The Journal of Social Studies Education in Asia, Vol.11, pp.33-44, 2022

〈CONFERENCE PAPER〉
The Use of ICT in Social Studies Lessons: Comparing the Lessons
Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan

Takahiro Ueno

Takehaya Elementary School attached to Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan
takueno@u-gakugei.ac.jp

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a significant shift in the Japanese educational setting. This study aims to
explore the characteristics of ICT use in social studies lessons during the pandemic with a Japanese case study.
Comparing classes held before and classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a distinct trend visible. In
lessons prior to the pandemic, the primary usage for ICT was to record lessons and search online. However,during the pandemic, lessons were remotely conducted using a web conferencing system and students used an
online application for a simulated experience. This suggests that ICT may be positioned at the center of practicewhen considering lessons after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords: ICT, Direct experience, Simulated experience

Introduction
Due to the spread of COVID-19, Japanese educational institutions temporarily closed their schools at
the end of the 2020 school year through to the beginning of 2021. This resulted in the suspension of educational
activities while also allowing teachers to rethink the future of education, such as using ICT in daily lessons.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) had decided to
implement the GIGA school concept, which was initially planned to be developed by the end of the year 2023,
ahead of schedule by the end of the year 2021. This policy was to distribute one ICT terminal to all students
residing in Japan, and this measure has clearly set out an educational policy that schools and teachers must
examine the best mix of education that has been carried out in the past and ICT.
In Japanese social studies, a wide variety of practices have been developed to position “learning withconcrete experiences including research activities such as visits and interviews” and “learning about social
views and ways of thinking such as sharing one’s ideas, comparing and examining learning issues” in thelearning plan. However, due to the various restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult tocarry out these learning activities as before, and the challenge will be how to tackle them under these restrictions.

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The key to this is to consider how to utilize ICT devices in social studies classes.
This article aims to examine how ICT can be used in post-pandemic social studies lessons by focusing
on the different uses of ICT in social studies lessons before and during the pandemic. 1

Lessons Before the Pandemic
In the year 2020, before the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, MEXT (2020) released a statistical survey
related to the usage of ICT in primary and secondary schools. According to the survey, the number of children
per computer in primary school was 5.5 and the maintenance rate of wireless LAN was 49.0%; it was suggested
that ICT in Japanese education was not sufficiently implemented at that time. Taking Takehaya Elementary
School attached to Tokyo Gakugei University as an example, the school had only 70 notebooks for 420 students,
which when converted to the number of children per educational computer is 6.0. The school had provided free
Wi-Fi, however there was a limit to the number of connectable units. There were 20 notebooks per floor, andonly 35 inches television available in each class, as well as one projector for each grade. From this example, it
is clear that the ICT environment was not well-developed at this point and far from being equipped for online
classes. In this environment, two lessons, which were practiced by the author and published in books, were
implemented to examine ICT usage in the lesson.
The first lesson to be implemented was called “Our Daily Life and Sales Work.” This lesson wasplanned as a 15-hour unit and was held from July 2012 to September 2012 in a face-to-face class for 40 thirdgrade students at Takehaya Elementary School attached to Tokyo Gakugei University. The main activity of thisunit was to have students buy ingredients to make curry and rice by examining how shopping is done in their
Table 1. The lesson plan of “our daily life and sales work”
Unit(hours)Unit 1(2 hours)
Unit 2(2 hours)

Unit 3(1 hour)

Unit 4(5 hours)

Unit 5(5 hour)

34“Lesson title” and students’ learning flow and main activity“Let’s present your daily shopping routine.”
The students present their shopping experiences in the classroom. They will notice different
people have different ways of shopping and become interested in the shopping process.
“Let’s look into the shopping habits of my family members.”
Take up ingredients for making curry and rice. Students investigate “where they bought it”,
“why they bought it on the spot”, “the price”, summarize what they found on using a tableand present it to the class.
“From the research results, let’s find out what family members think about when they shop.”Students summarize the findings of the shopping survey in a graph or table and think about
and review the points to consider when buying products.
When shopping, students read from the data that they consider price, expiration date,freshness, ingredients, and other factors when buying products and review their shopping
methods.
“Let’s go to the supermarket!”Students visit supermarkets and investigate how sellers sell their products, focusing on theperspectives consumers pay attention to when purchasing products, revealed in previous
surveys.
“Let’s become a master shopper and have a curry and rice party”
Students plan and shop for making curry while thinking about the consumer’s point of viewand the seller’s ingenuity to respond to the consumer’s point of view.
The students write a newspaper article about the points they paid attention to when shopping
and the store’s efforts to respond to them and summarize their learning.

