A US-Japan Comparative Study of the High-tech Uses in Schools

研究人员通过对两国的实地考察，发现了高科技迅速融入学校教育、教师和学生的计算机水平较高、美国和日本在技术开发和利用方面存在很大差异等事实。双方的研究者也都指出，技术的利用可以由整个社会来完成，以促进它在学校教育中。他们预测了即将到来的信息社会中技术使用的趋势，并通过分析两国在这一领域的先进实践，探索了在学校教育中利用技术的可能性和切实可行的方法。通过调查和观察课堂教学情况，特别是在网络和多媒体高度融入课程的美国，已经确定了在学校教育中实现电信使用可能性的实际手段。促进高科技使用所需的人力、物力和体制资源也已确定。双方的实地考察和课堂观察为研究软硬件在教学中的理想运用手段、教学情境与软件的关系、多媒体的功能及其在教育中的最佳利用等问题提供了机会和丰富的研究资料。双方研究人员通过对实地考察资料和网上文献资料的分析，从技术发展对教育的影响、对教师素养的要求、信息社会中教师培训课程、学生计算机素养的数量和内容等方面预测了技术在教育中的应用趋势。

The researchers have found, through site visitations on both sides, such facts as, high-technology incorporated into school education rapidly, high computer literacy among both teachers and students, and the considerable difference between US and Japan in terms of development and utilization of technology. The researchers on both sides also have pointed out that the utilization of technology could be accomplished by the society as a whole in order to promote it in school education. They have predicted the trends of the technology use in the coming information-oriented society, and have searched for the possibilities and practical means for taking advantage of technology in school education by analyzing advanced practices in this field in both countries concerned.The practical means for materializing the possibililties of telecommunication use in school education habe been identifuied by investigating and observing classroom teaching situations, especially in the U.S., where network and multimedia are highly incorporated into curriculum. Human, physical, and institutional resources necessary for promoting high-tech use as well have been identified. Site visitation and classroom obsevation on both sides offered the researchers opportunities and plentiful research material for investigating the ideal means of utilizing hardware and software in teaching, the relationship between teaching situation and software, and functions of multi-media and the best uses of them in education.Based on the analysis of materials obtained at the site visitations and literature available on the web, the researchers on both sides have predicted the trends in technology use in education in terms of the effects of technical development on education, the literacy required of teachers, the curriculum for teacher training in the information-oriented society, and the amount and content of computer literacy for students.