Present States of Informatics Education and Educational Computing in Foreign Countries

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The purpose of this study was to investigate : 1) how information technology was utilized in regular classrooms, and 2) how these activities were supported by the governments, research institutes, and private companies in several countries where information technology was highly integrated into education.Since more than half members of this project team had previously conducted similar research studies, the study reported in this paper especially focused on the changes in each country since the previous studies had been conducted. Moreover, some special areas which might affect recently identified problems in Japan were emphasized during the analysis.In the previous studies, several coutries such as the United States, England, Canada, and Australia had actively utilized information technology. In this study, the researchers again examined all these countries except Canada, and added Korea and the Southeast Asia. By using written materials and direct interviews conducted by the research … More ers in each country, actual situations in each country were investigated. In addition, curricula from UNESCO,Korea, Australia, and England were carefully analyzed prior to developing the information Education Curriculum in Japan.In the United States, Multimedia was used for the students to develop their motivation to study, and the Internet was used for student problem-solving activities. In England, Australia, and Korea, Information on Education was tried to be clearly placed in the school curriculum. In southeast Asia, attemps were being made to gather information resources which affected their education.By Comparing Japan's Information Education curriculum, which had been developed for the upper secondary school level by Nishinosono and others, to other countries' curricula, the researchers were able to obtain guidance for developing the new curriculum in Japan. Some characteristics of other countries' curricula were : 1) below the upper secondary school level, the educators provided the students experiences using information technology more systematically, 2) Information Education was clearly placed in school subjects and examination systems, and 3) different curricula were developed for different purposes, such as a curriculum for regular classrooms, a curriculum for students who proceeded to higher education, and a curriculum for vocational education. Less