The „New Education Expo 2024 Osaka“ for education professionals was held on June 14th and 15th, 2024 in Osaka. The second day of the expo featured multiple seminars focusing on the latest insights in information education, with a wealth of new knowledge gathered from educational institutions such as schools and research facilities.
One of the seminars held in the morning was titled „Exploring Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy Education,“ which brought together individuals working in the field of media literacy education to delve into the best practices in this area. Coordinator and Director of the Integrated Information Center at Hosei University, Jun Sakamoto, raised the question of what kind of education is necessary to discern the reliability of information in the digital age, emphasizing the significant impact of misinformation on school education.
Jun Sakamoto, the coordinator and director of the Integrated Information Center at Hosei University, expressed the importance of spreading awareness that media literacy education is at the core of digital citizenship education.
As a recent example of media literacy education, the initiatives of Okayama Prefectural Okayama Minami High School were highlighted. The school has been actively utilizing Newspaper in Education (NIE) education, using newspapers as educational materials. Mutsumi Ueno, a teacher at the school, showcased activities such as using a „NIE bulletin board“ where students can annotate the front page of the day’s newspaper and analyzing how news related to disasters is covered by various media outlets.
Mutsumi Ueno, a teacher at Okayama Prefectural Okayama Minami High School, emphasized the importance of developing the ability to critically engage with the abundance of information in society and creatively generate new ideas.
Following this, student Ayaka Tsuboi from the same school presented a class titled „Deciphering ‚Flaming‘ in the AI Era,“ where she analyzed incidents of online backlash stemming from statements made by public figures. The class focused on analyzing the causes of online backlash and proposing corrective measures to avoid such situations, using a method called „triangular logic“ commonly used in language classes to scrutinize materials and newspaper articles.
Through this class, Ayaka Tsuboi discovered inconsistencies in textbook passages that she had previously thought were flawless, emphasizing the importance of verifying the accuracy of evidence and the validity of arguments when reading any text.
Next, Izumi Odaka, Deputy Director of the Japan Newspaper Association Secretariat, presented the efforts of the Japan Newspaper Museum (News Park) in promoting digital citizenship education. The museum, located in Yokohama where Japan’s first daily newspaper, the „Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun,“ was founded, aims to convey the importance of discerning information and the role of newspapers and journalism. In addition to hosting exhibitions, the museum actively engages in educational activities, providing a „News Park Kit“ containing newspapers and books for loan to schools nationwide by a volunteer team of educators and school librarians from Kanagawa Prefecture. Moreover, they plan to showcase a lesson on gender representation in newspapers at the upcoming NIE National Conference in Kyoto in August 2024.
Later in the event, Hisako Nishimura, Director of the FCT Media Literacy Research Institute, discussed „Towards Critical Media Literacy,“ reiterating the definition and learning methods of media literacy. Subsequently, Yumiko Ariyama, a lecturer at Shiga Bunkyo Junior College, engaged in a discussion with Nishimura on the topic of what digital citizenship entails.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications‘ guidebook features six domains of digital citizenship, with a particular focus on the increasing interest in media literacy within this framework.
The event provided a platform for educators and professionals to exchange ideas and insights on media literacy and digital citizenship, emphasizing the importance of equipping individuals with the skills to navigate the digital landscape effectively. With a diverse range of perspectives and experiences shared, the New Education Expo 2024 in Osaka served as a valuable opportunity for attendees to enhance their understanding and practices in education for the digital age.