February has arrived, and the class period has ended. I thought things might calm down once February started, but that is not the case; precisely because there are no classes, there is a lot of work to do. In addition to the exam period, February is filled with oral examinations for undergraduate and master’s students, as well as graduate and undergraduate entrance exams. In a sense, it might be even busier than the class period.

On February 28th of this year, the Japan Society for Educational Technology (JSET) research meeting will be held at Kyushu University’s Hakozaki Campus. Professor Tagawa from the Research Institute for Information Technology is managing the event on-site. There will be two presentations related to Yamada’s group.

• Examination of Game-based Learning Support System Design for Improving Second Language Listening Skills
  Feier Tang (Kyushu University), Masanori Yamada (Kyushu University / Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University)
• Development of University Library Game Materials Using Smartphones: Aiming for Motivation for Autonomous Learning Based on the ARCS Model
  Yuriko Ikawa, Eriko Kudo, Yukari Nohara, Kosuke Kaneko (Kyushu University Library), Masanori Yamada (Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University)

The first presentation is a simplified summary of the literature review necessary for creating a game-based English listening learning support system. I encouraged the student to take on the challenge of presenting with the goal of fostering their development by having them learn about the pace of research and what kind of research is being conducted by students, researchers, and practitioners at other universities. I also place great importance on them becoming accustomed to the format of Japanese presentations.

The second presentation is a practical study conducted in collaboration with our university library. With the cooperation of Professor Kaneko from the Center for Library Material Development, we have developed a game that allows students to learn how to search for information and utilize library services within the library. We will be introducing the game we developed. We are currently evaluating the effectiveness of this game. We hope to be able to observe its practical effects in the next academic year as well.

If you are interested, please join us. The year-end research meeting is on the scale of a mini-national conference. There will be six or seven parallel sessions. Teachers from elementary, junior high, and high schools will also be presenting. If you are interested, please come and participate. Participation is free (the proceedings are 1,000 yen).