An investigation of blended learning in at-home and in-school education of information ethics using tablet PCs

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The goal of this study is to develop a blended learning in at-home and in-school education of information ethics using tablet PCs and to evaluate the effectiveness of the lesson. Information technology such as the internet and smart phones in society has been progressing speedily. On the other hand, the negative effects of information technology, such as bullying and calumniation on social media have become social problems for more than twenty years. The education of information ethics has been introduced to schools in order to solve these problems in Japan. However, the problems haven’t been solved yet. Then, the national curriculum standards of elementary and junior high schools stated that the education of information ethics should be brought into the moral instruction in 2008. This requested us to develop a teaching method of moral instruction to educate students in information ethics. Therefore, the theoretical framework of the information ethics was set up, and I established a new judgment model of information ethics. I assumed that ambivalence, the state of contradictory feeling or emotion, exists behind the three types of knowledge and that ambivalence affects inappropriate judgment related to information ethics. Therefore, a teaching method with the aim of overcoming ambivalence should be developed using the structural method. From now on, cooperation with parents is essential to enhance the education of information ethics. I conceived something available to help cooperation with parents. Recently tablet PCs have been brought into the school. Then, I devised the procedure of blended learning. As a result, I developed three steps: 1) Students learn the introduction part of moral instruction in school and learn how to use the tablet PCs. 2) Students take the tablet PCs home and discuss the learning material on the tablet PCs with their parents. 3) Students learn the conclusion part of moral instruction again in school. In order to assess the effectiveness of the lesson, blended learning was practiced on 4rd grade elementary school students. As a result, it was suggested that blended learning was fairly effective in educating the students in information ethics.