◆◇ Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council News ◇◆ Vol. 052

The season has arrived when the fresh greenery is a delight to the eyes.
How are you spending your Golden Week?

We plan to hold a symposium in June, so
we hope you will all join us.

In this issue, along with a report on DiTT’s activities,
we bring you the latest information on digital textbooks and educational materials.

Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council Secretariat

Table of Contents ——————————————————
・Topics
・Activity Report (Study Sessions)
・Media
・Information on Digital Textbooks and Educational Materials
———————————————————–
◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
　　　　 Topics
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆
We plan to hold several public symposia this fiscal year.
We intend to focus on hot topics such as flipped classrooms, big data, private-sector initiatives, and local government
initiatives.

For the first event, we plan to host a panel discussion featuring experts who participated in last fall’s administrative review, during which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s ICT education programs were discussed.
Details will be posted on our website (http://ditt.jp/) as soon as they are finalized.

◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
　　　　 Activity Report
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆
≪Study Session≫
We held our 45th study session on Monday, April 14.

Guest Presentations

■ Mr. Yosuke Nakanishi, English Department, Kinki University High School
　English Classes Using the “Flipped Classroom” Approach

■ Mr. Yoshiki Sakurai, Learning Scientist, NEC Learning, Ltd.
　
　 “The Significance of Collecting and Analyzing Learning Behavior Data Using Digital Textbooks”　　

*You can view the study session report at the URL below. (To be posted soon)
http://ditt.jp/report/

=======================================
≪Study Session Overview≫

At the 45th study session, Mr. Nakanishi from Kinki University High School gave a presentation titled “English Classes Using the ‘Flipped Classroom’ Approach.”

At Kinki University High School, all middle school students and all first- and second-year high school students have purchased iPads
and use them in classes such as English. English classes using the flipped classroom model have been implemented since last April.
By having students prepare for class in advance using explanatory videos in the flipped classroom model, the effectiveness of the class depends on the teacher’s skill.
At Kinki University High School, teachers create their own instructional videos, and through these video-based
flipped classrooms, English classes—which previously devoted much time to Japanese explanations—have
made it possible to incorporate both “All English” instruction and Japanese explanations, allowing teachers to
devote more time to confirming and reinforcing students’ understanding of English text.
Since the program has been in place for less than a year, clear learning outcomes have not yet emerged, but we are seeing tangible improvements in listening
and speaking skills.
Furthermore, we believe that by focusing on the three elements of learning—Mindest (mindset and attitude), Method (approach), and Time (time allocation)—
flipped classrooms can yield even greater results.
I explained that the flipped classroom is one means of achieving our goals, and that in class, it is important to establish a solid relationship with the students and clearly define the lesson objectives.
=======================================

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

http://ditt.jp/media/

◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
　Information Related to Digital Textbooks and Teaching Materials
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆

April 7, 2014
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) / Proposes the Promotion of Interactive and Collaborative Education in High Schools
http://ict-enews.net/2014/04/04mext-5/

April 7, 2014
Kusatsu City / Introduces a Total of Approximately 3,200 Tablet Devices to All Elementary Schools
http://ict-enews.net/2014/04/07kusatsu/

April 10, 2014
Leverage the Education Industry’s Experience to Utilize ICT in Public Education
http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/hajime-yamada/education-ict_b_5123133.html

April 14, 2014
MEXT ICT Pilot Study: Over 90% of Teachers Report “Improved Student Awareness and Understanding”
http://resemom.jp/article/2014/04/14/18025.html

April 14, 2014
MEXT Announces Designated “Super Food Education Schools” Utilizing ICT for Food Education and Other Programs
http://ict-enews.net/2014/04/14mext-2/

April 21, 2014
The Day Textbooks and Notebooks Are Replaced by Tablets – Meguro Ward No. 1, Tokyo Metropolis
http://news.mynavi.jp/articles/2014/04/21/microsoft/

April 24, 2014
Smart Education / ICT Education Program for Preschoolers Using iPads

スマートエデュケーション／iPadを活用した園児向けのICT教育プログラム

April 28, 2014
Does Digitizing Textbooks Boost Intelligence?
http://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/32765

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

The Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council is currently recruiting members.
Executive members and general members are eligible to participate in study sessions and
committees organized by DiTT.

In addition, we provide information on digital textbooks and educational materials, and
organize social gatherings and other opportunities for members to exchange information.

Please visit the page below for more details!
URL: http://ditt.jp/join

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆◇ DiTT NEWS ◇◆ vol. 0052
Publisher: Digital Textbook and Educational Materials Council
Publication Date: May 1, 2014
Editor-in-Chief: Nanako Ishido
Editor: Asaka Uchiyama
URL: http://ditt.jp/
e-mail: ditt@ditt.jp
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━