Hajime Ohiwa

KJ editor: a card-handling tool for creative work support

KJ method, which was developed for creative thinking, uses cards for making a conceptual map from brainstorming. A card-handling editor for supporting the method is presented and was used for analysing requirements of software. The most important effect of using the editor is that not only the relations between the brainstormed matters but also what is lacking in them can be found. The editor is found to be a very useful tool for recording the creative thinking process, and can be used afterwards for interpreting the specification which is a result of the requirement analysis.

Situated learning on FPGA for superscalar microprocessor design education

Microprocessor design education is acquiring critical importance, since highly sophisticated functions are supported by microprocessors in many products which cannot lose market windows. In our educational environment City-1, 7 out of 39 junior students had succeeded in implementing superscalar RISC processors on FPGAs, guided by an example hardware description language (HDL) description, within 15 weeks in 2001. With another example HDL description, 14 out of 47 junior students had succeeded in implementing superscalar CISC/RISC processors within the same weeks in 2002, featuring devices such as out-of-order completion, multiple-path execution, etc. We noticed that this could be regarded as an excellent illustration of situated learning on FPGAs which can be applied prior to on the job training (OJT) in companies. The most important thing is the choice of the tasks given as the way in for the beginners.

Legitimate peripheral participation on FPGA for fine grain microprocessor design education

Legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) is a new model that illustrates the learning process by practical participation, where it is at first legitimately peripheral but increases gradually in engagement and complexity. In a production line, the apprentices are engaged in stages under attenuated situation conditions and thus have an opportunity for observation to get approximate knowledge of the product in the early steps. The very first step is called way-in, which we have found very critical for the success of the whole learning process. Instruction-issue-logic was chosen as such in City-1 microprocessor design education environment , because it is the central part of superscalar microprocessors. Although our junior students had the opportunity for understanding the concept of superscalar through this way-in, FPGAs with 10,000 gates were found to be too small for a framework to move forward to full participation. In 2004, FPGAs with 200,000 gates were introduced that had a reorder buffer with 4 entries. As a results, 16 out of 52 junior students who took the course were successful in bringing their original devices into their microprocessors. This education could be used for training in industry-as well.

Keyboard Training in an Information Oriented Society

Importance of the mother language support of the computer is pointed out and input method for the Japanese language is described both from historical and practical viewpoint. It is argued that early training of keyboard is essential but it should be done after hand-writing is well established by schoolchildren.

Programming in Japanese for literacy education

We have developed a programming language Kotodama (means “what you speak becomes reality”) in which a source program can be read as authentic Japanese language and be executed as a programming language at the same time. We put Kotodama into a teaching environment Squeak developed by Alan Kay and have developed several programming courses on it. We have found that explanation of a programming language becomes unnecessary and that we can concentrate on algorithm development by examining a program text that can be read as Japanese. We believe that this programming course can work as natural language writing course as well for precise description.

A Supporting System of Informatics Education for University Freshmen

Informatics Education for high schools started in 2003 in Japan. Aithough it is compulsory, university freshmen in 2006 are expected to have large differences in their computer literacy competency. One of the reasons for this is that many teachers have no technical knowledge of Informatics because they were licensed by taking only ninety hours of training during their summer vacation. It is necessary for universities in Japan to classify their freshmen with respect to their computer literacy to be able to provide appropriate education. We have developed a testing system for this but further improvement is required due to quality variations of the test. Appropriate classification of the problems is also required for giving good advice for the student to learn properly. We are developing a Learning Management System (LMS), which supports not only students but also the collaborative works of teachers as well.

A trial course of programming with Squeak

The purpose of programming education is not only to memorize the knowledge of programming language but also to let the learners acquire useful concepts for realizing ones idea in the form of a program. It requires such activities as logical thinking, problem solving, modeling and abstraction. However, most of beginners are bothered to memorize a lot of knowledge of the programming language and to eliminate compile errors. It prevents learners from concentrating on their concept acquisition. We think that Squeak proposed by Alan Kay has potential to solve this problem. However, if a teacher teaches only the knowledge of Squeak and its environment, the problem is not resolved. In this report, we propose a Squeak based curriculum and its concept for education of programming.

A card-handling tool for multimedia data

We studied the utilization of multimedia information for card-handling and implemented a prototype of a card-handling tool that can handle multimedia information. Cards are widely used as a tool to put information in order and manage it, and to put together documents efficiently. Ease of use is thought to be important in our card-handling tool, and users can handle information in a wide work area. We extended our card-handling tool so that it can handle image and sound data. Information arrangement through flexible thinking and effective information transfer can be achieved by writing pictures and graphs on cards and explaining charts aurally. Also, it proved effective for handling multimedia information that has hyperlink structure, like WWW.

Computer science education in Japanese universities

In this paper the early research with respect to computers in Japan is briefly described. Then it is reported how computer science education was started under the name ‘information engineering’ or ‘information science’ in most universities in Japan. The situation was not ideal, as is illustrated by the fact that electrical engineering with FORTRAN programming could also be grouped under these headings. Some efforts of the Information Processing Society of Japan to overcome this situation are discussed. Also the results of a discussion about general informatics education for noninformatics majors are reported.

A card-handling tool which supports multimedia data and resource accessing on the internet

The multimedia application system based on the card-handling and its extension which makes us be able to access information resources on the Internet are described. We considered the multimedia utility and its suitability for card-handling, and developed a card-handling tool KJ-Editor which supports the multimedia data and Internet resource accessing.