Will ICT lead the evolution of education?

Will ICT lead the evolution of education?

Yusuke Magura

Short summary

Today, many ICT tools are used in educational fields such as in schools in Japan. I did my research to consider when each of those ICT tools is being used and whether they are really having positive effects on the educational field.

Which SDGs this relates to, and how

This research relates to SDGs No.4 "Quality education" and No.8 "Decent work and economic growth". The use of ICT tools has helped to improve the efficiency of education and has also helped to significantly reduce the workload of teachers.

Why this research matters to you, to the local community, and to the global community

I think that the evolution of education using ICT is a very important topic for me. I am interested in the education industry because I consider that children are treasures for our society. Thus we have to prepare great educational circumstances for them to improve the quality of children. I also think that rural areas that are depopulated and developing countries that do not have a good educational environment can benefit greatly from the use of ICT because it can reduce the resources needed for education.

RESEARCH REPORT

Introduction

Have you ever heard of "ICT"? ICT is information and communication technologies such as computers and information communication networks. As the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has recently implemented a policy to promote ICT in education called the "GIGA School Concept." It promotes the introduction of ICT in educational circumstances. As a specific example, the Japanese government provides free PCs and tablets to Japanese students. With this policy, many ICT tools have been introduced into educational fields. In this research, I looked at what ICT tools are being installed in educational fields and what impact they are having on them. 　

Main contents　

I researched about some of the following questions.

①What kind of ICT tools are being used?
②What kind of changes has occurred in the educational field due to the introduction of ICT?
③Do you think ICT has had positive or negative effects on students?
④Do you think ICT has had positive or negative effects on teachers?

The results of the research below

①What kind of ICT tools are being used?

• LMS (Learning Management System) (ex. universal passport, Google classroom) →It is used to provide class materials and assignments, and to check students' learning progress.

• Presentation Tool (ex. PowerPoint, Keynote) →It makes it easy to make lessons that are easy to understand.

• Automatic Scoring Tool → It automatically grades tests. This helps teachers who have huge workloads.

• Quiz tool (ex. Google forms) → It is used to conduct simple quizzes.

• Subject-specific tools (ex. math→ simply enter the numerical values and a graph is automatically created.)→ further understanding of each subject area

• LMS (Learning Management System)

• Presentation Tool

• Automatic Scoring Tool

• Quiz tool

• Subject-specific tools

②What kind of changes has occurred in the educational field due to the introduction of ICT?

• The amount of paper used has been reduced.

• Students' understanding of the class has improved. →"The higher the use of digital learning content for ICT education, the better the performance" (ICT学習は本当に成績向上に貢献する？全国の4割以上の高校が導入する「Classi」の学習記録データを分析 | AMP[アンプ] - ビジネスインスピレーションメディア (ampmedia.jp), AMP News, 2018.7.6)

• Sudden school closures due to the spread of infectious diseases and truancy are now easier to deal with.

③Do you think ICT has had positive or negative effects on students?

• positive effect: more motivated, easier to submit assignments →"About 80% of the students positively evaluated the classes throughout the three years, saying that they "enjoyed learning" and "the classes using the computer were easy to understand. The students also rated the classes positively throughout the three-year period." (学びのイノベーション事業実証研究報告書 (mext.go.jp) , MEXT, 2014.4.11)

• negative effect: do something that doesn't matter, may be involved in crimes, may reduce the enforcement of the study.

④Do you think ICT has had positive or negative effects on teachers?

• positive effect: reduction of workload, easier communication with parents

• negative effect: difficult to set up, can't use ICT well

Who

Teachers work in Japan.

Your fieldwork

I asked people working in education (a teacher who used to teach me and works in Ishikawa) about the effects and impact of ICT.

What

I asked about some of the following questions.

• What kind of ICT tools are being used?

• What kind of changes has occurred in the educational field due to the introduction of ICT?

• Do you think ICT has had a positive effect on students?

• Do you think the introduction of ICT has positively affected the teachers?

When

⌨️

Where

On the internet

How

I used Zoom which is a web conferencing system and use of the internet.

Why

It was difficult to see many teachers directly. Moreover, it was easy to get some information using the internet.

Problems

do something that doesn't matter, may be involved in crimes, difficult to set up

Actions

Many students in Japan now have one computer per person because of the government policy.

Other people/groups working on this problem

⌨️

Local community connections

Rural areas that are developing countries that do not have a good educational environment can benefit greatly from the use of ICT because it can reduce the resources needed for education. → There has some examples. (学校のICT環境整備推進の手引き⑩ (mext.go.jp), MEXT, 2020.4.14) , (ICT地域活性化事例100選｜ICT地域活性化ポータル｜総務省 (soumu.go.jp), MIC)

Global community connections

• Developing countries that do not have a good educational environment can benefit greatly from the use of ICT.

• Easier to see information from around the world.

Anything else

⌨️

Conclusion

While ICT is making a significant contribution to education, it also poses many problems. I think that it will take more time to fully achieve ICT in education. To speed things up, there is a need to eliminate disparities between regions and clarify the vision of using ICT.

References

GIGAスクール構想について：文部科学省 (mext.go.jp)

教育の情報化に関する手引：http://www2.japet.or.jp/info/mext/tebiki2010.pdf

ICT学習は本当に成績向上に貢献する？全国の4割以上の高校が導入する「Classi」の学習記録データを分析 | AMP[アンプ] - ビジネスインスピレーションメディア (ampmedia.jp)

学びのイノベーション事業実証研究報告書 (mext.go.jp)

ICT地域活性化事例100選｜ICT地域活性化ポータル｜総務省 (soumu.go.jp)

学校のICT環境整備推進の手引き⑩ (mext.go.jp)

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