Yoshihiro Tabira

Integration and implementation of sustainable ICT-based education in developing countries: low-cost, en masse methodology in Kenya

The quality of education in Kenya’s public elementary schools has continued to drop, which is an ironic outcome in the wake of the introduction of tuition-exempt primary education. This removal of tuition costs led to a surge in primary education enrollment that overwhelmed the existing educational infrastructure. Overcapacity in classrooms led to frustrated teachers and mediocre delivery of content amid the overstretched resources and limited education budget. To remedy this situation, the government has begun introducing various information and communication technologies (ICTs) in schools to supplement current resources. This comes with mixed results. This paper aims to demonstrate effective strategies for integrating low-cost ICT-based materials in schools in developing countries through a community of practice. Three schools were used to illustrate integration of sustainable ICT-based education in a style of classroom characteristic in developing schools. Development and use of prerecorded DVD-based content was proposed as an effective solution. A comparative study was undertaken to evaluate the differences in student comprehension and educator delivery of education involving a digital, ICT-integrated classroom and a traditional, analog-type teaching method classroom to underscore the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of introducing a low-cost ICT-based program. This study also shows that teachers are better positioned to lead the design and development of appropriate and innovative materials. Furthermore, to cope with the immense amount of materials that need developing to correspond with the curriculum, it shows that with the emergence of a community of practice of teachers, many suitable low-cost materials can be developed. This takes place through an iterative collaboration as opposed to traditional top-down approaches, which have a proven record of failure.

Strategic collaboration between NPO and local government for social innovation: A case of implementing web based video conference for global communication program at Osaka, Miyakojima

Japan has embarked on aggressive global outreach programs in various sectors and administrative levels in order to develop people with global outlook to cope with the rapid advancement of globalization. In this regard regional local governments have also embarked on a number of initiatives in designing localized global outreach programs. A case study analysis is used to show how regional local governments, (hereinafter referred to as the municipal government) strategically build collaborative networks to advance the global human resources development programs designed to train the work force who can address the challenges affected by globalization. Specifically, this paper employs the social network framework to analyze the collaboration between the Osaka Miyakojima municipality and a Non-Profit organization (NPO) in developing social networks to link Osaka municipality schools and there international counterparts for the purpose of conducing online based international exchange programs that enable the students conduct real time communication and give them exposure at an early age in this notoriously closed society.