The Japan Society for Educational Technology (JSET) 2021 Spring National Conference was held on March 6th and 7th and has successfully concluded. I would like to thank everyone who participated. Given the history of these events, the Autumn National Conference tends to attract more participants, but this time—as will be announced through the society—we had a turnout that nearly rivaled the Autumn National Conference. Honestly, it was more than I expected. Thank you very much.

This conference was managed successfully only through the help of many people. I am deeply grateful to everyone at Kwansei Gakuin University, including the students, who served as the host institution and executive committee. I am also thankful to Director Koyanagi (Kansai University) and Director Murakami (Osaka University) for serving as executive committee advisors, as well as to Director Nishimori and the students in his laboratory, who provided support for the entire lab despite not being official committee members. There were no major troubles at all over these two days. We had prepared a help desk and considered various contingency plans, but we barely had to use them; it was peaceful. I believe this is largely because the participants had properly learned how to use Zoom in advance. I am very grateful for that cooperation as well.

I am truly grateful to the members of the executive committee for all their hard work. I was surprised to find that Professor Jiro Sumi had taken on the role of Executive Committee Chair. I have had a long-standing connection with Professor Sumi; we often met at the international conference EuroCALL, gave lectures together at the Japan Association for Language Education and Technology (LET), and even held a Social Network Analysis workshop in collaboration with JSET. Since we are of the same generation and I can speak with him frankly, I was truly happy and relieved to hear that he was the chair. Furthermore, Professor Fukuyama, who was on the conference planning side until last year, unexpectedly moved to Kwansei Gakuin… (laughs). When I worriedly asked Vice-Chair Professor Tokito, “Is there a new member on the executive committee…? I won’t ask who, but are they someone related to JSET?” he replied, “It’s fine. There’s no problem at all. It’s someone everyone knows well.” I wondered who it could be and made various guesses, but I never expected it to be Professor Fukuyama, moving from conference planning to the executive committee side (laughs). However, it is truly reassuring to have someone who knows the thoughts and situation of the conference planning committee side. Thank you very much.

This time, we decided to move to an online conference earlier and set the manuscript deadline earlier than last year. Since it was officially an online conference, I wanted to make the preparations rock-solid, but because we were able to finish various preparations early, we decided to extend the deadline for this time only. We also increased the number of committee members. I was greatly helped by the two secretaries, Professor Tsubakimoto (The University of Tokyo) and Professor Kawazura (Teikyo University), who oversaw the details that I am not good at.

Program organization was primarily handled by Professor Tohkai (Tohoku Gakuin University), Professor Takenaka (Ehime University), and Professor Taiyama (Naruto University of Education). It is quite a difficult task, but they prepared various forms to ensure the process went smoothly, which made management very easy. They also handled inquiries. Thank you very much. Handling inquiries is surprisingly difficult; even after the deadline has passed, there are people who make various requests, such as wanting to add an author or replace a manuscript. We have to consider, discuss, and respond to each one. It is quite tough. I think we need to consider how to handle this for the next fiscal year. The Spring Conference schedule is quite tight and involves various tasks, so how to reduce the burden of each task is an issue.

This year, we also held a corporate PR time on a trial basis. The Spring Conference is basically held at universities, and the policy is not to have corporate exhibitions to reduce the operational burden, but there are many things that can be done if it is an online conference. Corporate PR time was held at the JSiSE National Conference. I actually participated and thought it was very good. I thought it would be great if companies could introduce their services in sessions that fit their services, and if participants could become interested. It was held at the end of the JSiSE National Conference, but at JSET, we placed it in the middle of the sessions. It is a matter of some debate, but I thought it was important to set an opportunity for attendees to actually listen, so I placed it in the middle of the session. It has different characteristics from a booth exhibition; at a booth, you can’t do anything unless attendees come to you, but corporate PR time is something that comes from the company side, so I thought it was meaningful. It might be good to include it even in face-to-face meetings. We also placed banner ads on the conference website. This matter was prepared and arranged by Professor Kawazura (Teikyo University) and Ms. Kobayashi and Ms. Uda (Uchida Yoko). Thank you very much.

