June 2011

Advancing Digitalization in Classrooms and the Future of Educational Use of Media

From the 2010 NHK School Broadcast Utilization Survey

Seiji Watanabe / Sachiko I. Kodaira

The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has been regularly conducting the NHK School Broadcast Utilization Survey since 1950 in an attempt to study media environments and media usage in classrooms.
In this article the authors report the 2010 survey on kindergartens and elementary, junior high, and high schools across Japan, analyzing the survey results by each type of school, in order to explore the relations between media use at “digitalized” classrooms and learning/teaching.

Approximately 70% of Japan’s schools and kindergartens are able to view digital terrestrial broadcasts on television. The comparison with the previous survey conducted in FY2008, when the percentage of schools/kindergartens that owned TV sets capable of receiving digital terrestrial broadcasting between 10 to 19 percent indicates there has been a huge development in the TV viewing environment. The computer environment has also been advanced; more schools now have computers connected to the Internet at regular classrooms (for example, up from 36.0% to 62.8% in elementary schools.) These outcomes generally suggest that the government-led “School New Deal” initiative is bearing some fruit.

Although some changes have been observed in the utilization rate of NHK’s school broadcasting, or the percentage of schools which have one or more classes employing either NHK’s school broadcast TV programs or online study materials (“NHK Digital Curriculum”), the numbers in the past three surveys have hovered at almost the same level. Elementary schools marked 73.2% utilization rate in the latest survey, almost no change from 73.7% in FY2008. However, elementary schools using NHK Digital Curriculum have considerably increased from 27.4% to 38.6%, reflecting the facilitated introduction of internet-connected computers at regular classrooms, which has enabled easier access to the Internet.

On the other hand, it is revealed that the introduction and development of various devices in schools does not necessarily lead to effective use of them in class. This is mainly due to the fact that some schools have introduced those devices only recently and teachers have not acquired enough skills to utilize them. Given that better environments for utilizing NHK’s school broadcast programs and online study materials have been put in place, it will be necessary to present teachers know-how in using devices and examples of usage to gain educational effects as well as to create a mechanism for sharing them. In addition, in order to expand the usage of school broadcasting, it will be indispensable to develop second-generation digital contents focusing on the use of interactive whiteboards and tablet PCs which are expected to be widely introduced.

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research