Roadblocks on the Information Highway The IT Revolution in Japanese Education

by Bachnik, Jane M.; Anderson, Ronald E.; Aya, Yoshida; Brumby, Edwin H.; Cole, Robert E.; Hidetoshi, Ando; Kumar, Kumar R.; Masahiro, Narita; McVeigh, Brian J.; Noyuri, Mima; Rimmer, Peter J.; Rtischev, Dimitry; Scott, Douglass J.; Shire, Karen A.; Slater,

• ISBN13: 9780739106280
• ISBN10: 0739106287
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-10
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Although Japanese universities have relied on information technology to resolve numerous problems, their high expectations are undermined by lags in implementing that technology. This innovative edited volume argues that lags in IT implementation in Japanese education are created by contradictory and challenging responses of the social environment. If this dialectic can be visualized as having hands, the right avidly promotes IT, while the left hand simultaneously blocks it. The result, of course, is an impasse. The issues central to this stalemate are significant because they point beyond the schools, to a broader set of problem areas in Japanese society. The contributors to Roadblocks on the Information Highway discover and discuss the contradictions inherent in Japanese society and culture as they are played out in the social contexts of IT service providers, web masters, and classroom teachers who implement IT. They then show how these contradictions indicate broader, structural problems that pervade the dynamic between Japanese education and the state and business sectors. Ultimately, in a reach that goes beyond Japan, this book examines relationships between technology and society, persuasively convincing readers that the modern age has created an inextricable link between the two.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Note to Readers	ix
Introduction: Social Challenges to the IT Revolution in Japanese Education	1	(24)
Jane M. Bachnik
Part 1. Reluctant Providers, Hesitant Users: IT Support Services
A Nationwide Assessment of IT Implementation in Higher Education	25	(36)
Yoshida Aya
Jane M. Bachnik
The Unbearable Lightness of Being an IT Service Provider: A Case Study	61	(8)
Ando Hidetoshi
No Faculty Service Stations on the Information Highway: A Case Study	69	(8)
David H. Slater
Do IT Yourself: Short Circuits in Technical Support Services	77	(50)
Jane M. Bachnik
Social and Structural Barriers to the IT Revolution in High-Tech Industries	127	(30)
Dimitry Rtischev
Robert E. Cole
Part 2. Open Circuits and Closed Doors: Institutional Barriers
Cyberstructure, Society, and Education in Japan	157	(14)
Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Peter J. Rimmer
Barriers to Educational Use of the Internet in a Japanese University	171	(10)
Narita Masahiro
Lessons from a Program to Develop Faculty IT Skills	181	(16)
Karen A. Shire
Developing a University Website: A Webmaster's Perspective	197	(18)
Kumar R. Kumar
Karen A. Shire
Jane M. Bachnik
Implementing IT in the ``Perfect Bureaucracy''	215	(16)
Brian J. McVeigh
Part 3. Pedagogy: More than Technology
Teaching, Learning, and Computing in Japan and the United States	231	(18)
Ronald E. Anderson
The Significance of Off-line Learning for On-line Projects	249	(16)
Douglass J. Scott
On-line Technology Is Not Enough: Transforming the Teacher--Student Learning Process	265	(16)
Mima Noyuri
Three Critical Gaps in Computer Literacy	281	(10)
Sugimoto Taku
Technology and the Tyranny of Tradition in Japanese Higher Education	291	(18)
Edwin H. Brumby
Conclusion: Technology and the Status Quo: The Paradox of Reform	309	(26)
Jane M. Bachnik
Index	335	(16)
About the Editor	351	(2)
Contributors	353