Toshio Okamoto

The Distance Ecological Model to support self/collaborative-learning in the Internet environment

With the rapid development of information technology, it is widely accepted that computer and information communication literacy has become extremely important, and is the main new ability required from teachers everywhere. Therefore, for enhancing their teaching skills and information literacy about the Internet environment with multimedia, a new teachers education framework is necessary. The purpose of the study, is to propose and develop a distance educational system, RAPSODY, which is a school-based curriculum development and training system. In this environment, a teacher can learn subject contents, teaching ways, and evaluation methods of the students learning activities, related to the new subject called Information, via an Internet based self-training system. The authors describe the structure, function and mechanism of the distance educational system based on the Distance Ecological Model, in order to realize the above-mentioned goal, and then describe the educational meaning of this model in consideration of the new learning ecology, which is based on multi-modality and new learning situations and forms.

A distance-education self-learning support system based on a VOD server

The research presented here belongs to a framework research on distance educational training for teachers, presented in a different panel session. Our goal with this research is to accumulate information for teachers, about established teaching methodologies and techniques, as lesson example videos. We are currently developing an environment for facilitating the usage of these example movies, via a VOD retrieval server. The domain of our classroom examples is Information Education, a new subject introduced in the Japanese curriculum.

Proposal of a collaborative learning standardization

The paper reports on considerations and steps towards the standardization (http://lttf.ieee.org) of the collaborative learning environment. This standardization will extend and widen the field of applications possible within the collaborative learning paradigm, and will make possible the usage of the fruits of years of research and individual implementations of the concept of collaborative learning, from our own laboratory and from others.

Development and evaluation of a mental model forming support ITS-the qualitative diagnosis simulator for the SCS operation activity

We built an educational Qualitative Diagnosis simulator (QUAD) to model SCS (Space Collaboration System) conferences. Our research aim is supporting SCS beginner users in forming correct SCS mental models and in understanding SCS essentials. Therefore, we use a logical circuit, to model the possible computations. The system diagnoses the students conceptual understanding mistakes about the SCS system and explains their cause.

A cooperative linkage between university and industry via an Internet distance education system

The Industry and University cooperation program is a project of the Japanese Ministry of Education (Mombusho). The target objective of this program is the harmonization of university level educational research, society practice and practical business. The University of Electro-Communications has been appointed by Mombusho to fulfill some specific parts of this program. The authors report on their experience with the introduction of this program, its framework, settings, actual implementation and preliminary findings. The problems encountered are discussed, together with a number of solutions to assist good practice in the building of such an applied educational program. Career development, via acquiring of experience and knowledge in the field of information communication technology, is an important subject for the future information communication society. The programs starting courses involve this discipline. The lectures were focused on high information technology, large-scale information system planning and application, and network technology.

Collaborative learning support knowledge management for asynchronous learning networks

The large amount of information available in the distributed network environment is an excellent source for remote learning environments. However, to support the decision-making process of both learners and learning mediators in such a huge information space, some prior arrangement and integration of the learning information is necessary. If managed accordingly, various information can be referred and reused in educational contexts. At the Laboratory of AI & Knowledge Computing of the University of Electro-Communications in Japan, we are constructing a digital portfolio database, which is rapidly increasing in size, as well as building a learning infrastructure. The remote learning support environment RAPSODY-EX (Remote and AdaPtive System Of DYnamic communication: Educational environment for Collaborative learning Support) can effectively carry out the collaborative learning support in an asynchronous/synchronous learning mode, based on the following functions: (1) a learning control function for the individual learner and groups, and (2) a learning information management function for mediation.

The Distance Ecological Model to Support Self/Collaborative-Learning in the Internet Environment

With the rapid development of information technology, computer and information communication literacy has become extremely important. As a result, teachers require new skills. A new teachers’ education framework is necessary to enhance multimedia teaching skills and information literacy about the Internet environment. The purpose of this study is to propose and develop a Distance Educational Model, which is a School-Based Curriculum Development and Training-System (SCOUTS). In this environment, a teacher can learn subject contents, teaching knowledge, and evaluation methods of students’ learning activities, related to the new subject called “Information”, via an Internet based self-training system. In this paper, we describe the structure, function and mechanism ofthe Distance Educational Model, and then describe the educational meaning of this model in consideration of the new learning ecology, which is based on multi-modality and new learning situations and forms.