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households and how things are sold in supermarkets. The following table details the activities in the lesson.
(Ueno, 2015, pp.97-108)
At the beginning of the unit, students shared their opinions about the shopping they had experienced sofar, shared their shopping images, and engaged in an activity to investigate shopping within their own householdto make note of any differences between shopping with their household members and shopping with others.
Afterward through presentations on what they had learned from their research, students extracted what
consumers think. Based on these findings, they were able to grasp what sellers emphasize when selling things
through their visit to the supermarket. At the end of the unit, the students used what they had learned andunderstood about consumers’ and sellers’ respective approaches to shopping to purchase ingredients for making
curry at the supermarket and were able to make the curry at their school.
According to the lesson plan, students’ ICT use in the activity was not specified anywhere. Furthermore,
only a few traces from lesson records can be found regarding the use of ICT, including the teacher using ICT
when using a computer to save what was written on the board, and utilizing a digital camera to photograph thestate of the investigation that the student could look back at as needed. This record suggests that the use of ICT
in the development of lessons is not a high priority in teaching. Instead, the emphasis is on learning the content
through direct experiences, such as conducting research in supermarkets, interviewing store clerks, andpracticing shopping using what they have learned in this class.
Table 2. The lesson plan of “Tokyo air pollution lawsuit”
Unit(hours)“Learning task” and students’ learning flow and main activity

Unit 1(1 hour)“Pollution in Japan and Tokyo”
Students learn about the four major pollution diseases in Japan and read about the “Tokyo Air
Pollution Lawsuit” from various articles. They will gain interest in issues related to pollutionin Tokyo.

Unit 2(1 hour)“Let’s read the claims of the victims about the Tokyo air pollution lawsuit.”
Students read the plaintiffs’ arguments in the Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit from the articles
and summarize the case in a table.

Unit 3(1 hour)“Let’s read the defendant’s argument about the Tokyo air pollution lawsuit.”
Students read the defendant’s arguments from the materials and overview the lawsuit. Students
will present their thoughts on the positions of both the plaintiffs and the defendants to the classand listen to each other’s opinions.

Unit 4(1 hour)“Let’s talk about the damages caused by the Tokyo air pollution lawsuit and interview theplaintiffs.”
Students listen to the plaintiffs of the Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit talk about the history of thelawsuit and the effects of the damages.
The students learn that the health damage caused by air pollution is a familiar problem to themand think about how the pollution problem is relevant to their own lives.

Unit 5(1 hour)“Did the settlement solve the issues of Tokyo air pollution lawsuits?”
Students read about the settlement based on the materials and understand that the relatedorganizations established the medical subsidy system.
Students understand that not all the problems caused by the Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit havebeen solved, based on the “review after five years” in the settlement.

Unit 6(1 hour)“Consider the impact of the revision of the subsidy system and summarize your thoughts.”
Students review their understanding of the movements and thoughts of both the government
and the patients’ association based on the review of the “asthma medical expense subsidy
system” established in the Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit. They express their thoughts on theissue.

