making safety measures for the internet

The creation of a task force dedicated to the creation of a safe and secure internet for young people is currently being debated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. I am a chirman.

9 years have passed since the formation of the industry-academic-government platform “Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association” as a measure for protecting young people on the internet.
During this period of outcry, Prime Minister Fukuda stated that, “Cellphones do a lot of harm and no good for young people.” Our group responded with a counter movement, stating that, “Cell phones do a lot of good and only some harm.”

This was followed by a brief period of calm, only for the internet environment of young people to face a sudden and complete change. Cellphones were replaced with smartphones, content was replaced with social media, and the website were replaced with apps. Soon after, new problems emerged.

Meanwhile, the government changed its stance from anti-technology to pro-technology by laying down plans to enable children to study on tablets by 2020. Our group was part of the movement that pushed for this. Yet, this came with its own set of problems.

There was a briefing from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications at the beginning of the task force debate.

- 94% of high school students and 46% of middle school students own smartphones.

- There is an upward trend of crime resulting from community sites.

- Parental controls are used on 65% of cellphones and 45% of smartphones.

- Many parents believe that they can control their child’s activity on the internet even without the use of parental controls.

The task force’s agenda is:

1) Literacy education

2) Parental control countermeasures

3) Framework implementation

The plan was to perform a total inspection of past internet safety measures and use the results to plan out specific actions.

Committee members offered many views regarding these issues.

1) Some of the views brought up concerning literacy include that education is the most important countermeasure against literacy, that the problem lies with parents and not the children, and that problems will be faced when responding to those with low awareness. There were also strong opinions inquiring about responsiveness in the classroom.

2) For parental controls, many brought up the complexity of setting up the filters and called for reform to make them easier to understand. Sales agents reported that, “It takes an entire 15 minutes just to explain how parental controls work to a customer, making for a total of 2 hours.” It makes perfect sense that some customers would rather not set them up than sit through the explanation.

However, the reform of smartphone parental controls would require the cooperation of OS businesses (e.g., Apple, Google).  It is unlikely that they would respond to the requests of a single country. This is the current problem that we face.

3) Provided that countermeasures for literacy and parental controls are rolled out, we are left with the difficult question of what framework the organization will move forward with. There is actually a very high number of stakeholders involved in the protection of young people on the internet.

Third-party organizations such as the Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association. Providers such as communication carriers, manufacturers, sales agents, social media, and OS businesses. Users such as parents and schools. The government, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Consumer Affairs Agency, and the National Police Agency. Finally, all of the municipalities. They are all stakeholders.

The countermeasure can be considered both intangible/tangible and while this is a global issue, it is a cost sector that will not produce profit on its own. Though related to business, its public interest is high. Now, how do we redesign it? Please lend us your knowledge and expertise. Thank you.

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