◆◇ Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council News ◇◆ Vol. 073

Happy New Year.
We hope you are all enjoying a healthy start to the new year.

Last year, discussions on the introduction of digital textbooks began in earnest. To actively support
this initiative, we will continue to work diligently this year as well, and we ask for
your continued support.

Starting at the end of this month, we will be holding a two-week
event titled “2045 Ideathon: Envisioning the Classroom of the Future,” which explores the future of learning from the perspectives of both children and adults.
We will
also be hosting our Digital New Year’s Party in February—which was a huge success last time—so please feel free to invite your friends and join us.

We look forward to your continued support this year.

Secretariat of the Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council

Table of Contents —————————————————–
-・Topics・Activity
Reports (Study Sessions)
・Announcements
from Member Companies・Media・Information on
Digital Textbooks and Educational
Materials———————————————————–

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Topics┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆

■We are hosting an ideathon to explore the future of digital learning in 2045 from the perspectives of
both adults and children.
http://ditt.jp/news/?id=2162

<Children's Session> January 31, 2016 (Sun) 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. <
<Adults' Session> February 7, 2016 (Sun) 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. *
Venue:
Docomo Innovation Village, 31F Ark Mori Building, 1-12-32 Akasaka, Minato-ku
*Admission: Free

If you're interested, please feel free to join us.

■We are hosting a New Year's party for the digital industry.
We look forward to seeing you there.
http://ditt.jp/news/?id=2167

* Date and Time: Friday, February 19, 2016, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM　(Registration opens at 6:00 PM)
*Venue: Akasaka Shubia, Daiwa Akasaka Building, 2-14-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

http://www.yougolab.jp/ygl/subir.pdf
*Eligibility: Anyone
from the media, IT, content industries, or other fields *Participation Fee:5,000 yen (standing reception)
*Organizers: Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council, Digital Signage Consortium
(General Incorporated Association), CiP Council (General Incorporated Association), Superhuman Sports Association
*Registration: https://goo.gl/XUWdmU

We have also started the voting for the Top 10 Digital News Stories, so we would appreciate
your participation.
http://goo.gl/forms/9ha01j7EPc

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◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓　　　　 Activity
Report┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆
≪Study Session≫
We held our 65th study session on Wednesday, December 16.

Guest Presentation

■ Mr.
Akira Kaneko, Director of Academic Affairs and Development, Hiroo Gakuen: “Students Are Going Beyond Japan’s Education System Through ICT and Their Own Efforts”
Mr. Kota Watanabe (11th grader)
, Junior and Senior High School ICT Team Leader, Hiroo Gakuen: “The Use of ICT at Hiroo Gakuen from a Student’s Perspective”

■ CodeTakt, Inc. — Masaki Goto, Representative Director
: “schoolTakt: Aiming to Be a ‘Scouter’ for Teachers”

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≪Study Session Overview≫

■Hiroo Gakuen: Mr. Kaneko and Mr. Watanabe

We spoke with Mr. Kaneko, Director of Academic Affairs and Development, and Mr. Watanabe, a first-year
high school student and leader of the Middle and High School ICT Team, about the present and future of Hiroo Gakuen, each from their own perspective.
First, Mr. Kaneko introduced Hiroo Gakuen and stated that, in his view, student enrollment is the most critical factor
for the school. He discussed trends in enrollment over the years, reflected on
the initiatives required of the school community, and outlined the choices that faced the faculty and staff.
The choice was between “adhering to the existing framework” or “completely
transforming the entire school—including its philosophy, systems, and methods—to ensure its survival.” He explained that they ultimately chose the latter option, which allowed them to restore enrollment levels and
shift their focus toward enhancing the sophistication and quality of their educational content; the introduction of
ICT was one of the reforms implemented as part of this effort.He added that while this transformation has moved the school and its education in a positive direction, he continues to maintain a constant sense of urgency
. … [Read morehttp://ditt.jp/action/study.html?id=214&page=1]

■ Mr. Goto, CodeTact, Inc.

He gave a presentation on how to incorporate ICT education into schools using schoolTakt.
CodeTakt Co., Ltd. develops
schoolTakt, a system designed for use in learning environments where tablet-based learning has been implemented. The company was selected for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ Pioneering Educational System Demonstration Project and the ICT Dream School
Practical Model.
The concept behind schoolTakt is “creating an environment where teachers can teach easily and students can learn with enjoyment.” To achieve this
, the company emphasizes the importance of designing the system as a natural extension of how teachers currently teach. … [
Read more at http://ditt.jp/action/study.html?id=214&page=1]

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◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Announcements from Member Companies
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆
■ East Co., Ltd.

Classmate Study Information
Product Website: http://study.classmate.jp/

This is an educational ICT solution that supports students’ academic growth through a cycle in which teachers create tests from a question database, students answer them on tablets, answers are automatically graded, and teachers assess students’ understanding
.
Going forward, we plan to expand the question database and enable teachers to add their own custom questions (in Excel) to the database.With a view toward providing subsystems to other
educational services and enabling interoperability between systems, we are
also focusing on the utilization of standard specifications.

◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓　　 Media
Coverage┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆

http://ditt.jp/media/

◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Information on Digital
Textbooks and Educational Materials
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆

December 4
, 2015: Survey on the Actual Implementation of “Active Learning” in Elementary, Middle, and High Schools.60% Report Tangible Results! Could Creating the Right Environment and Teacher Training Be the Key?
http://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000064.000012383.html

December 9, 2015: Are
Tablets Effective for Learning? How Do Elementary and Middle School Students Use Them?
http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/column/15/110400255/120200003/?bpnet=

December 12, 2015
: “ICT Development Ranking”—South Korea Ranks 1st, Japan 11th; About 14%
of Chinese Households Have Internet Access https://zuuonline.com/archives/91143

December 16, 2015: 60 Percent Favor
Digital Textbooks, Though Some Parents Have Concerns
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20151216/k10010342281000.html

December 21, 2015: How Far Have
Tablet-Based Learning Services Come?
http://blogos.com/article/150912/

=======================================　
.:*:.:♪*:. DiTT—Now Accepting Members *:.:♪*:.*:.
======================================

The Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council is currently accepting new members.
Executive members and general members are eligible to participate in study sessions and
committee meetings organized by DiTT.

In addition, we provide information on digital textbooks and teaching materials,
and organize
networking events and other opportunities for members to exchange information.
For more details, please visit the page below!
URL: http://ditt.jp/join

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◆◇ DiTT NEWS ◇◆　Vol. 0073
Publisher: Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council Publication
Date: January 5
, 2016 Publisher in Charge: Nanako Ishido
Editor: Asaka Uchiyama
URL: http://ditt.jp/
e-mail: ditt@ditt.jp
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