For the symposium, titled “The Future of Education Transformed by Digital Transformation,” we invited former Director Yasuura (Kyushu University) for the keynote speech and Professor Horita (Tohoku University) as the designated discussant. We asked Professor Morita (Waseda University), Professor Takahashi (Tokyo Gakugei University), and Professor Shirai (Osaka University) to serve as panelists, and they gave lectures on digital transformation in universities and primary/secondary education. Thank you very much. The planning was handled by Professor Oyama (Osaka University) and Professor Nagahama (Tokyo Institute of Technology). At first, since it was the end of the fiscal year, topics like changes in education during the COVID-19 pandemic and online classes came up, but we are all tired of COVID, aren’t we… It is painful to be worried and suffering about COVID all the time and end with COVID. The board of directors thought it was fine to include COVID, but wouldn’t it be better to have a plan that is more forward-looking, as is typical of JSET? So, it went in the direction of digital transformation in education. Seeing the two fresh faces moderating through Zoom, I felt like I could see the future of the society being carried by the younger generation.

I am very grateful to Vice-Chair Matsukawa and Professor Misono (Shimane University) for their involvement in building the foundation for operating this online conference. Vice-Chair Matsukawa handled everything from the Zoom contract to coordinating with the executive committee and building the support system. Professor Misono handled a wide range of tasks, from the conference website and program to the proceedings. He also coordinated with other departments. Thank you very much.

Personally, I held a self-organized session. As a report on the results of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) that I am leading, I thought I would talk about what should be considered to foster autonomous learners based on Learning Analytics, and what kind of data should be collected, analyzed, and fed back. I organized it as a joint session with the JST AIP Acceleration Research, led by Professor Shimada (Kyushu University), and was able to talk about the results of the AIP, the evaluation of the Learning Analytics infrastructure at Kyushu University, and how it contributed to online classes, which was a major issue in fiscal year 2020. We also had lectures from Professor Shimada and Professor Goda (Kumamoto University). Professor Goda’s statement that “Instructional Design gives context to Learning Analytics” really resonated with me. Research on Instructional Design based on Learning Analytics is being conducted in my laboratory, and I feel that there is potential for more development. I hope to report on it here as soon as we achieve results.

With this, I have finished my final job as a director. The four years passed in the blink of an eye. I served as vice-chair for two years at the conference where Professor Terashima (Osaka Kyoiku University) was the chair, and for the latter two years, I served as the director in charge of the Spring National Conference. Originally, the plan was for the SIG chair to also serve as the conference planning chair, so I had no intention of being the conference planning chair and was caught off guard (laughs). It was a sudden turn of events, so to speak; a framework for being in charge of the spring conference was created, and I became the chair. It was the first chair position since the split into autumn and spring, and while the spring conference had been a research meeting until then, it was upgraded to a national conference. Since it was different from the autumn conference, which continues the national conference that had been held until then, we had to consider many new things. It was a two-year period of struggling with how to increase the value as a national conference while reducing costs in a difficult financial situation without corporate exhibitions… and how to build a relationship with the executive committee. I never thought that both years would be online national conferences, but I learned a lot.

It was three years ago, I believe, when the person in charge of the spring conference was decided, that volunteers among directors and councilors gathered in Tokyo for a retreat to think about future plans and what to do for the future of JSET. The national conference is also very important, and we thought about and organized what kind of plans to make and how to implement them. We were able to start student sessions and self-organized sessions, offer discounts on participation fees, and live-stream the symposium one year ahead of schedule, partly due to COVID. I think there are more ways to do student sessions. Perhaps making them roundtables. I think there is also the possibility of establishing an incentive award for students to promote the development of young researchers. I could not start this while I was a director. Also, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, more educational institutions are conducting online classes, and interest in Educational Technology is increasing. I think it might be good to hold seminars for first-time participants.

Also, not limited to the national conference, I hope that many people will become involved in the management of the society. As I talked with the committee members at the final conference planning committee meeting, I hope that instead of the same people repeatedly becoming directors or committee members, various people will be involved in the management of the society and have the opportunity to think about the development of research in the field of Educational Technology. The national conference has various meanings, but one is the support of research. How can we improve research in Educational Technology? Other committees have similar elements, but regardless of the committee, how to develop the research field of Educational Technology is a major issue. Thinking about that also leads to expanding one’s own research.

I look forward to the future development of the national conference. These four years as a director have been a great learning experience. It was a four-year period supported by everyone. Thank you very much. From now on, the Spring National Conference will be planned and held under a new chair. I hope that JSET will continue to be a society that can leave a greater social impact and more strongly promote the development of Educational Technology.