Part of the series: Investigating International Edtech Issues (Japan’s Edtech Issues)
Famous crossing where a million people are in the street all at the same time.
Before I came to Japan, I imagined a place full of people flying around on jet packs and the streets full of robots. I think growing up, we saw all those specials on TV about how Japan has theme parks powered by garbage and everything is clean and beautiful. I marveled at the giant car garages that resembled car vending machines.
Although the giant car vending machines do exist, they really aren’t that cool. I mean you can dress it up all you want, but it’s just a parking garage and I don’t drive. But, I diverge. The point is, Japan is not overrun with technology. The technology that does exist has to because of the utter lack of space. Computers and televisions keep getting smaller simply because there is no space to put bigger pieces of electronics.
Edutech in Schools
I teach at a private conversation school here in Japan. We teach adults in the business district; mostly people from the import/export industry as well as textile dealers, and fashion designers. We have everything from chocolate bar sales reps to lingerie designers. So I’ve taught a variety of people from many walks of life.
What is strange though is that a lot of them still rely on low-tech to get the message out. I’m not sure why this is. I’ve had several people attempt to explain it to me, but I still haven’t been able to put my finger on it.
Famous landmark/ aquarium in Osaka (where I live/teach); has two whale sharks!
At our school we hardly make use of any technology. I think the only electronic thing I use on a regular basis is my CD player. We do have a nifty auto-check in the computer that students can just swipe their card and a little slip of paper gets spit out with their room number and teacher on it. They can even punch in their phone number on a touch screen to check in if they forgot their card.
High schools are similarly equipped. Most of them still have chalkboards and basic desks. What is worse is that often times classes can be full of 35-40 students. There are computer classes in high schools and knowing how to use a computer is a part of the guidelines set forth by the education ministry of Japan. However, I’ve heard teachers complain that some 1st year high schoolers have never used a computer!
Universities are a lot better thankfully. A lot of them are equipped with large high-tech computer labs that I never saw when I was in college. A lot of the lecture halls have all the standard equipment, projectors, video players, multiple inputs and outputs, all the goodies.
Corporations that I’ve taught at use some tech, but web 2.0 has not come to Japan, yet. Most people have no concept of the social web. The tech that is being used is very late 90s. This is evident on a lot of levels.
Social Networking
Festival held every year where people dance and occasionally fall to their untimely deaths on the top of rolling wooden shrines; advertised as the most dangerous festival in Japan.
Twitter has a very small presence here despite being available in Japanese. According to a recent survey, only about 16% of people have even heard of Twitter. About 2.3% of people in Japan have used Twitter. If you want more proof of this, I’m currently ranked in the Twitter elite for Osaka with just over 500 followers (I’m usually in the 30s).
As for social networks, Facebook is slowly gaining ground. There is another Japan-only social network called Mixi which is in its death throes. Mixi is invite only, and requires a Japanese mobile phone email address. It has an antiquated advertising model and (in my honest opinion) overly complicated system of blogging and messaging although Mashable says otherwise. Not to mention the fact that it just recently banned dating.
Advertising in Japan has not advanced to the social interactive stage yet. This is baffling to most westerners because they seem to have taken traditional marketing to all new extremes. For political campaigns they drive around blaring messages out of sound trucks. Or they interrupt you while you walk down the street and try to shove a flyer in your hand.
Japanese Cultural Values
Landmark which is the beacon for fried stuff on a stick (kushi katsu) and fugu (blowfish/pufferfish); also the yakuza neighborhood.
I think the major reason for this slow down is that Japan is a culture concerned with privacy. Japan has been a traditionally closed society, despite some outpourings here and there, it has mostly remained closed. This is a good thing in some ways. A very unique culture has developed over the years.
Business in Japan is mostly done face to face. They have several meetings to discuss things and are constantly taking business trips. Meetings that would normally take place via teleconferencing are instead done in person. This is taken to extremes a lot of times. I think companies could easily cut 10% out of their budgets with some videoconferencing and less meetings. I think this is why there hasn’t been a big increase in the use of communications equipment.
Cell Phones in Japan
An example of a barcode people scan to get web addresses on their cell phones.
Cell phones are so pervasive actually that a culture has grown up around them. If you really want it to be, your cell phone can really do everything for you here. It can be your wallet, your train pass, your camera, your video camera, your calendar, your gaming system, your television, your radio, your GPS … Actually one of the complaints about the iPhone when it first came to Japan was that it didn’t have enough features. Some of my students still complain about this and actually have two phones, one regular cell phone and an iPhone.
One of the leading questions at edutech presentations here is “Can my students access this with their cell phones?” It is a lot easier to get students to do something on their cell phones then to get them into a computer lab. This has obviously led to some boundaries with edutech.
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Neal Chambers has taught in Japan for just about 5 years despite graduating in video production. He is currently teaching at a private English conversation school in Osaka. He is a regular teacher contributor at EnglishSpark.com where he writes the series Teacher Stumpers about difficult and odd grammar. He enjoys attempting to climb mountains without injuring himself.
Oh many thanks for this, Neal. How interesting that iphones don’t have enough features. And also interesting that people will bear discomfort and cost to travel face-to-face meetings.
I worked in Japan in the mid 70s. Things I remember as being novel about the tech then were taxi doors that closed automatically, and even little shops having a door that opened and closed automatically. I guess it was technology orientated to anticipating a need and serving? Might that be an important cultural value in Japan? And yes, it was compact tech – lack of space was an issue as you say.
