[Feature: The Future of Digital Education] Tsugumasa Suzuki: Digital Education at Keio Yochisha Elementary School—Practicing Online Learning Using Tablet Terminals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021/11/05

With the progress of digitalization and the development of AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology, we are entering the Society 5.0 era. However, even as society and the times change, I want the children studying at Keio Yochisha Elementary School (hereinafter "Yochisha") to pursue their learning as future leaders who possess both firm convictions and self-confidence along with flexibility, and as people of true independence and self-respect. Therefore, since September 2018, the Yochisha has been proceeding with the trial and gradual introduction and operation of digital technology and digital devices. By utilizing digital technology as a new mechanism for learning, we add one new channel that connects the school, children, and homes.

One way digital technology is utilized is by introducing tablet terminals into classes as a new form of stationery, with one device per student. Of course, the fundamental basics such as "speaking, listening, reading, and writing" remain important, and there is no change in the actual manual work, such as proceeding with content according to textbooks, looking things up in dictionaries as supplementary materials, and students summarizing by hand. It simply means that opportunities and situations to use tablet terminals as new stationery during class and home study will increase. For example, we have trialed their use as stationery (learning tools) in specialized subjects such as science, English, and informatics; as research and presentation tools in subjects handled by class teachers like Japanese, mathematics, and social studies; in collaborative learning situations with classmates; and for submitting assignments and receiving feedback.

In science, we use apps that provide a bird's-eye view of the Earth to observe the differences between the upper, middle, and lower reaches of rivers, and we also use them in research classes using AI robots. Furthermore, students use tablet terminals alongside illustrated reference books to look up the names of seashells and use them to take photos as records during experiments and field observations.

In English, students record audio and video of their own speeches and check their pronunciation as a form of self-reflection. We also practice sharing videos of self-introductions and school tours via tablet terminals with students at an exchange school in Hawaii. Exchanges through video-sharing apps are valuable opportunities filled with a sense of liveness, allowing students to feel a real connection with the world.

In informatics classes, students learn basic operation methods for tablet terminals while using them to take photos and videos to create short films, or programming to control robots and drones. With the introduction of one tablet per person, the importance of learning rules and manners regarding their use has increased.

In subjects handled by class teachers such as Japanese, mathematics, and social studies, there are many instances where tablet terminals are used effectively during group learning, research, and actual presentations. Furthermore, with the introduction and utilization of digital textbooks and digital teaching materials for both instructors and learners, as well as cloud-based class and learning support apps, a new style of learning (classes utilizing digital technology) is being practiced where school lessons and home study are seamlessly connected.

The second way digital technology is utilized at the Yochisha is the construction and use of a dedicated website (portal site). Aiming to realize what is known as BYAD (Bring Your Assigned Device), students can take their tablet terminals home and access the portal site to check the school schedule, lunch menus, book availability in the library, and past problems from kanji reading competitions. Additionally, this portal site, along with a system that sends emails when students arrive at or leave school, features a notification function and can be used as a platform for information distribution, such as simultaneous notifications to all students and parents or announcements for specific grades or classes.

In this way, since 2018, the Yochisha has been proceeding with gradual trials in classes by introducing tablet terminals to all students as new stationery. The background for this introduction was the belief that it is important to have a mindset of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning," where we do not simply feel satisfied or secure with traditional classes using fixed-content textbooks in a closed classroom space isolated from society, but rather introduce digital devices used naturally in daily life to utilize them as stationery in class, requiring teachers to continue learning as well.

Leading up to this, there were various discussions among the faculty. Introducing tablet terminals does not mean that a dream education can be achieved. Disadvantages from the introduction were also anticipated. For example, concerns that students might rely on tablets and talk less, use tablets during playtime instead of playing outside, or whether manners and rules during the commute to and from school would be maintained. There is no doubt that the introduction of tablet terminals must be based on the idea that they should not hinder the important teaching of the Yochisha to "first develop a robust body, then cultivate the mind," but rather be healthy and strong, with digital devices serving as an aid in nurturing Yochisha students.

In that sense, the introduction of tablet terminals initially started as a trial for use only within the school, managed in charging cabinets installed in each student's homeroom. We established a centralized management system for the terminals using MDM (Mobile Device Management) and accumulated experience in their use while carefully confirming handling, rules, and manners. After observing their utilization in classes and completing sufficient trials with security preparations in place, we began full-scale operation and utilization in April 2019, including BYAD, where students take the terminals home.

