COETAIL--Challenges of Technology Adoption in the Japanese University
For COETAIL Course 1, I've been reading the NMC Horizon Report--2012 K-12 Education and when I came to the section on challenges to technology adoption in the classroom, I began to reflect on the challenges I face in the Japanese university setting teaching creative writing, academic writing, literature, American culture, global issues and debate--while trying to do "old things in new ways" and especially trying to do "new things in new ways" as discussed in Shaping Tech for the Classroom.
Challenge 1 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession, especially teaching. This challenge appears at the top of the list because despite the widespread agreement on the importance of digital media literacy, training in the supporting skills and techniques is still very rare in teacher education."
In the Japanese public university where I have taught language and content courses in English for the past thirteen years, there is minimal support for instructors. There is no central course learning environment such as Blackboard, and teachers operate independently when introducing technology into their courses. I have only ever received support for use of the language labs. I therefore rely on conferences and my own online network of peers to update and develop my own skills and techniques. This results in a hodgepodge of techniques applied to my courses, and without a community of face-to-face university peers for tech support, this approach is fraught with many hiccups.
Challenge 2 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"K-12 must address the increased blending of formal and informal learning. Traditional lectures
and subsequent testing are still dominant learning vehicles in schools. In order for students to get a well rounded education with real world experience, they must also engage in more informal in-class activities as well as learning to learn outside the classroom."
The same can certainly be said for the Japanese university; instructors are expected to teach many of their courses in traditional lecture format to large classes in classrooms that seat 60 students in desks and at the end of the semester to assess via a final exam or report. Although I can rearrange the desks in a classroom, class size I cannot always control. Fortunately, in addition to reports or exams, I can view a portfolio of written work, or assign final presentations and speeches for final assessment. A fundamental frustration for instructors in Japanese universities is that students expect virtually all of their learning to take place in the classroom. My university students tend to be passive learners. Relative to university students in, for example, the U.S., students in my Japanese university spend little time on assignments outside of class and tend to complain if a teacher assigns more than one hour of homework per week. Students seem less likely to engage in independent learning related to a course outside of class and spend a very limited amount of time in preparation for classes. The lecture/exam type course model and methods seem deeply ingrained.
Challenge 3 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or
practices. The increasing demand for education that is customized to each student’s unique needs is driving the development of new technologies that provide more learner choice and control and allow for differentiated instruction, but there remains a gap between the vision and the tools needed to achieve it."
Although I have great freedom in designing my courses and syllabi, the gap between my own vision for my courses and the tools available to achieve them often stymies me. My university students all have cell phones, but I would guess that on average currently only one student in fifty brings a laptop or tablet to class. Some students still do not have their own computers at home. This technology deficit alone limits what I can do in class and limits the learner control and creative inquiry opportunities I can offer students. The language lab is well equipped, but that facility is not available to me for regular use. In the standard classrooms there are projectors and Windows computers available to borrow, but no wireless, and internet use requires me to use a university computer rather than my own Apple MacBook. There are blackboards or whiteboards, but no smart boards. There is a huge gap between my own vision for my courses and the tools available.
Challenge 4 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Institutional barriers present formidable challenges to moving forward in a constructive way with emerging technologies. A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment — aka “the system.”"
The Japanese universities seem somewhat slow to adapt. Even when a system is known to be problematic or ineffective, that particular system may be kept in place until the next official revamp several years down the road. Again, although I have had considerable freedom to create my own courses and syllabi, and have year by year challenged myself to improve and re-imagine the courses I offer--constantly evolving them to be ever-more project based and collaborative, I am still expected to evaluate my students in traditional ways. Further, because students are involved in part-time jobs and often are taking a dozen courses in a given term, they have little motivation to learn material related to the course outside of class. The Japanese employment system, whereby job-hunting begins in the second semester of the third year of four years of university is also problematic, resulting in many students missing multiple classes in a term for interviews and job-search activities.