@Vicki Hollett, I think the culture of Japan is orientated toward anticipating a need and serving. But there is also more effeciency involved with technology in this respect. To give another example, at a lot of restaurants here, there are vending machines where you buy a ticket for your order and then hand this to a waiter to get your food. I think this helps with making change and making things faster, but it doesn’t exactly mean good service.
Same thing is true with ‘kaiten’ sushi or the sushi bars that all the sushi goes around on those little conveyor belts. It makes for cheap sushi. So I guess Japan does utilize tech to speed things up and require less people. But, there are other areas like there aren’t too many automated check out lanes at supermarkets. There is an automated check out lane at the grocery store near me, but people aren’t quite sure what to do with it. Kids like to play with it, and it tends to slow things down.
I think there may be a different relationship with technology here.
The THINGS in my life are quite high tech–my car key is a remote and the wipers/lights come on as needed, my microwave can also perfectly grill/boil/bake with or without steam, my washer/dryer (one unit) does everything but fold the clothes, and the toilet seat has as many buttons as a TV remote.
The PEOPLE in my life are not. People seem to see tech as something that makes life easier. They use technology to connect with people they already know (like on Mixi) but not to find new friends. The way my Japanese friends have tried to explain it to me is that once they join a group, they have obligations to that group. And the broader the circle of friends in the group, the more risk (personal attack, spam, etc.). So the whole social-networking idea of “friending” people doesn’t sound like much of a winner.
I don’t see tech in education changing any time soon. The folks at the education ministry have their hands full with English education reforms for the forseeable future, and no money. Individual Japanese may change. Particularly if a friend they know personally invites them to join a network they’re familiar with (less risk). They may not embrace web 2.0 in the same way others have, and they’ll probably access the internet via cell phone rather than computer, but if they find things of personal and professional value, they’ll use them.
Oh this is very interesting Barbara. So web 2.0 may be slower but more surer footed and sustained perhaps…
Or, it may evolve into something uniquely suiting Japanese interests. My husband’s students (college) use Mixi to connect with friends–they like the fact that someone has to know their screen ID in order to find them. He’s gotten a few to take a look at Facebook, but so far they aren’t impressed
An example that may help. Typewriters were huge time savers in the west, compared to writing by hand. Japanese typewriters had to be able to print 3000 characters (they were HUGE), required advanced training, and were incredibly impractical. Except for official documents, they didn’t get much use. But, when word processors became available in the late 70s, they allowed regular people to convert 50 or 26 characters (depending on whether the keyboard was Japanese kana or English alphabet) into more than 6500 different Chinese characters. As you can imagine, these were way more popular than the typewriter ever was.
Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that when technology makes it easier to do something that people want to do, I think it will be very popular. It just may not be what we think ought to be popular
Fascinating piece Neal & Shelly,
I came over a few days ago but didn’t have a chance to comment. Am fascinated to hear about the cell-phone culture, do you use yours yet to teach English with?
The situation is very similar to Germany in terms of classrooms with chalkboards.
Sometimes I think we are leading towards socio-economic divisions through this usage of technology. Some private secondary schools have IWBs, others nothing.
Some students are required to do presentations using powerpoint for others it’s glue and posters.
And the difference in what is expected does come down to the financial situation of the students or schools.
But enjoyed the idea of the trucks going round blaring out political messages!
LOL, congrats both of you on a great piece.
Karenne
Thanks everyone for the comments!
I agree with a lot of what Barbara is saying. People get roped in to using technology because their friends are. Most people are on Mixi because their friends are on Mixi and they don’t want to switch to Facebook because nobody is on it (yet).
I’ve had a lot more luck with getting students on Facebook. I would say a good 5 or 6 of my 50 students are on there, and I keep in touch with some old students via Facebook. So, it’s becoming more popular with adults. I’ve noticed they have a pretty good mobile interface now. (Although, I’m still waiting for this new iPhone app they are raving about)
I guess I’m not much of a ‘techie’ either. The newest piece of technology in my apartment at the moment is my iPhone, and then beyond that I have an iPod. But this computer is at least 5 years old. I do utilize technology on a daily basis though.
I agree with Barbara that Japan will most likely come up with something uniquely Japanese. They have a special knack for doing stuff like that.
I don’t currently use cell phones to teach with. There are multiple issues with that unfortunately. I might try to recommend some things in the future though.
Neal,
Thank you for the guest piece. I learned a lot about Japan and the technology issues facing teachers. I was one of those people you described who thought technology integration should be easier with students having access to various technologies. Now, I see this is not the case and that in Japan there are other issues to deal with.
On a side note, I really want to read one of those novels written on the cellphone! Poor, poor fingers!
I stumbled across your article just now. I’m a technology junkie in my private life, and a teacher in my public life.
As an American who is very familiar with the Japanese educational system’s strengths and flaws (I spent a year at a public school here as a foreign exchange student and the past four years as a teacher), I have to question your unspoken, but obvious, premise:
Whence comes your idea that high-tech education equals better education?
I’ve seen very little evidence in support of that premise, and bucketloads that would refute it. More specifically, I’ve seen many teachers using golly-gee-whiz tech to fog over their crap lesson, many teachers teaching awesome lessons with no gadgets and gear, and a small (but no less important) minority of teachers doing an impressive job integrating tech with great lessons.
The common ingredient in the great lessons? Good planning and execution.
Whiteboards that can simultaneously display media AND print out a copy of everything that was written on the whiteboard that day are very cool, to be sure. And they are in use, here in Fukuoka elementary schools. But the best lessons I’ve ever watched have used standard whiteboards or chalkboards.
The ingredients to good teaching have NOTHING to do with technology. Technology is, and will be for a very long time, a tool and only a tool.
Coolness doesn’t translate into value.