INSIGHTS

2023.07.13

R&D DISCUSSION Vol. 49

The world is full of possibilities
--Perceive playfully and take action! [Part 2]

Nobuyuki Ueda Professor Emeritus of Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts, Director of Neo Museum

R&D DISCUSSION TOP

Q: What inspired you to begin researching "learning and play"?

A: The early childhood education TV program "Sesame Street" (created in the United States in 1969 based on the results of research into audiovisual education and educational technology) began regular broadcasting on NHK in Japan in 1972, and when I was a fourth-year law student at the time, I saw "Sesame" and thought, "I want to study this in the original!", so I impulsively left Japan. Nowadays, educational programs are commonplace, but at the time it was groundbreaking, and I was shocked to see "education on TV? Education can be this fun!" While studying audiovisual education at a graduate school of education in Michigan, I had the opportunity to visit the "Sesame" production studio in New York, and the scene I saw there became my "original learning landscape". "Sesame" was produced by a collaboration of three teams: content experts (developmental psychologists, early childhood education experts, picture book authors, etc.), production experts (children's TV program producers), and research experts (experts in formative research for production). What impressed me most was that all the members of the production team were challenging the unknown world with the message, "Let's make a program that no one has ever seen before!", and they looked like they were having so much fun. I was so moved that when I learned that the project leader was Professor Gerald S. Lesser (1926-2010) of Harvard University, I immediately headed to Cambridge. He was kind enough to meet me, even though I had just arrived, so I applied to become his student and quickly filled out my application. I made it just in time for the application deadline, and miraculously was accepted into the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It was a life-changing moment for me, as I realized that in America, miracles can happen if you have the will.

At Harvard University, I spent a year learning about "formative research," a method of producing television programs while receiving feedback on children's reactions. Until then, television programs had been produced based on the producer's experience, so the method of making repeated revisions while observing the reactions of the children who were the viewers, was both scientific and revolutionary.

This diagram shows the change in children's attention (gaze) for the segments of "Sesame" [Slide 1]. The horizontal axis shows time, and the vertical axis shows the level of attention, which is the accumulated data of whether the child looked at the screen or not. Attention goes up and down, and there are quite a few fluctuations. In fact, it is almost impossible to keep a three-year-old child glued to the TV for an hour. That's why they used the "magazine format." The content of magazines changes constantly, from movies to fashion to cooking. In "Sesame," they create segments such as alphabet pronunciation, simple calculations, short content dealing with problem solving, songs, entertainment, etc., and organize them like magazines. They line up about 30 segments like TV commercials in an hour. It is very important to deliberately reduce attention and create contrast just before the content you want them to see, and they investigated this scientifically.

After returning to Japan in 1974, he became involved in media education and learning environment design, and also worked on creating content for the NHK Educational TV program "Okaasan to Issho" using formative research methods.

[Slide 1] Rate of change in children's attention when watching "Sesame Street"

Q: Could you tell us how you came to set up your current workshops as a place to put your ideas into practice?

A: While continuing my research at university, I practiced and applied the Sesame Street methods in television programs, but I wanted to study the essence of education using television in more depth, so I returned to Harvard University 10 years later.

She studied under psychologist Professor Carol S. Dweck (1946-), who specialized in the study of motivation, especially children who have acquired apathy and helplessness, and discovered that "motivation" and "drive" are not a matter of a child's personality, but rather depend on each individual's view of intelligence and learning. For example, children may have two images of "intelligence." One is the growth mindset, which says, "If you work hard, you will become smarter and smarter." The other is the fixed mindset, which says, "No matter how hard you try, you will never become smart because you are born smart." She discovered that these views of intelligence have a great influence on the learning process, causing a great sensation in the education world. She later took a broader view of intelligence and called it "mindset," and showed that growth mindset and fixed mindset affect how children, adults, schools, and workplaces learn and work, and continue to have a great influence today. [Slides 2 and 3]

Also, at that time in the United States, people's interest in educational media was shifting from television to computers.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), also in Cambridge, Professor Seymour Papert (1928-2016), a mathematician, computer scientist, and educational thinker, developed a programming language for children called "LOGO" and began researching its use in education [Photo 1]. For example, if you want a computer to draw a square, you have to teach it how to draw it. Go straight, turn 90 degrees, and go straight again. A child doesn't learn from a teacher that repeating this four times will draw a square, but discovers it for himself by commanding the computer [Slide 4]. After the square, he will try a triangle, and he sets and solves his own problems. As he acquires mathematical knowledge, he learns how to learn for himself. This is the very essence of "learning design," and I fell in love with his statement that "we are moving away from the era of teachers teaching children to the era of children teaching (programming) computers." In other words, in the 1980s in America, the trend in media-based education shifted from "television" to "computers," and from "education that teaches" to "education that allows children to learn for themselves." As a result, teachers began to take on the role of supporting children's learning and designing learning environments in which learning designers could develop.

I thought about how to help children develop a growth mindset, and came up with the idea of combining the ideas and methods of these two people. This is the computer-based workshop I introduced earlier. When children become engrossed in programming, they don't care about how they look, and if it doesn't work out, they just try again the next time - they naturally develop a growth mindset. I decided to create a learning environment in Japan where children could immerse themselves and become engrossed, and after returning to Japan in 1989, I created a private museum called Neo Museum in Yoshino Town, Nara Prefecture. I continue to hold experimental workshops here to this day [Slide 5, Photos 2 and 3].

In 2010, I was invited as a visiting professor by the MIT Media Lab and spent a year there. There, I met Professor Mitchell Resnick (1956-), who succeeded Professor Papert and became famous as the developer of the children's programming language "Scratch" [Photo 4]. He started a research group called Lifelong Kindergarten, and said that four Ps are important for future creative learning: "Projects," "Passion," "Peers," and "Play." First of all, people cannot actively learn or work unless they are doing an interesting project that they have started themselves. Since it is a project that you have created yourself, not something that has been given to you, it is full of passion. And when peers who want to work with you come along, your passion burns bright and you can play to your heart's content. His activity approach based on the four Ps is a way of thinking that is similar to "co-designing," which is designing with your peers in a playful spirit.

[Slide 2] By Carol S. Dweck
[Slide 3] It's not about whether you can do it or not
It is important to think in terms of "how"
[Slide 4] Programming language "LOGO"
Command the turtle to draw a square
[Photo 1] Seymour Papert, the proponent of programming education
[Slide 5] Neo Museum in Yoshino Town, Nara Prefecture.
[Photo 2] Neo Museum Atelier
[Photo 3] Neo Museum Terrace
[Photo 4] Mitchell Resnick, whom I met at MIT Media Lab

[Slide 1-5, Photo 1-4: Provided by Nobuyuki Ueda]

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PROFILE

Professor Emeritus of Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts, Director of Neo Museum

Nobuyuki Ueda

Nobuyuki Ueda

Born in Nara Prefecture in 1950. After graduating from Doshisha University, inspired by Sesame Street, he obtained an M.A. from Central Michigan University Graduate School and an Ed.M. and Ed.D. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. From 1996 to 1997, he was a visiting researcher at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. From 2010 to 2011, he was a visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab. His specialty is educational technology. With playful learning as his keyword, he is conducting cutting-edge research into learning environment design and media education. His publications include Playful Thinking: A way of thinking that makes work fun (Sendenkaigi) and Workshops of Collaboration and Expression: Designing an Environment for Learning (Toshin-do, co-authored and edited).

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Update : 2018.09.21

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