Raising Children Who Will Become Leaders in the AI Era: ICT Education Practices at Keio Yochisha Elementary School

2018/06/26

With programming education becoming compulsory in elementary schools from the 2020 academic year, attention is growing regarding ICT-based education, such as the promotion of one tablet per student and the introduction of digital textbooks in all schools.

However, it has not been clear in actual practice which grade is appropriate to start using ICT or in which subjects it should be used. Therefore, at Keio Yochisha Elementary School, in the class where the author serves as the homeroom teacher (currently 6th grade), we introduced one tablet per student starting from the 1st grade and began trial lessons by incorporating ICT use into the curriculum for subjects such as Japanese, Mathematics, and Life Studies (Integrated Studies).

This is because I believed it was important to build learning habits where students use tablets as familiar stationery from the lower grades and can use them effectively as a new type of stationery throughout their six years. Even just during the lower grades, we conducted over 30 class periods of practice using tablet devices. This practice is still ongoing. Through these practices, the children mastered the correct use of tablet devices from an early stage and developed judgment, creativity, and the ability to utilize them for various learning tasks.

While the records to date were compiled as a doctoral dissertation, this book is an educational text that reconstructs that dissertation to be easy to understand and read, with the addition of the latest topics.

Through the use of tablet devices, we can see a broadening of possibilities not only in the acquisition of information literacy but also in the improvement of students' proactive attitude toward learning, such as their interest, concern, and motivation. Furthermore, it has become a daily sight to see students solving problems themselves or teaching each other when they encounter difficulties with tablet operations.

I hope that school teachers and students will use this as a reference for ICT practices, and that parents will find it useful for education at home.

Around the world, the use of tablet devices in schools has been introduced from an early stage, bringing out new possibilities and talents in children one after another. I would be honored if this book serves as a reference for raising children who will live robustly as leaders in the AI era.

Raising Children Who Will Become Leaders in the AI Era: ICT Education Practices at Keio Yochisha Elementary School

Tsugumasa Suzuki (Author)

Shodensha

200 pages, 1,400 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of writing.