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“Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit” was another class conducted before the pandemic. This class was taught
with face-to-face instruction for 36 fifth grade students at Takehaya Elementary School attached to Tokyo
Gakugei University from October 2014 to November 2014. The purpose of this activity was to deepen students’
understanding of air pollution lawsuits in Tokyo, where they live, and to approach the issue of pollution diseases
through understanding the process of lawsuits and listening to the voices of those who suffer from pollution. The
main activities in the lesson (Ueno, 2016, pp.84-88) are detailed in the following table:
The Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit discussed in this lesson related to issues caused by air pollution fromautomobile emissions. Cars have become an essential part of life that it is difficult to imagine life without them.
This issue is not only the social responsibility of the national government, the metropolitan government, and theautomobile companies that sell and manufacture cars, but also the responsibility of those of us who use cars. Thislesson was designed to make students aware of the pollution problem and the lesson plan shows that the teacher
should emphasize two ways to make students aware of the issues.
The first way is to have students hear the stories directly from the plaintiffs. Since many patientsdeveloped asthma despite being otherwise healthy, students will learn about the difficulties of the plaintiffs’ lives
derived from unexpected health issues. The class was designed to raise awareness surrounding the pollution
problem in students and that they will see the relevance of the topic in their own lives. This leads them to think
about the choice they make in their daily lives and their own health, even if they are otherwise healthy now. It
also aims to deepen students’ understanding of pollution issues by asking them questions and attempting to solve
them through interviews. The second way is to have students search for newspaper articles on the subsidies
discussed during class and their own thoughts on the issue.
It is clear that the use of ICT to develop the class was not originally envisioned in the lesson plan. A
review of the class records shows that a few students utilized computers to search for newspaper articles, but it
was not possible to see the spread this activity to other students due to the limited number of computers available.
The class records also show that teachers used ICT to record lectures and interviews, and to search for newspaper
articles, but with no indication of emphasizing the use of ICT to develop the lesson.
With the two lessons as examples, we can conclude that in lessons before the COVID-19 pandemic,
there was little to no emphasis on teachers designing lessons which actively utilize ICT. Additionally, the lessonplans show that teachers tended to emphasize the direct experience of students conducting fieldwork throughsurveys and interviews, rather than the use of ICT. This can be said as a characteristic of the lessons in social
studies classes conducted prior to the pandemic. From these two lesson examples, it is evident that prior to thepandemic the relationship between social studies and ICT was minor and not emphasized, as use of ICT tools
were found only in the use of recording and presenting materials.

The Lessons During the Pandemic
During Temporary School Closure
As mentioned earlier, there were 6.0 students per ICT device deployed in the school at the end of 2020,
however the deployment rate of ICT devices in students’ homes was less than 1.0 students per device; thus, allstudents could access ICT devices at home. Two social studies classes were conducted by the school during the
temporary school closure without the need of the ICT devices deployed by the school. These two lessons wereable to be completed within one hour. Although they were not social studies classes taught through a unit like

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the ones before the pandemic, analyzing these two chosen lessons can clarify the differences in the way ICT
devices were used in social studies lessons before and during the pandemic.
The first class conducted during the temporary school closure was a remote class entitled “What isTokyo?” for 35 fourth-grade students of Takehaya Elementary School attached to Tokyo Gakugei University in
March 2020. This lesson aimed to share the images that students already have of Tokyo, recognize images ofTokyo that they had not thought of, and motivate them to do further research on the city. Since this practice wasconducted as a one-hour class specially designed for remote teaching, it was structured as a unit that could becompleted in one hour. The lesson plan (Ueno, 2020, pp.102-103) is the following:
Table 3. The lesson plan of “what is Tokyo?”Students’ learning flow and main activity
1. Enter the web conference system and prepare to take the class.
2. Enter what they know about the prefecture they live in through a Google
Forms form and send it to the teacher.
3. Wait until the teacher copies the text of the responses from the students
and analyze the information using text mining software available on theInternet.
4. From the analysis results, check the opinions that emerged and think about
the relevance of these opinions. Students will confirm that their views
differ from their own.
5. Based on the analysis results, students think of a theme to investigate thecharacteristics of Tokyo and other prefectures, and make a presentation.
6. Students will receive a summary from their teachers, use the outline todecide on a theme to research the prefecture and work on their researchduring the temporary school closure.

ICT equipment is
expected to be used
Web conference systems
and tablets or PC
Google Forms
Text mining software fromthe Internet
Result of text mining

