This paper presents a review of ICT use for the advancement of academic abilities in elementary and secondary education in Japan with a chronological table summarizing the movement which might have the influence on ICT use in schools since 1970 when computers were begun to use in elementary and secondary education. The table includes governmental policies and programs concerning ICT use, initiatives by academic associations and nationwide projects on ICT use, and a genealogy of elemental technologies and equipment on ICT. Next, this paper reviews from the following five viewpoints in accordance with their purposes of usage every five year- feature of each age on background for ICT use, ICT use for understanding of content area knowledge, ICT use as tools for problem solving, ICT use as the environment of collaborative learning, and ICT use as tools for assessment. It seems that ICT use in schools was affected by funding for ICT infrastructure, projects and initiatives for the promotion of best practices, and the revision of Courses of Study.

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In Japan, ICT use in teaching to improve scholastic abilities has been driven forward by policies about distribution of ICT environment and guidelines about informatization of schools. Some survey analysis for the effects of ICT use have discussed, and confirmed scientifically. In addition, several kinds of teaching practices of ICT use to improve scholastic abilities have been proposed and gradually generalized. However, current condition of distribution of ICT environment and teachers' skills of ICT use to enhanced teaching effect are faced many challenges. This paper presents a review of historical viewpoint of policies of ICT distribution, current status of practical studies of ICT use, and check up challenges for the future.

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[in Japanese]

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Herein, we present a drill-type web based training (WBT) system, e^2-ELM, which is comprised of several "smart tools (ST)". The e^2-ELM system can be used to insert answers into test sentences and facilitates the selection of answers from several options. This system has been used experimentally in the authors' classes since the latter half of the second semester of 2005. In the present study, both subjective evaluations by students in the authors' classes who had previously used a conventional WBT system without ST, and quantitative experimental evaluations by student volunteers, were collected. After determining their baseline ability, the students studied "Internet technologies" using drill-type study materials. Finally, the students' achievements were measured in a post-test. The results indicated that ST functions are effective not only for reducing unnecessary and unproductive actions when answering, but also enhancing student's motivation to learn using ST. Furthermore, statistical analysis of learning achievements showed that WBT with ST is more effective than WBT without ST or traditional paper-based training.

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ICT use in the class process of the whole class teaching was investigated. The investigation object is teachers who are daily using ICT in their teaching. As a result, the following respect became clear. 1) ICT had been used 3.3 times on the average among the class of 45 minutes. Averages of the required time of ICT use were 19.0 minutes. ICT had been used 83% in the period of first 5 minutes of the class, about 50% after period of first 5 minutes. 2) Material for the explanation by the teacher brought the purpose of the ICT use, presentation of the study task brought in the introduction stage, repetition study for established brought at the last stage. 3) ICT equipments that the teacher utilized were a lot of projectors, document cameras and computers. 4) A clear coincidence was not observed between ICT equipment and the purpose of using ICT.

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Many teachers all over the country reported on their teaching by using ICT, and the classes where teachers taught students by using ICT were compared with the classes where they did not use ICT. As results, it was found that scholastic attainments were on the rise by using ICT in the class. Teachers measured student's scholastic attainments based on the viewpoint that they decided, and recognized that using ICT had a great influence in improving the attainments. Students answered the questionnaire about the class where they learned with ICT and the factor analysis was conducted to obtain the key factors for upgrading student's scholastic attainments. As a result, the factors concerning scholastic attainments were extracted, and the difference of each factor by the presence of the ICT use was investigated. In all factors it was shown that the high scholastic ability was surely obtained by using ICT in the class. On the other hand, students took a common examination, and it was also shown that the scholastic ability was surely promoted by using ICT in the class.

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This paper describes the exploring of the relationship between the effects of the e-learning system, students' motivation and their self-regulated learning strategies in blended learning environments. 125 university students participated in the information technology education course in blended learning environments. First, we investigated how they used the e-learning system outside of school hours, and what the students recognized from it. The finding was 55.2% of students used the e-leaning system for preparation or review. Their impression was that they were able to acquire knowledge and skills with the e-learning system more than the students who didn't use it outside of school hours. Secondly, we analyzed students' motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies with the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (PINTRICH and DE GROOT 1990). The findings showed that intrinsic value of motivation beliefs of the students who used the e-learning system for preparation or review were significantly higher than the students who didn't use it. Thirdly, we analyzed causal relationship models between the effects of the e-learning system, motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies by covariance structure analysis. It was clear that the causal relationship model which targeted all students indicated not only the relationship between the effects of the e-learning system and intrinsic value but also the relationship between intrinsic value and attitude towards learning.

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In the UK, the contribution of ICT use to improvements in academic achievement is inspected, and research in the area is accumulating. We analysed the national policies and initiatives or preparing the ICT environment. As a result, the background of the spread of ICT use in the UK became clear. A Self-Review Framework is used by schools as an index to show the situation of good use of ICT. This Framework is a basis, not only for ICT infrastructure provision, but also for national policy for co-operation and development in requirements to reduce the burden of the teacher. In each school, a senior leadership team, led by the head teacher, pushes forward the integration of ICT in the school. In addition, we suggest the importance of a national organisation such as Becta in promoting ICT use.

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This paper describes effect of realtime mobile media broadcasting linking classroom learning and outside resource. We design and investigate effect of presence of broadcasting pictures from outside of school for elementary children's social study classroom learning program. In first trial, we found (1) realtime broadcasting pictures are more effective materials for children than video & television pictures and teachers' experimentation, (2) there are little effect talking activity and agreement activity in the lesson. In second trial, we investigate relation of learners' relevancy of the characters of broadcasting pictures and learning activity. As a result, high learners' relevancy for the characters of broadcasting pictures will activate talking activity and agreement activity in social study lessons. According to these results, we propose stundetns' relevance of contents and relevance of relaying teacher are important for learning activity enrichment in lessons.

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[in Japanese]

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