Fujitsu Participates in "Future School Promotion Project"

Tokyo, January 26, 2011

The Fujitsu Group today announced its participation as a solutions vendor in promoting the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan's "Future School Promotion Project." In participating in the program, the Fujitsu Group has built an ICT environment to be deployed in five elementary schools in Western Japan that includes a wireless LAN for use inside the classroom, an interactive whiteboard⁽¹⁾, and a tablet PC for each child. Each trial school was equipped with the ICT environment in October 2010 and has started research pertaining to cooperative education. As part of the study, the schools plan to hold public lessons from the end of January to the end of February 2011.

To promote cooperative education in which students learn together and teach each other, the research study will involve building and operating ICT environments inside of public elementary schools with the goal of identifying and analyzing the challenges associated with this implementation. The trials will be held at ten elementary schools across Japan.

The Fujitsu Group will be providing support for the research in a variety of ways, including infrastructure maintenance, dispatching ICT support personnel to each school, developing a portal site for sharing information between trial schools and guardians, building a cooperative educational platform⁽²⁾ for delivering curriculum and other materials, and proposing ways in which ICT can be applied to lessons.

Background

Starting in fiscal 2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan has been pursuing a research study as part of the "Future School Promotion Project" aimed at fostering cooperative education that utilizes ICT. Five public elementary schools from Eastern Japan and five from Western Japan have been selected as trial schools for the project. The research involves building an ICT environment around a core cooperative educational platform known also as an educational cloud that provides unified access to resources including digital textbooks, a portal site, and ICT support. At the same time, the study will also incorporate lessons that employ ICT devices, such as a tablet PC for each child and an interactive whiteboard, thereby verifying the technological requirements needed to foster cooperative education and the effects of this technology. The results of the study will be compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as a set of guidelines for creating an environment for employing ICT in the field of education.

Having been recognized for Fujitsu's know-how in the field of education and the Fujitsu Research Institute's track record in consulting, the Fujitsu Group was selected to conduct the study at five schools in Western Japan in fiscal 2010. As part of the project, the company will be providing infrastructure, including a wireless LAN for use inside the classroom, a tablet PC for each child and teacher, and an interactive whiteboard. At the same time, Fujitsu will provide support for the research in a variety of ways, including developing a portal site for sharing information between trial schools and guardians, building a cooperative education platform for delivering curriculum materials and other information, dispatching ICT support personnel to assist with the study, and proposing ways in which handwriting input and other features can be applied to lessons.

After installing the ICT environment in October 2010, each school conducted trial runs to determine how to more efficiently incorporate ICT into lessons, and has subsequently moved forward with this research. As part of the study, the schools plan to hold public lessons from the end of January to the end of February 2011.

In the future, the Fujitsu Group plans, through this and other research studies, to continue helping to foster cooperative education that employs ICT, while at the same time delivering a variety of services that leverage the company's track record and know-how in the field of education to support the next generation of education.

About the Trial Schools and Public Lessons

School Name	Number of Students *	Public Lesson Date	Subject
Higashiyama Elementary School (Obu-shi, Aichi Prefecture)	418 students	Feb. 9	Arithmetic, Arts & Crafts, Social Studies
Kayono Elementary School (Minou-shi, Osaka Prefecture)	584 students	Feb. 21	TBD
Fujinoki Elementary School (Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima Prefecture)	275 students	Feb. 25	Social Studies, Japanese
Ashiro Elementary School (Higashimiyoshi-cho, Tokushima Prefecture)	123 students	Feb. 3	Arithmetic, Music, Science
Nishiyoka Elementary School (Saga-shi, Saga Prefecture)	283 students	Jan. 27	Arithmetic

* As of October 1, 2010.