On the 24th, our university held its degree conferment ceremony, and Yamada Laboratory saw its first graduates. We were able to celebrate the completion of two students. Congratulations!!

I would like to express my gratitude to the co-supervisors and faculty members of the department who guided them. For one of the graduates, I am grateful to the elementary school teachers and the teachers at Itoshima High School. For the other graduate, I am grateful to Professor Okada of the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Professor Kaneko of the Cybersecurity Center, fellow graduate Mr. Wang, and Professor Goda of Kumamoto University, who all worked with us on our joint research.

Furthermore, I was very surprised and pleased that one of the students received the Dean’s Award for Excellence, the top award given by the graduate school. Her master’s thesis theme was health education regarding infectious diseases, utilizing the Knowledge-Constructive Jigsaw method and gamification. The gamification aspect was very interesting, showing effects such as a reduction in the number of students who contracted influenza. It has been introduced to other elementary schools, and the graduate who designed this gamification was invited to speak about active learning initiatives at the Fukuoka City Board of Education, suggesting that it has great potential for social implementation.

Although I was away on a business trip and could not attend the presentation for the Excellence Award, I heard from the judges that they considered it a truly wonderful study. As this graduate is also a school nurse (health room teacher), I hope she will continue to build on her practice and research in her own field and further develop health education from the perspective of Educational Technology.

The other graduate conducted research on an English vocabulary learning game inspired by Ingress. It is an English vocabulary learning game that uses geographic information, and this study showed a significant trend of effectiveness even in a practice session lasting about one hour. This research is actually still ongoing. We will take over what this graduate left behind and conduct a more long-term effectiveness verification next fiscal year.

These two graduates have become excellent role models. I hope they will make the most of what they have learned and succeed in their respective fields. Since they conducted research with Educational Technology as their theme, I want them to continue growing themselves and enjoy that growth. I hope they will enjoy their lives as lifelong learners who continue to advance and enjoy their own development. I hope that the current students, including those who will join us in the future, will strive to conduct research that surpasses these two.

The new fiscal year begins in about a week. We will continue to do our best.