One characteristic of the Yochisha's educational system is that the class teacher stays with the same class for all six years, and there are no class reshuffles. In the third-grade class I currently teach (36 students), one tablet per person was introduced in the 2019 academic year when the students entered as first graders. By utilizing tablet terminals as familiar stationery from the lower grades, the goal is for the children themselves to skillfully utilize various digital devices as a new form of stationery in various learning situations throughout their six years of elementary school life.

Once the introduction of tablet terminals to all students began, the number of classes utilizing them increased considerably. The scope of use expanded from just the computer lab to their own classrooms and specialized subject rooms, and cases of taking them home for assignments rather than just for school lessons also increased. In the process of this utilization becoming routine, a sudden temporary school closure was decided on March 2, 2020, following the spread of COVID-19. The situation did not subside as the new school term began, and when the government issued a state of emergency, the Yochisha immediately started online learning. In the second-grade class I was teaching at the time, students made full use of their tablet terminals to start receiving and submitting assignments via cloud-based class and learning support apps, and began online learning using web conferencing tools.

Although the students I taught were only in the second grade, they had already practiced using cloud-based class and learning support apps in various classes such as informatics. Therefore, based on the premise that they could perform basic operations like taking and submitting photos and videos, I set assignments centered on Japanese and mathematics. While maintaining close coordination with other second-grade teachers, we used the notification function channel on the school portal site to reliably communicate grade-wide assignments to parents and students, and assignments were submitted using the cloud-based class and learning support app installed on the students' tablet terminals.

◎ Frequency of Assignment Distribution and Submission

Every Wednesday, we distributed assignments (learning content and scope) for the following day onwards to each household. One notification sent from the portal site included five days' worth of assignments, excluding weekends. Believing it was important for students to sit at their desks and work on assignments daily, I provided learning points and wrote the text in a way that noted the date and the learning content to be tackled that day, so they could proceed systematically according to a daily schedule.

I told the students to submit their assignments daily around 4:00 PM using the cloud-based class and learning support app installed on their tablet terminals. They would perform their learning tasks in notebooks or textbooks, take photos of them with the camera, and submit the images to the designated submission box in the app. From the distribution of the "Second Grade Week 1 Assignments" on April 8, 2020, until the resumption of school attendance on June 15, 2020, a total of 10 assignment distributions were made.

◎ Regarding the Content of Assignments

When setting assignments for Japanese and mathematics, which are handled by the class teacher, the common policies were as follows:

・Proceed basically according to the content of the textbooks.

・Assignments and content that students can proceed with on their own using previously learned knowledge (e.g., reading comprehension of stories/expository texts or textbook tasks for Japanese; comparing lengths or creating graphs for mathematics).

・Do not include activities that require teacher explanation or group discussion (e.g., Japanese grammar, carrying/borrowing in mathematical calculations).

・Proceed with new kanji two characters at a time.

・In addition to kanji, include calculation problems in the weekly assignments, and include dictation to verify kanji knowledge.

・To foster connections with friends and ensure mental and physical stability, videos were made into assignments and shared so that everyone could see them.

Based on the above policies, we distributed assignments every week after carefully examining the content. During the school closure period, teachers regularly held meetings almost every week using web conferencing tools to discuss assignment content. By establishing a system where we could contact each other immediately if necessary, the coordination between teachers in charge of the grade functioned well.

While we distributed assignments so that learning could take place at home during the closure, I also wanted to provide real-time online learning support for the students. Therefore, I decided to use web conferencing tools to conduct the usual morning meetings and homeroom time online.

After using MDM to install the web conferencing tool on the students' tablet terminals, we held the first web conference (homeroom) on April 10, 2020. Subsequently, a total of 19 web conferences were held until school resumed on June 15. The content of the web conferences included greetings, taking attendance, book introductions, review of distributed assignments, supplementary explanations for current assignments, checking the stroke order of new kanji, and other casual talk, all kept within about 30 minutes.

In an atmosphere similar to a school classroom, the children were able to listen quietly and attentively, and speak up when asked questions, allowing the sessions to proceed smoothly even online. It was to the point where I never once had to instruct the participating students to mute their audio. I also made efforts to change the group compositions each time so that students could interact with different friends and teachers even though they were in different locations.

