No.4 "Research Study on the Creation and Utilization of Reading and Learning Support Content" (July 16, 2019)
Summary
The aim of this report is to outline the results of the Research Study on the Creation and Utilization of Reading and Learning Support Content, which was commissioned in 2018 (Heisei 30) by the National Diet Library's International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL).
Currently, the ILCL is considering the creation of content that facilitates easy-to-understand navigation of both the National Diet Library's digital content, as well as external content, in order to better support children's reading and learning using digital content. This research study aims to assist in this discussion by describing best practices for digital content that is designed to support reading and learning, and that is sponsored by public organizations such as libraries. To that end, this study was conducted while keeping in mind the perspectives of agencies on the creation and sponsorship side of digital content, as well as organizations such as schools and boards of education, which utilize this content. In particular: (1) Previous research studies in print and on the web; (2) content sponsor organization case research (such as questionnaire surveys and interviews); (3) a survey of the needs of content-using organizations (interviews); and (4) an examination of the use of foreign content (through print research).
Communication Design Institute, which was commissioned to conduct this research, formed a research group which included Teruyo Horikawa (Professor, Aoyama Gakuin Women's Junior College) as chief researcher; Midori Kanazawa (Professor, Toyo Eiwa University); Kazuhiro Kamata (Professor, Teikyo University); and Kiyohito Hamada (Division Chief, National Museum of Nature and Science).
This report is organized into the following five sections:
In Section 1, we outline prior research relating to this country's trend toward ICT education and research on foreign and domestic content, while also laying out this report's aims, summarizing its findings, and discussing the significance of this study.
Section 2 focuses on case research into digital content that supports reading and learning, and details web studies, an analysis of survey answers from 46 domestic organizations, and the results of interview conducted on four organizations that are representative of those forty-six. The survey focused on issues such as the characteristics of sponsored content, their developmental statuses, and management conditions, while the interview of the four representative organizations describes each of their characteristics and their management conditions, among other factors.
Section 3 investigates the needs of organizations using digital content that supports reading and learning. In this, issues such as the utilization situation and required content at eight elementary, middle, and high schools (including integrated junior and senior high schools), as well as requests to the National Diet Library, were clarified through interview. In addition, this section reports the interview results of two boards of education that oversee municipal elementary and middle schools where ICT education has been implemented.
Section 4 reports on the current state of foreign digital learning content through an analysis of written studies on the educational activities of the United States Library of Congress, the Digital Public Library of America, and EU's Europeana.
Finally, while outlining the results of this research study and the basis of those results, Section 5 also discusses the expansion of the ILCL's use of digital content in supporting children's reading and learning, and summarizes the challenges and possibilities in future utilization of digital content.