ICT Use in Japanese Higher Education: R & D, Practice and Collaboration

The use of ICT is being promoted in educational institutions around the world. Japan is a country regarded as a technological giant, but the status of technology-supported teaching and learning in Japanese higher education is not at the same level as that in its Western counterparts. In recent years, however, because of changes taking place in every aspect of society both within Japan and abroad, the government has given high priority to the promotion of e-learning, the use of ICT, and the cooperation of Japanese higher education institutions with foreign counterparts. The various government initiatives and measures have prompted universities in Japan to promote international collaboration by the use of ICT, which has resulted in growing interest in interaction with EU institutions.

In the special focus session, we will provide information on the use of ICT in Japanese higher education and explore opportunities for collaboration with educational institutions in Europe and other parts of the world. Within the given time, we will make presentations, answer questions, and invite participants to discuss the issues with us.

First, Toshio Kobayashi, who is also chairing the session, will present a general overview of current trends in Japanese higher education and describes “AIDE”, a project launched at NIME. To catch up with the current of time outside of Japan and to respond to changes taking place within the country, the government has initiated its “e-Japan” strategy and various measures since 2001, with the result that the promotion of e-learning has become one of the important issues in Japan. Designated as the core institution to promote e-learning and the use of ICT, NIME has continuously played a vital role in supporting government policies for educational reform in Japan. AIDE conducts national surveys on international educational exchange involving the use of ICT in higher education and also investigates the status of e-learning activities in major overseas universities toward the goal of building cross-cultural communication networks and collaboration with Japanese universities. This research supports the international endeavours of Japanese universities and Japanese studies abroad programmes.

Akemi Kawafuchi will introduce the latest activities using Open Educational Resources in Japan, and she will describe two recent initiatives that have promoted their use. One is JOCW, the Japan Open Course Ware Consortium, which provides a wide range of free and open academic courses taught in university classrooms via the Internet. The other is NIME-glad, which is a higher education information portal for the distribution of learning resources. Akemi will discuss effective ways of building an information portal of learning resources to pave the way for international collaboration in higher education.

Kimio Kondo will focus on his international collaborative experiments using an inter-university satellite-based network system that he developed. There have been a number of unique and creative research activities conducted at various universities in Japan and elsewhere, however more collaboration and joint research should be promoted. NIME has conducted a variety of international collaborative experiments using video links with universities in the Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, North America, and Europe. Through these research activities, NIME developed and launched an inter-university collaboration network system by satellite (SCS) for higher education institutions in Japan. SCS facilitates multi-site collaboration needed in a range of disciplines. Interaction with instructors and students at other universities via videoconferencing stimulates students learning and motivation. Kimio Kondo will discuss the effects of the collaboration among universities based upon some domestic and international research activities and case studies conducted at NIME.

Masako Sasaki will introduce and describe her ICT-mediated intercultural oral communication project for Japanese learners of English. In a foreign language- learning environment with few native speakers of English and other peoples and cultures, the ICT-mediated intercultural oral communication project employs a communicative approach to get the learners out of a classroom shell and to use English purposefully and meaningfully through exposure to other cultures. The theoretical background for this project is Community Involvement (CI) learning. The teaching procedures and learning outcomes of the ICT-mediated classes since 1999 will be reviewed and further possibilities of ICT-based contribution to foreign language education discussed.

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

By Toshio Kobayashi, Kimio Kondo and Akemi Kawafuchi and Masako Sasaki

 

The session UNI24 “Focus on Japan” is taking place on Thursday, November 30, from 14:30 - 16:00 hrs.

 

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