With only a dozen or so hours left, 2018 is coming to an end. My work just won’t seem to wrap up, as I’ve been participating in a retreat to decide the future policy of JSET at the end of the year, writing manuscripts for international conferences, and handling peer reviews.

Looking back at this year, it has been a year of gratitude, as I have been able to work through various connections (this is true every year, but I feel it particularly strongly this year). In my first national conference as a director in charge of the JSET conference, I organized an EdTech symposium through connections with Prof. Akahori @ ICT CONNECT 21, Prof. Mima @ Future University Hakodate, and Prof. Goda @ Kumamoto University. I also participated in a Learning Analytics research project alongside wonderful researchers, including Prof. Shimada @ Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering at our university. I was also able to get involved in an EdTech project for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Life is Tech! Inc. is conducting an educational program in the Iizuka area and other places that uses programming and multimedia technology to solve local issues, and I am serving as an educational coach for that program. This opportunity actually came to me through a connection with Mr. Teranishi @ ICT CONNECT 21, whom I had known for quite some time, and I am grateful for the various connections that allow me to do this work. I have made a new connection with Mr. Sanui, a director at Life is Tech! Inc. Mr. Sanui has a background in practical research under the late Prof. Naomi Miyake, and the program is packed with that know-how. While this year was a trial phase involving the training of university student mentors, I believe it will become an interesting practice in the coming fiscal year. I am looking forward to it.

In my classes as well, as a new initiative and one of the projects of the Education Reform Promotion Headquarters, I am collaborating with Prof. Oga from the Faculty of Law at our university to provide reflection and feedback for developing argumentation and presentation skills through collaborative learning. It turns out that Prof. Oga was also in the ESS discussion section when he was an undergraduate, and he has connections with my seniors who were one year ahead of me, and we have many mutual friends; I feel a connection here as well. Furthermore, as part of the same project, we are working with library “Cuter” learning supporters to promote concrete and substantial learning support by utilizing Learning Analytics.

A very significant development is that our joint research project with Prof. Ogata @ Kyoto University on learning support technology was selected for the Cabinet Office’s Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP). It is a fairly large project, and the Kyushu University team, led by Prof. Shimada, will be teaming up with Kyoto University to advance this project while collaborating with the Fukuoka City Board of Education. I have been conducting Learning Analytics research in high schools for some time, and I have produced concrete Research Achievements such as the design of active learning based on Learning Analytics and its effects. From here on, it seems that Learning Analytics research in primary and secondary education will go into full swing with various approaches. A lot was decided at the end of the year, and I will be moving forward with Learning Analytics research.

Reference URL

https://www.nedo.go.jp/news/press/AA5_101045.html

As for my achievements in 2018…

Papers: 3 (all co-authored, 2 of which are SSCI)

International conferences: 9 (2 of which were first-author)

By the way, last year… I had 2 papers (both first-author), 10 international conferences (2 of which were first-author), and 3 books (co-authored).

While a total of 12 achievements is a good number, I had fewer first-author works compared to last year. As I gradually enter the middle-career stage in terms of age, I realize that I am entering an age group where I need to increase the amount of work I do, both in terms of fostering future talent and writing as the main author myself. I think the number of Research Achievements is sufficient, but next year I would like to maintain this number while increasing the number of first-author works. However, I believe that publishing two SSCI papers is a very significant achievement.

Since many of the projects I will be participating in from now on are large, I would like to form a team in the laboratory and do my best. I am also grateful that my KAKENHI grant was accepted. It is a study on Self-Regulated Learning using sensor networks, and since I personally find it an interesting perspective, I would like to think about parallel development of the research results.

Well, thank you for all your support this year. I look forward to working with you again in the coming year.