IT Educational Policies in Japan

• Values given to education and IT

According to Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, due to progress in the information technology revolution, a wide range of activities, from daily life to economic activities, are being influenced by the movement to a knowledge-based society driven by the forces of knowledge and information. Thus, there is a strong demand for the abilities to obtain and understand knowledge and information as well as the abilities to transmit information and to engage in communication. The Science and Technology Basic plan is drawn up based on the Science and Technology Basic Law every five year in Japan. There are two steps to draw up the basic plan. First, Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP) deliberates the basic policy about science and technology. Second, based on that, the government formulates and decides a basic plan. A full account of the 3rd Science and Technology Basic Plan (FY2006-FY2010) can be found in the following link:

Full Text (Provisional translation) (PDF) (English Translation was revised on September,2006)

• Role of teachers

Teachers are considered to be playing a major role in promoting the relevant IT educational policies in Japan. They believe cultivating "Japanese with English Abilities" is an extremely important issue for the future of their children and for the further development of their country. However, they also state that this issue will only be resolved when the relevant parties related to English education (such as relevant personnel in national, public, and private elementary, junior high, senior high schools, and universities as well as relevant personnel in local municipal bodies) seek to realize this goal by making improvements to the system from their respective positions. A detailed description is given in the following link:

Improving the teaching ability of English teachers and upgrading the teaching system

• Roles of students

Students are the real field players in the 21st century. Policies have made explicit requirements for English language abilities required for all Japanese people. With the progress of globalization, it is important, while focusing on speaking and listening communication abilities in the initial learning stages, to acquire comprehensive communication abilities in "istening," "speaking," "reading," and "writing," from the perspective of "English as a means for communication," in order to foster "Japanese with English Abilities." Through instruction, basic and practical communication abilities will be acquired so that the entire public can conduct daily conversation and exchange information in English. At the same time, personnel who need English for their work, such as for professional or research reasons, will acquire the English necessary for their fields by building on their basic English abilities. It is important for all Japanese people to aim at achieving a level of English commensurate with average world standards based on objective indicators such as STEP, TOEFL, and TOEIC.

Japan's Education at a Glance 2005

• Roles of language and language learning

English has played a central role as the common international language in linking people who have different mother tongues. For children living in the 21st century, it is essential for them to acquire communication abilities in English as a common international language. In addition, English abilities are important in terms of linking Japan with the rest of the world, obtaining the world’s understanding and trust, enhancing its international presence and further developing Japan. The following links are government documents concerning education reform plan in PDF forms:

The Education Reform Plan for the 21st Century---The Rainbow Plan---

White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2005

• Sources of information:

http://web-japan.org/links/government/ministries/ministry4.html
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/
http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-astrategy/04_link.html

Listen to this article

The Road Ahead

In Bill Gate's Information Highway", this man of vision successfully laid out the blueprint for today's four areas of education-related multimedia experiences – networks, classroom environment, digital white boards and multimedia. As a College English teacher in China, I reflect on my own classroom teaching experiences and find many similarities with as well as differences from Gate's prophecy.

First and foremost, the application of multimedia in common language classroom is growing wider than ever in my university. The traditional chalk-and-blackboard classrooms have been completely taken over by multimedia classrooms, which at least consist of a tape recorder, a computer and a projector. Hardcopy books are no longer the only course materials in the classrooms. Power-point slides, audio and video clips from the internet, CDs and DVDs are empowering language teachers with a wide variety of channels to present their lectures. Even students are quickly adapting to the new technology tool. They are able to create presentations with multimedia content in the individual or group projects.

Besides, networks are facilitating and promoting classroom teaching with more means of outside classroom communication between teachers and students. With the help of email and messenger service (Windows Live Messenger, for example), teacher's personal space, FTP, virtual alumni community, communication becomes more efficient and therefore, more frequent. Information sharing has become easier and faster than ever. Teachers are able to scaffold students in many ways that had never been dreamed of before.

However, the digital white board mentioned by Gates is still unavailable in my university. Due to the absence of the interactive whiteboard, my colleagues and I have to cope with the dilemma of combining the use of blackboard and projector at the same time. But the problem is once the PPT is done, we are not able to do any in-class changes according to the reactions of students. It is difficult for us to highlight any particular parts of our slides. So we are really looking forward to the "chalk-less" classroom, where the advantages of blackboard are incorporated into the interactive whiteboard as well.

And the large number of college students in every Chinese university is also posing a serious problem to language teachers in incorporating IT into their classroom. In NIE for example, the E-learning week is possible for every student enjoys the free access to computers and internet. But it is not so in China. Even the best Chinese university cannot guarantee every student has the free access to internet any time they want. If this problem cannot be solved, only those few who are rich enough to afford to have access to these sources are the real beneficiaries.

In sum, it is true that language teachers in my university are benefiting from the latest development of IT, but problems and challenges still exist. The Road Ahead is a promising one but a long one, too.

Listen to this article