Proposing a Way to Express One’s Opinion Besides Raising One’s Hand:Mutual Evaluations of Presentations in Elementary School

Abstract

When considering new learning and teaching methods, it is necessary to revisit and review concepts considered as self-evident in accordance with the demands of society and technological progress. In this paper, we discuss hand raising as an example of a concept considered self-evident and propose an alternative way for students to express an opinion. The alternative we suggest involves using the annotation tool FishWatchr Mini during presentations in elementary school social studies. Raising one’s hand is a way to assert one’s intention to talk. However, the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) offers the unique advantage of allowing children to simultaneously express their opinions and discover other children’s opinions. This is useful because it teaches children how to actively participate in society and handle the diverse range of opinions found online. Contemporary society requires people to have these abilities, hence children should be taught these skills in educational settings. Furthermore, the teacher plays the crucial role of a facilitator who can quickly grasp, organize, and present many children’s opinions. In this paper, as an actual example of this role, we discuss how teachers manage “consecutive annotations” by children and employ a teaching method that uses the annotation results.