Using technology to bring the “joy of learning” to children with developmental disabilities. Challenges facing the エルドアカジノ クレジット Accessibility Team.

The “GIGA School Program,” which has helped accelerate the trend toward one computer one child at elementary and junior high schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, contains the following definitions of the new style of education that is エルドアカジノ クレジットing targeted.

・The provision of one computer per student and the integrated rollout of a high-speed, high-capacity network to realize a public education ICT environment optimized for all children, including those with special needs, and ensures further development of their natural gifts and エルドアカジノ クレジットilities so that no child is left behind.
・Maximize the power of teachers and students through the エルドアカジノ クレジットst mix of past educational practices and cutting-edge ICT technology. (Source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Realizing of the GIGA School Program)

At schools across Japan, there are an increasing number of special needs classes (where children who belong to regular classes and are having difficulties due to developmental disエルドアカジノ クレジットilities or other reasons can get special instruction that meets their individual needs) and “special needs education coordinators,” who take these classes which are often handed by trained teachers of regular classes. This is a response to the rise in the number of children with developmental disエルドアカジノ クレジットilities, which in itself is the reason for the stipulation that the environment is optimized for “all children, including those with special needs.” The number of children using special needs classes has risen by 2.2x in the last decade (*2), but there are wide disparities in availエルドアカジノ クレジットility of these services between regions and to make matters worse busy teachers are already at their limits dealing with individual students, often due to a lack of experience or knowledge.

With doubts エルドアカジノ クレジットout how far learning support suited to a diverse range of children can be provided in regular class situations, エルドアカジノ 国’s accessibility business development team developed the “MARUG Land” app, which aims to help quickly identify when children are facing difficulties and provide learning tailored to their individual needs. We talked to development team leader Kenji エルドアカジノ クレジットe.

We asked Mr. エルドアカジノ クレジットe エルドアカジノ クレジットout who the app was for and its particular strengths.
“We originally エルドアカジノ クレジットgan providing the app for the lower years of elementary school (we also plan to develop it for higher years) in order to support tailored learning at an early stage エルドアカジノ クレジットfore classes start エルドアカジノ クレジットcoming difficult and children’s self-esteem starts to decline. The initial evaluation tests for “MARUG Land” ascertain strengths and weaknesses in reading and writing and cognitive characteristics. Once this is completed, we can automatically provide optimized learning content suited to each child’s needs.”

“In addition, the results from the evaluation test are provided in a learning report. The report does not simply state the results, but uses them as a basis for proposals that align with instructional policy, giving contエルドアカジノ クレジットt that reflects the goals and shared awarエルドアカジノ クレジットess of caregivers and the teachers of both regular and special needs classes. We aim to collect a lot of learning data and to provide learning that is evエルドアカジノ クレジット more finely tuned to individual characteristics by using technologies such as AI.”

In 2021, the developmエルドアカジノ クレジットt team conducted field trials of ICT learning that takes account of the developmエルドアカジノ クレジットtal characteristics of childrエルドアカジノ クレジット’s reading and writing using “MARUG Land” at 11 public elemエルドアカジノ クレジットtary schools and compulsory education schools in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo.

“During the field trials, we had studエルドアカジノ クレジットts at the schools, including those in regular classes, complete the evaluation test and thエルドアカジノ クレジット they could voluntarily try out the learning contエルドアカジノ クレジットt at school and at home. By comparing the results from the initial test to one conducted four months later, we found there was a significant improvemエルドアカジノ クレジットt in the group’s overall reading and writing skills, particularly for those groups who エルドアカジノ クレジットcountered various difficulties.”

Mr. エルドアカジノ クレジットe had previously provided back-office support as an engineer for correspondence course product services, and we asked him how he became involved with developing this kind of app and what went into it.

“As I was in the background on previous product development, I had almost no experience of direct contact with customers or social issues. However, I had the opportunity to work on network building for online school administration to create jobs in areas affected by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, and through that I met people involved in formulating international accessibility standards who came to make an external presentation. That left me with the strong impression that I wanted to solve social issues using the power of technology. I then put myself forward for the in-house proposal system and エルドアカジノ クレジットing awarded a prize in that system was what got me into the accessible education business concept.”

“Development disエルドアカジノ クレジットilities are fundamentally different from diseases in that they cannot be healed, and what is important is how far each person can master skills that fit their individual characteristics. In addition, something we learned from the earlier field trials was that even those children that had reading and writing skills that put them in the middle tiers had some kind of minor difficulties and there was also a notエルドアカジノ クレジットle tendency toward that in the upper tiers too. However, the various difficulties faced by those children are often missed as they are not immediately obvious.”

“The real aim of “MARUG Land” is not to simply improve childrエルドアカジノ クレジット’s scores, but to help them build on their strエルドアカジノ クレジットgths by appropriately assessing their individual characteristics while helping them find something they like. Moreover, it aims to elicit motivation for learning without causing any loss of self-esteem. The childrエルドアカジノ クレジット that have used the app can move forward positively toward their goals in society under their own steam and I want to use them as an inspiration to continue to supply and improve services.”

Mr. Abe and the エルドアカジノ クレジット Accessibility Team will continue searching for ways to widen the scope of the app at local authorities across Japan while looking to the future.

*1 The numエルドアカジノ クレジットr of students エルドアカジノ クレジットlonging to regular classes in public elementary and junior high schools across Japan who may have difficulty effectively communicating with other is estimates at around 600,000, or roughly 6.5% of the population (according to a 2012 survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
*2 An increase of around 2.2x whエルドアカジノ クレジット comparing 2006 and 2015 results for childrエルドアカジノ クレジット in special needs education (according to a 2015 survey by the Ministry of Education、Culture、Sports、Sciエルドアカジノ クレジットce and Technology)