A prototypical Web site was designed and developed for 2 TV lessons in NHK's series of chemistry for distance learning high school students. The Web site was aimed at better understandings of the students who learn at home in isolation by viewing the TV program in two ways: (1) Pre-viewing Study: to verify their prerequisite knowledge and to activate their expectations for the program, and (2) Post-viewing Study: to review the content of the program and to check and submit their understandings. Evaluation data were obtained from 76 high school students, showing positive reactions about structure and content of the site, as well as learning on the Web for the first time. Through the addition of the Web site to the educational broadcast, it was also found that the roles of TV program can be more focused as a part of the blended e-learning environment.

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The authors developed a method to measure visual literacy that consists of two parts. One is a part which measures audiovisual literacy by evaluating how the subjects deeply and completely approach the aim of TV programs through understanding the structure of them. The other one measures the ability of understanding the relationship between signifier and signified in scenes and shots presented in TV programs. This research method is confirmed of its validity by means of tests to teachers and student teachers. As a result, we concluded this method is effective and useful to improve their visual literacy.

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This paper intends to elucidate the importance of considering the educational objective by examining the theories and the disputes of early movie education. In the first half of the twentieth century, movies were exploited to cultivate students to be militaristic. Although much was written about the value or methods of movie education at that time, there was little research evidence regarding the effectiveness of movie education. They were very subjective, their subjectivities were founded on the concepts of moral education and instrumentalism. In that situation, Yoshio Sekino gave much attention to concepts of movie education and wrote great theses about it. But his point of view about movie education is realistic. Though he insisted that the characteristic of movie education was to express real, vivid and actual lives, Norio Sasaki refuted that on the view of formalism. To explain that realism introduces "grand narrative" easily, a comparison with formalism is very helpful. Through examining the two researchers' dispute, this article describes why realism makes way for the exploitation of militarism.

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In January 2002, the National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) conducted a survey based on mail-in questionnaires concerning students with disabilities and their IT environments. ("Students with disabilities" as used here refers to restricted mobility, blind or partially sighted, deaf or hard of hearing, medical condition, etc. It does not include persons with learning disabilities) This survey targeted 1,266 places of higher education throughout Japan (667 universities, 537 junior colleges, and 62 technical colleges), and the questionnaires were given to head quarters of institutions. We had response rates of 66% from universities, 60% from junior colleges, and 81% from technical colleges. Our survey shows that support systems for students with disabilities after they enter are limited to their own efforts to help themselves. I intend to reflect on the current status of Japanese higher education and IT environments as identified in the survey.

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Japan's social digital divide is being formed by the following elements: 1) the type of ICT (computers vs. web-enabled cellular phones or PDAs) use, 2) self-efficacy in using ICT, the mindset, and privacy concerns, 3) educational level, 4) age, 5) socio-economic level, 6) strategic (digital) skills, 7) instrumental (digital) skills and ability to bypass technical problems, 8) informational (digital) skills, foreign language faculty and cultural receptiveness. Through examining the result of two surveys, this paper examines how a type of stratification is being formulated - a digital stratification, instead of the current binary concept of the digital divide of "haves and have-nots" of ICT. This construct was initially conceptualized for providing a better understanding of the social digital divide in Japan, however it can be used for investigating the actual conditions of other nations and will be useful in developing systematic strategies for digital inclusion.

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Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a young country which has become independent from Australia in 1975. There are a lot of difficulties in this country. These difficulties usually come from the lack of social infrastructure of the country. This country has started the school system reformation in 1994. The reforms include the primary and secondary educational systems. With the reformation, a large number of new classes were opened and therefore it was necessary to supply a lot of new and high quality teachers. It is indeed very difficult to produce new teachers in a short time and it is also very hard to level up the teachers in their own major fields in a short period. The information and communication technology (ICT) has been introduced in order to solve these difficulties in the field of primary and secondary education. The ICT which would be used in a distance education consists of new technology such as computers, networks, and satellite TV broadcast and receiving systems. The present paper will describe such a distance education project held in this country in a pilot form. Technical difficulties exist in this project were described. The project plays an important role in a development of the educational fields in this country.

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