Abstract
This chapter reviews the policies and public works projects for using Information and communication technology (ICT) in primary and secondary education and discusses how ICT can address challenges facing education in Japan. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has been working on ICT in education for a decade in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Since ICT is expected to enhance the effectiveness of education, it has been used in many developed countries such as Finland, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea. Each of them has developed a new education system that augments students’ capabilities. Japan is catching up with these countries in taking advantage of ICT based on its well-developed network infrastructure.
The author would like to thank Masako Ando, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, for her assistance in writing Sects. 3.5 and 4. The rest of the chapter is based on translation with permission of the author’s article in Japanese published in Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, No. 32 (2018).
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Notes
- 1.
The name “Dream school” is derived from “Dream School Project,” an education ICT project using the cloud in Finland.
- 2.
EduCloud in Finland consists of infrastructure services that provide authentication, security, and data storage functions, management services that provide settlement and license management, and customer services that provide distribution of teaching materials. The major characteristic of the promotion system of the EduCloud project is that responsibilities are assigned, and cloud development and operation are conducted by the government and people with the roles and responsibilities clearly divided. The EduCloud project is promoted by the government and a private consortium who pay the cost; however, at the start, the country took the leading role. To operate EduCloud continuously and independently, Finland is gradually reducing its involvement and will migrate to project operation mainly by a private consortium called EduCloud Alliance (Mitomo 2015).
- 3.
“Promotion of education digitization,” Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ Web site http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/joho_tsusin/kyouiku_joho-ka/index.html
- 4.
In the guideline published in April 2017, “Guideline for special support school teaching” (MEXT 2017b), to nurture information utilization ability, “In each school, the necessary environment shall be developed to utilize information measures such as computers and information communication networks, and enhance the learning activities through adequate use thereof. Also, adequate use of teaching materials and education tools such as various statistical materials, newspapers, audiovisual materials, and education equipment shall be provided” (Chapter 1, Section 4-1(3), page 14). Also, depending on the types of disabilities, it states “Information equipment such as computers shall be utilized effectively and to increase the effect of guidance” (Chapter 2, Section 1-1-2 (6), page 24 and others), and thus, more precise use of ICT is sought.
- 5.
Kasavuori Junior High School in Finland, which the author visited in February 2015 for the survey of MIC, uses BYOD.
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(The existence of all Web sites listed above was confirmed as of November 23, 2017.)
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Mitomo, H. (2020). Utilization of ICT in Elementary and Secondary Education in Japan: Its Policies and Effects. In: Mitomo, H. (eds) Telecommunications Policies of Japan. Advances in Information and Communication Research, vol 1. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1033-5_13
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