Challenge 5 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Learning that incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough and is undervalued when it does take place."
Certainly, when we are expected to teach lecture-style in classrooms with limited technology, it can be difficult to incorporate certain real life experiences. But real life experiences do not necessarily require use of technology. I can assign students to conduct interviews or surveys or gather oral history outside of class. I can assign them to observe a setting closely so that they can use it in a short story they write. In those instances, technology is not necessarily a vital ingredient. However, as an English-language instructor in a Japanese university, it is difficult to provide enough real-life, authentic English-language experiences. Currently study abroad is not affordable or doable for many students in Japan, which is a shame; Japanese students with experience abroad, even brief, bring a fresh dynamic of realism into the classroom. Technology can help to some extent, with the use of videos or Skype, but what also seems to be lacking on Japanese university campuses is the vibrant range of opportunities on, say, North American university campuses--the constant offerings of performances, guest speakers, world voices, special interest groups and so much more--that bring a measure of real life directly to the students.
Challenge 6 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of the classroom and thus are not part of traditional learning metrics."
Many university students in Japan would probably say that their part-time work experiences and their club activities provide some of their most valuable learning experiences. When students in Japan join a university club or circle, it is likely the only extracurricular activity they do, as they are expected to commit year-round for all 4 years to that particular club or circle. This intensifies the club experience, and although there are many positives to such experiences, the resulting lack of exposure to various activities and groups naturally limits students exposure to real-life experiences. I try to make the classroom experience as meaningful and relevant to my students' futures as possible, and try to create projects and assignments that introduce them to tools like WikiSpaces or Twitter or take them to interactive websites or student-created videos. For academic writing when it comes time to cover the usual comparison and contrast essay, I send them to an English-language shopping site, have them choose two products in the same category of item they'd like to buy, and compare and contrast the items in writing. In these small ways, I aim to bring the activities that take place outside the walls of the classroom into their course learning.
The challenges we face as educators in Japan are not a lack of technology, but rather rigid systems that tend to stifle creative use of those technologies within schools and universities. I'm hoping that universities in Japan can begin creatively employing technology and new educational approaches at a faster pace in the near future.
Challenge 1 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession, especially teaching. This challenge appears at the top of the list because despite the widespread agreement on the importance of digital media literacy, training in the supporting skills and techniques is still very rare in teacher education."
In the Japanese public university where I have taught language and content courses in English for the past thirteen years, there is minimal support for instructors. There is no central course learning environment such as Blackboard, and teachers operate independently when introducing technology into their courses. I have only ever received support for use of the language labs. I therefore rely on conferences and my own online network of peers to update and develop my own skills and techniques. This results in a hodgepodge of techniques applied to my courses, and without a community of face-to-face university peers for tech support, this approach is fraught with many hiccups.
Challenge 2 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"K-12 must address the increased blending of formal and informal learning. Traditional lectures
and subsequent testing are still dominant learning vehicles in schools. In order for students to get a well rounded education with real world experience, they must also engage in more informal in-class activities as well as learning to learn outside the classroom."
The same can certainly be said for the Japanese university; instructors are expected to teach many of their courses in traditional lecture format to large classes in classrooms that seat 60 students in desks and at the end of the semester to assess via a final exam or report. Although I can rearrange the desks in a classroom, class size I cannot always control. Fortunately, in addition to reports or exams, I can view a portfolio of written work, or assign final presentations and speeches for final assessment. A fundamental frustration for instructors in Japanese universities is that students expect virtually all of their learning to take place in the classroom. My university students tend to be passive learners. Relative to university students in, for example, the U.S., students in my Japanese university spend little time on assignments outside of class and tend to complain if a teacher assigns more than one hour of homework per week. Students seem less likely to engage in independent learning related to a course outside of class and spend a very limited amount of time in preparation for classes. The lecture/exam type course model and methods seem deeply ingrained.
