At yesterday’s Learning of Tomorrow Online Lunch Symposium, Mr. Kurokawa and Mr. Morishita from Mitsumura Shoten spoke on the topic “The New World of Learning Opened Up by Digital Textbooks in the Post-COVID Era of Education.”

Since the topic was digital textbooks—the “killer content” of the GIGA School Initiative—we received even more registrations than usual. While the nature of textbooks has a significant impact on classroom instruction, we heard about the various innovations in digital textbooks designed to facilitate active, interactive, and deep learning.

By taking advantage of the editable features of digital textbooks, you can create your very own “My Textbook.” This makes it easy to visualize your own ideas, and based on those ideas, you can share your screen with a group for discussion or project it onto a digital whiteboard to give a presentation.In other words, they are designed to be used for individual learning, collaborative learning, and whole-class instruction alike. In fact, in classes that utilize digital textbooks, students reportedly spend more time expressing their own ideas and engaging in dialogue with others, while teachers spend less time speaking.

Another key feature highlighted is that these textbooks are designed to be accessible to everyone—including students who previously found it difficult to learn using paper textbooks alone.What matters is “anytime, anywhere,” “for everyone,” and “connectivity.” However, while the adoption rate of digital textbooks for students exceeds 94% in both elementary and junior high schools, the reality is that implementation has been slow this fiscal year.

On the other hand, due to the temporary school closures, they reportedly received numerous requests for digital textbook data and were kept busy responding to them. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that: (1) each student needs their own device, network access, and digitized textbooks and teaching materials; (2) going forward, a combination of in-person instruction, individualized learning, and home study will be crucial; and (3) this presents an opportunity to transition learning styles and pursue learning that is optimized for each individual.The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) is currently re-examining the role of digital textbooks, and has identified three key challenges to promoting their widespread adoption: “raising awareness among local governments, schools, and families,” “improving the necessary infrastructure,” and “securing budgets or public support.” Securing funding is particularly important.

Looking ahead, the plan for digital textbooks is to strengthen integration with digital teaching materials and a wide variety of digital content, while also looking toward the future goal of collecting, analyzing, and utilizing learning logs. We were given these very encouraging words: “Launching a new style of learning with digital textbooks and teaching materials. This is the first step toward a major transformation in public education.”At next week’s online symposium, I hope we can discuss the integration of digital teaching materials and diverse digital content—which is at the heart of digital textbooks for learners.

Thank you, Mr. Kurokawa and Mr. Morishita.