With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese higher education (HE) began the process of full digitalization in the academic year 2020. Considering that Japanese HE was previously dominated by face-to-face learning, the efforts of the stakeholders to implement digitalization deserve praise. However, digitalization has shown varying degrees…

This two-phase mixed methodology study, relevant to STEM educational stakeholders and researchers in emergency remote teaching (ERT) and ICT for education, explored college students' and graduates' attitudes and usage patterns of educational ICT in the U.S. and Japan and identified affordances of the technology for both text and audio-based…

This essay explores the integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into pre-service teacher education amidst contemporary debates on technology in education. It highlights the cautious stance taken by educational authorities, such as the Alberta Teachers' Association, which advises against involving students directly with AI tools.…

This research study provides a case study of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Japanese university students' views and attitudes on international topics and motivations for living and working abroad. During the pandemic, digital information, including social media, played a prominent role in how these students interacted and kept up with the…

English language education in Japan has long been criticized for its traditional methods emphasizing grammar and reading at the expense of communicative competence. This article explores the potential of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) to address this issue. A review of literature explored critical challenges faced by Japanese EFL…

The growing integration of technology into education, particularly in the STEM fields, has tended to focus on its objective advantages, ignoring its affective potential. To explore this potential, based on some principles of "Kansei/Affective Engineering," an initial analysis was conducted considering 501 interventions in a conversation…

This article reviews previous research conducted on the role of mobile devices that support learner autonomy (LA) in English is a foreign/second language (EFL) context from 2010 to 2021 based on a number of criteria that included research design, publication type, period, field of study, and use of technology. Mainly, the review examined design…

This study explores the affective aspects -- willingness to communicate (WTC) and International Posture (IP) -- and speaking skills after using technological tools. Online synchronous meeting tool, Zoom, and the asynchronous tool, Padlet, were used as online learning platforms. Data were collected using an 8-item questionnaire on the WTC and a…

It is believed that there is a significant difference between the use of technology in technologically advanced and advancing countries, and the users in the former act far better with technology than the users in the latter. However, there is not enough report on how this usage differs in terms of the independent use of technology in a foreign…

During the 2018-2019 academic year, the authors had the opportunity to begin work on a unique multi-year virtual heritage "Virtual Shikoku Pilgrimage" (VSP) project. The main goal of this project is to design and develop an immersive virtual landscape exploration platform that uses 3-D digital technologies, including the Unity video game…

This article revisits scholarship on the Toa Dobun Shoin, an innovative international business school operated by the Japanese in Shanghai from 1901 to 1945. After reviewing the school's history, we carefully examine the institution's course mix, language programming, product-studies focus, and research trips. We conclude that Japanese educators…

As we become more dependent on digital gadgets, we are becoming more vulnerable online. Therefore, it is important to teach students digital empathy. The purpose of this study is to see if multimodal learning experiences such as video production can help students deepen their digital empathy through writing dialogues based on the discussion…

This paper reports on research that aimed to provide initial insight into how university students in two different countries, Japan and Ukraine, coped with greater use of videoconferencing software and whether this resulted in any issues surrounding their online privacy. To facilitate learning under the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors and learners…

This article conceptualises how disruptions to conventional teaching models may lead to innovative practice. We have identified a gap in current knowledge around how innovations in higher education teaching and learning are initiated in times of crises. Disruptive Innovation Theory and Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory are used as lenses to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose the need for an integrated system for the production, authoring, addition and revision of webcast content and a multi-device apps mechanism with rights management for Internet transmission in the perspective of the OUJ course reuse. Design/methodology/approach: This paper designs systems that reuse…