Digital Education
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EDITORIAL: Digital education
2010/08/19
Here's what an elementary school classroom scene may look like in the 2020s: Every time the teacher touches the electronic blackboard, the monitor displays a different image of a video with sound. No bulky textbooks sit on the pupils' desks. Each child uses a tablet computer resembling Apple Inc.'s iPad, or perhaps an even thinner device.
A wireless LAN is installed throughout the school allows children to go online to get the information they need, writing with a touch screen stylus pen. The teacher may pick one student's work and display it on the electronic blackboard for the whole class to see.
Information and communication technology is about to revolutionize Japanese classrooms.
Currently, at elementary and secondary schools nationwide, there is on average one computer installed for every 6.4 students. The government aims to raise that to one for every student by fiscal 2020. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will both launch separate pilot programs at model schools across the nation.
The development of digital teaching materials and textbooks is proceeding quickly. A council of telecommunications and educational companies was formed late last month. Masayoshi Son, president of Softbank Corp., said, "Communications charges are free. You'll have our full support."
It will be a vast market, and many parties are moving fast to get in on it.
But we must ask ourselves this important question: What changes will going digital in education bring to children?
The city of Hino in western Tokyo was among the first boards of education in the nation to support digital education, installing groupware software in its classrooms. For instance, a digital camera takes pictures of each team of students working on a science experiment, and the pictures are uploaded to computers where other teams of students can view them. This allows the entire class to post comments and share ideas.
Toshiko Igarashi, principal of Hirayama Elementary School in Hino, stresses that digital technology in education will enable children to study together online and help one another. It will also make possible joint classes with kids in faraway schools.
This style of education not only makes it possible for teachers to present lesson content in a way that is easier to follow, but also allows them to record each pupil's progress and fine-tune lessons as needed.
The development of software content and hardware must be accompanied by a clear vision of how this new method of teaching should work.
People of the "paper and pencil" generation may raise concerns that computers could end up doing all the teaching, making human teachers redundant.
But it will never come to that. It will always remain the job of teachers to select the necessary information from oceans of online data, edit it and decide how to impart that knowledge to their pupils.
And it will be the responsibility of teachers to ensure their pupils understand the differences between the virtual world of the Internet and the real world of the five senses. They must teach them how to wisely handle and use all that information.
The Internet can open up an infinite world for youngsters, but they still need real-life, face-to-face interactions with their peers and teachers to foster a zest for living.
In fact, as digital education advances, teachers' responsibilities will also expand. Support should be made available to students studying to become teachers and to teachers in retraining programs.
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- The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 18