Challenge 3 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or
practices. The increasing demand for education that is customized to each student’s unique needs is driving the development of new technologies that provide more learner choice and control and allow for differentiated instruction, but there remains a gap between the vision and the tools needed to achieve it."
Although I have great freedom in designing my courses and syllabi, the gap between my own vision for my courses and the tools available to achieve them often stymies me. My university students all have cell phones, but I would guess that on average currently only one student in fifty brings a laptop or tablet to class. Some students still do not have their own computers at home. This technology deficit alone limits what I can do in class and limits the learner control and creative inquiry opportunities I can offer students. The language lab is well equipped, but that facility is not available to me for regular use. In the standard classrooms there are projectors and Windows computers available to borrow, but no wireless, and internet use requires me to use a university computer rather than my own Apple MacBook. There are blackboards or whiteboards, but no smart boards. There is a huge gap between my own vision for my courses and the tools available.
Challenge 4 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Institutional barriers present formidable challenges to moving forward in a constructive way with emerging technologies. A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment — aka “the system.”"
The Japanese universities seem somewhat slow to adapt. Even when a system is known to be problematic or ineffective, that particular system may be kept in place until the next official revamp several years down the road. Again, although I have had considerable freedom to create my own courses and syllabi, and have year by year challenged myself to improve and re-imagine the courses I offer--constantly evolving them to be ever-more project based and collaborative, I am still expected to evaluate my students in traditional ways. Further, because students are involved in part-time jobs and often are taking a dozen courses in a given term, they have little motivation to learn material related to the course outside of class. The Japanese employment system, whereby job-hunting begins in the second semester of the third year of four years of university is also problematic, resulting in many students missing multiple classes in a term for interviews and job-search activities.
Challenge 5 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Learning that incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough and is undervalued when it does take place."
Certainly, when we are expected to teach lecture-style in classrooms with limited technology, it can be difficult to incorporate certain real life experiences. But real life experiences do not necessarily require use of technology. I can assign students to conduct interviews or surveys or gather oral history outside of class. I can assign them to observe a setting closely so that they can use it in a short story they write. In those instances, technology is not necessarily a vital ingredient. However, as an English-language instructor in a Japanese university, it is difficult to provide enough real-life, authentic English-language experiences. Currently study abroad is not affordable or doable for many students in Japan, which is a shame; Japanese students with experience abroad, even brief, bring a fresh dynamic of realism into the classroom. Technology can help to some extent, with the use of videos or Skype, but what also seems to be lacking on Japanese university campuses is the vibrant range of opportunities on, say, North American university campuses--the constant offerings of performances, guest speakers, world voices, special interest groups and so much more--that bring a measure of real life directly to the students.
Challenge 6 mentioned in the Horizon report:
"Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of the classroom and thus are not part of traditional learning metrics."
Many university students in Japan would probably say that their part-time work experiences and their club activities provide some of their most valuable learning experiences. When students in Japan join a university club or circle, it is likely the only extracurricular activity they do, as they are expected to commit year-round for all 4 years to that particular club or circle. This intensifies the club experience, and although there are many positives to such experiences, the resulting lack of exposure to various activities and groups naturally limits students exposure to real-life experiences. I try to make the classroom experience as meaningful and relevant to my students' futures as possible, and try to create projects and assignments that introduce them to tools like WikiSpaces or Twitter or take them to interactive websites or student-created videos. For academic writing when it comes time to cover the usual comparison and contrast essay, I send them to an English-language shopping site, have them choose two products in the same category of item they'd like to buy, and compare and contrast the items in writing. In these small ways, I aim to bring the activities that take place outside the walls of the classroom into their course learning.
The challenges we face as educators in Japan are not a lack of technology, but rather rigid systems that tend to stifle creative use of those technologies within schools and universities. I'm hoping that universities in Japan can begin creatively employing technology and new educational approaches at a faster pace in the near future.
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