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Project Formalization
Reflecting the report produced by Information Department, Industrial Structure
Council, in June 1993, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry drew
"Programs for Information Oriented Sophistication" in May 1994.
To materialize the policies in the "Programs", Information-Technology
Promotion Agency (IPA) started "Intensive Utilization of Specific Programs"
which had been included in the third supplementary budget of fiscal year
1993.
"Educational Software Development and Utilization Promotion Project" was among
the projects included in the "Intensive Utilization ..." scheme. "Networking
Environment Providing Undertaking", commonly known as "100-school Networking
Project", was started as an experiment to one of the main themes of
"Educational ... Project".
The objective of 100-school project is to bring about
education which is beyond many constraints of class room studies,
by utilizing computer networks in the primary and secondary education.
The project is to be carried out jointly by IPA and
Center for Educational Computing (CEC) under the supervisions of
the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture and
the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Project Overview
Information oriented education is described in
"Programs for Information Oriented Sophistication" as below.
- Active learners
By utilizing computer software and network features at the front edge,
learning processes, that is to grasp and analize the learning materials
and to display the result, will be performed more actively by the learners.
With this sophistication, the learners can strengthen their abilities to
create, to think, and to present.
- Education beyond constraints of class room studies
With the computers and network support, abilities to process, gather
and transmit information will be vastly expanded. And education
beyond many constraints of class room studies becomes possible.
It was decided that
a combination of roughly 100 elementaries, junior and senior highs, and special
education schools across the country would be selected. The schools should be
equipped with a server and a client machines with network connections.
An environment for practical use of the network capabilities to hold joint
classes, information exchange sessions, and conferences on networks should be
provided for.
Software which is necessary for students to have access to libraries, schools,
and other places in the world should also be provided.
Schools' voluntary joint activities making use of the environment would be
supported. The administration of the project would also propose plans for joint
use of the facilities over the networks, and promote the related activities.
To carry out the experiment of education beyond constraints of class room
studies and to examine its educational effects,
call for participation was issued in August 1994, and the undertaking took off.
Project Promotion Body
An advisory group called
"Collaborators of the Educational Software Development and Utilization
Promotion Center" was formed at CEC, by scholars and men of experience, to
proceed with the project effectively and efficiently.
The "Collaborators" formed two specialized groups its underneath to discuss
specific subjects in detail. One is the "Educational Use Group" made up with
educators, and the other is the "Network Technologies Group" made up with
network researchers.
Matters requiring professional considerations are to be referred to the
"Collaborators", then the two specialized groups would take supportive actions,
so that the project can make a smooth progress.
Call for Participation
The project was to invite a total of some 100 elementary, junior high,
senior high, and special schools nation wide.
"The Application for the Networking Environment Providing Undertaking" was
prepared and distributed under the advisory of the Ministry of Education,
Science, Sports and Culture to all
the 47 education committees at the prefecture level in August 1994.
There were two separate application groups.
- A Group: 20 to 30 schools
- Forerunner schools with skilled teachers and experiences.
Must actively plan and play parts in networking projects.
Line speed of 64 kbps assumed.
- B Group: 70 to 80 schools
- Must actively plan and play parts in networking projects.
Line speed for 3.4 kHz band width items assumed.
At the time of application, the term Internet was still new, and
environments for networking or of client/server were the state of the art
of information technologies and were beyond the scope of the
conventional use of computers at schools. None the less, 1543 schools (708
for A group, and 835 for B) applied with quality proposals.
Selecting Members
To select members, applications were examined based on
"The Application for the Networking Environment Providing Undertaking" and
the criteria below,
- The technical merit of the teachers of the applying school
- The extent of the personal computers use at the applicant
- Proposed plans by the applicant
These three criteria were taken into account evenly to make the judgement.
Then distribution balance of the localities and types of schools were
considered, and a total of 111 members, 108 schools and 3 audio visual centers,
were selected.
As the result, distribution of the membership was at least one in every
prefecture. School types covered were elementary, junior high, senior high
and schools for deaf, blind, mentally retarded, and physically handicapped.
International schools, a class in a hospital for children receiving long
term medical care and three audio visual centers were also included,
The three centers were expected to become the front runners of the project.
The result was notified to the applicants through the heads of education at
prefecture level in December 1994. The table below shows the details of the
selection.
| school type | school count | A group
|
|---|
| elementary | 18 | 7
|
| elementary & junior high | 1 | 0
|
| junior high | 29 | 7
|
| junior & senior high | 10 | 5
|
| senior high | 40 | 15
|
| special education | 8 | 0
|
| international | 2 | 1
|
| audio visual | 3 | 3
|
Networking Environment Installation
In February 1995, installation and connection works for communication lines,
equipment, and client/server machines began.
By the end of June 1995,
system installation, and Internet connection at all member schools were
completed and their servers started up.
For smooth installation of the systems, the whole country was divided into six
blocks so that the procurement could be carried out in parallel.
Three separate tenders for installation of communication lines, for
communication equipment, and for client/server machines were
invited for each six blocks.
Details about the installed systems are on
Technical Information
. Please have a look.
Networking Environment Expansion
The hardware the members were provided with at the start of the project was a
minimally configured a server and a client machines system. To expand their
networking environments, some schools connected the machines already in hand,
and some bought new machines.
In July 1996, we performed a questionnaire survey on number of client machines
in operation.
About 80 percent of the members did expand their networking environments, as
shown below.
| bracket(clients) | school count
|
|---|
| more than 50 | 13
|
| more than 40 | 13
|
| more than 30 | 4
|
| more than 20 | 10
|
| more than 10 | 9
|
| more than 1 | 39
|
| 1 or no answer | 23
|