We held an online event (August 8, 2023) where professionals from educational researchers, practitioners, and educational materials manufacturers who have adopted UD fonts came together to discuss how to build an education system that leaves no one behind. This report features guest talk #3.
Guest Talk ③
Characters, Learning Support, and Educational Digital Transformation
guest:MetaMoJi Inc. Tomo Ishizawa Mr. Miss.
Responsible for planning and sales promotion of educational products
He has been in charge of educational software such as "MetaMoJi ClassRoom" and the "Just Smile Series" for 18 years, and has commercialized and provided a variety of apps in response to the requests of school teachers.
In order to popularize the use of one tablet PC per student, he is involved in DiTT (formerly the Digital Textbook Materials Council) as a consultant and leader of the software materials subcommittee, and is supporting the informatization of education from both an industry perspective and by providing learning software.
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Report
Participant comments
MetaMoJi ClassRoomThis is the first time I've heard that UD digital textbook fonts can be used. Thank you for responding flexibly to my questions!
I have previously learned about UD fonts, and there was a lot of useful information that expanded on that knowledge.
It was great to hear about the developments being made for individually optimized learning and the outlook for the future.
The situation surrounding classroom support software is becoming "child-centered"!
We spoke to Mr. Ishizawa, who has been developing learning software for school education for many years, about changes in the learning environment.
In the 2000s, classes were teacher-centered, but by the 2020s, the classroom environment has changed to one where children can learn independently.
By creating an environment where each student can use a PC, it has become possible to provide individually tailored learning.
Functions that continue to be developed in close collaboration with teachers and children
There are a wide range of functions for individually optimized learning, which has become increasingly important since the 2020s.
The special features areHandwriting to text conversion featureDuring the demonstration, he talked about the importance of smooth operation and converted fonts.
Ishizawa says that if you're not good at writing by hand, you can just type it on a keyboard, and if you're not good at using a keyboard, you can just handwrite it as text. Students who have taken the course have commented that this is the ideal form of individually optimized learning.
Why UD Digital Textbook Format is Necessary for MetaMoJi ClassRoom
MetaMoJi ClassRoom has adopted the UD digital textbook font. There's a story behind the selection of the font, which was triggered by a comment from the company president!
Textbook fonts are essential for teaching support software used in learning environments. So, when they picked out various textbook fonts and consulted with the company president about which one should be included, he immediately replied, "Morisawa!", says Ishizawa. The president of MetaMoJi is the founder of JustSystems, the developer of the Japanese word processing software Ichitaro. He said that this was due to the fact that he had a great deal of trust in Morisawa, and had even released a version of Ichitaro that included Morisawa fonts.
The reaction from teachers who used the font-equipped products was more favorable than expected.
Teachers have commented that the textbooks are easy to read and suitable for education, and the response from Japanese language teachers in particular has been encouraging. Additionally, because MetaMoJi ClassRoom is multi-OS compatible, some teachers have commented that they appreciate being able to use the UD digital textbook font on any operating system.
Finally, he spoke about the future of individually optimized learning using classroom support software.Digital NoteIt is said to be in the genre.
He gave a very convincing explanation that the key to promoting digital transformation in education is individual optimization and not stopping thinking when using ICT. We can't wait to see what MetaMoJi ClassRoom will bring to the fore!
*The entire seminar program can be viewed after registering using the button above.
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