Additionally, in early May, I set aside days for "Individual Talk Time," creating opportunities for the class teacher and each student to talk one-on-one using the web conferencing tool. As nearly two months had passed since the school closure began and days of staying home continued, I kept the topics open—such as things they were happy about, things they were struggling with, or questions about assignments—to understand how the children were doing. By listening to the children individually, I hoped to provide mental health care and create a time and opportunity for them to feel even a little more at ease. It became a time to enjoy individual online conversations with students (and parents) in a relaxed atmosphere different from the group web conferences.

During the 19 class web conferences, digital textbooks were also utilized as needed. Online learning assignments were distributed weekly, with items set for daily study. During web conferences, I shared the digital textbook screen from the teacher's computer with everyone. For Japanese, in the unit "The Life of a Firefly," I used the marker function to provide point-by-point explanations on important parts of the text. For mathematics, in units like "Time and Duration" or "Comparing and Representing Length," I was able to use them effectively for review using clock and ruler tools.

Digital textbooks have various functions such as pop-ups, zoom, annotation, and page opening. In particular, using the zoom function of the digital textbook was effective for clearly presenting the ending strokes of kanji (stop, hook, sweep) or the details of rulers and clocks in mathematics. Even remotely, utilizing digital textbooks allowed for accurate explanations and aided student understanding, making me recognize the advantages unique to digital media.

On the other hand, there were challenges regarding ensuring the quality and stability of the displayed digital textbook screens due to communication environment issues. Also, for learning activities involving audio, such as reading math problems aloud or reading Japanese stories, I felt there were challenges suggesting that collective learning in face-to-face classes is necessary, especially for lower-grade students, rather than just online learning.

In the second year of utilizing tablet terminals, an opportunity for long-term online learning arrived unexpectedly. The fact that we had introduced one tablet per person was one factor that allowed online learning to proceed smoothly. Furthermore, the knowledge gained through this practice is that the utilization of cloud-based class and learning support apps, web conferencing tools, and digital textbooks is effective for both teachers and students to share learning opportunities. Looking at this from the perspective of a communication model, various advantages can be found within the educational field.

When students naturally master various digital media as tools for solving learning tasks or as communication tools, it becomes possible for each child to take center stage. At the same time, it expands the range of educational content and methods themselves, bringing the reality of intellectual information to learning situations. Being able to use various digital devices freely without being confined to the learning space of a classroom, and allowing students to freely generate individually optimized and collaborative ideas at any time—that is, preparing tools and environments for learning that can promote and develop proactive, interactive, and deep learning—is an extremely important element for future school educational activities.

Regarding the utilization of technology, there is the SAMR model ("Substitution," "Augmentation," "Modification," "Redefinition"). This can be called a scale to measure the impact of technology utilization on classes and learners. "Substitution" is the level of using technology as a direct substitute for what was done before; "Augmentation" is the level where technology can be used to significantly improve traditional functions and enrich learning; "Modification" is the level where the activities themselves change and learning becomes learner-centered; and "Redefinition" refers to learners self-determining the way they learn and creating entirely new activities that were previously inconceivable.

In discussing the future of digital education, it is vital to have a vision for constructing classes and learning environments based on the premise of not just "substituting" or "augmenting" traditional learning through the introduction and utilization of digital technology, but also "modifying" and "redefining" learning itself.

Important challenges for the future include enriching the software and content aspects of what is learned in a digital learning environment, accumulating and utilizing educational big data consisting of student learning history data and logs, and further improving teachers' ICT instructional skills, including risk management for security. Ultimately, preparing a digital technology learning environment is merely a means, not an end. It goes without saying that it remains important to continue enriching balanced educational activities within a digital learning environment so that students can encounter various things and discover authentic knowledge.

When the first web conference ended, I received positive comments from parents, such as, "I think children feel anxious or frustrated with a life different from usual in their own way, so being able to connect with everyone through a web conference was very much appreciated." I also heard positive feedback from students, such as, "Because I could see my classmates in the web conference, that time became very important to me."

This opportunity can be said to have served as a catalyst for digital technology and digital devices to be accepted by students and parents as familiar tools and as one form of stationery that can be used in future classes.

As society undergoes rapid transformation and innovation due to the penetration of digital technology, digitization and digitalization are also progressing in the field of education. I intend to continue accumulating data on digital education classroom practices and proceed with research on the DX (Digital Transformation) of learning.