Online storage services

The class started with all the students logged into the web conference system. The teacher asked students
what they thought of when they thought of Tokyo, and students entered their own images of Tokyo using a
Google form. The teacher used a text mining tool to visualize the commonalities among the words entered by
students so that students could grasp the diversity of images of Tokyo. At the end of the class, based on thevarious images of Tokyo captured by the text mining tool, students could decide on a theme for their future
research project on Tokyo.
As ICT devices were expected to be used as indicated in the lesson plan, both managing the class andusing ICT devices are significant to the overall lesson. The lesson plan states that the teacher will not simply use
a web conferencing system to conduct the class similar to the lessons before the pandemic, but will also utilize
Google Forms to gather students’ opinions, as well as text mining software operated on the Internet. While it is
impossible to conduct classes face-to-face, the lesson plan shows that attempts are being made to realize asystem that allows interactive communication between students and teachers using ICT devices and software.
Through the utilization of ICT devices in classes, students are able to undergo “learning of social views and waysof thinking, such as communicating one’s ideas and comparing examining learning issues” which is emphasized
in social studies classes. The teacher summarizes the students’ discussions in the online class and redistributes
them to the students so that they can reflect on the content of the class by themselves, allowing the students to37

Takahiro Ueno

conduct their independent research and study on their chosen prefecture. This lesson can be characterized by theuse of ICT devices which had not been utilized in the past, allowing the students to carry out their learning
independently.
The second lesson that was conducted during the temporary school closure in May of 2020 was apractice titled “Waste Management and Utilization” again for 35 fourth-grade students in Takehaya Elementary
School attached to Tokyo Gakugei University. This lesson was designed to raise interest in the waste collection
through students discussing what they noticed and wondered based on the textbook’s photographic materials ofwaste collection sites. The lesson plan was created for only one hour class introduction, as the class was taught
online just prior to classes resuming in person. The lesson plan (Ueno, 2021, p. 241) is the following:
Table 4. The lesson plan of “waste management and utilization”
Students’ learning flow and main activity
1. Students will download the worksheet for the online class from the online
storage service in advance.
2. Students will write their findings and questions on the worksheet based on
the photos of the garbage disposal.
3. Students will present their findings and questions. The teacher will present
via a digital whiteboard.
4. The teacher will classify the students’ findings and questions on the digital
whiteboard.
5. Based on the text, students will choose an issue to pursue and create ahypothesis.

ICT equipment is
expected to be used.
Online storage service

Digital whiteboard
Digital whiteboard

This practice was planned to have students download worksheets from the cloud before class and use
them in the online class. Students wrote down their questions based on pictures of the garbage collection site on
the worksheet and then discussed them online. The teacher developed the lesson by recording and categorizing
students comments so that the children could create their learning tasks related to the garbage disposal at the endof the lesson.
A feature of this practice is the use of a digital whiteboard to collect students’ opinions. The lesson plan
includes using the digital whiteboard to replicate what has been done in face-to-face lessons in which theclassroom blackboard is used to collect and categorize students’ opinions. In the actual lesson, the time spent by
the students to write on the digital whiteboard was more than the teacher expected, so in the middle of the class,
the teacher had students present their ideas, and the lesson proceeded with the teacher write on their behalf. The
students could engage with the class content without any barriers because the lesson plan was in a format they
had experienced in their previous studies held before the pandemic.
One of the standard features of these two practices is that the lesson plans are based on ICT use. In
particular, one of the characteristics of these two practices is that they attempted to overcome the physicaldistance caused by the temporary closure of schools due to the pandemic by using ICT devices. Both the teacher
and the students used ICT in classes, but the teacher took the lead in operating the ICT devices. For example,
when the teacher operated the text mining tool and the students visually checked the tendency of what is said. It
can also be seen from the class records of these two practices that student discussion activities, which wereactively conducted before the pandemic, could be conducted using the web conferencing system. However,

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direct experiences such as interview activities and field surveys were not realized at this moment. Additionally,
it is difficult for teachers to instruct students regarding the operation of certain software and applications during
remote classes to younger student. It may be necessary to provide advance explanations and instructions duringface-to-face classes in preparation for remote classes. Through the two lesson conducted during the pandemic,
the relationship between social studies and ICT has shifted through increased use of ICT devices. ICT has
become more central to the activities and has a vital role supporting social studies classes.
After the Temporary School Closure
Although the three-month temporary closure was lifted and students returned to school, there were still
restrictions which hindered students’ school life. In addition to wearing masks, desks were distanced at equalintervals in the classrooms to ensure social distancing among students, making it difficult to engage in free
discussion activities in all subject lessons. It was also difficult for students to go outside the school to visit
museums and factories, conduct interviews and other such fieldwork. Lesson plans based on direct experience,
which had been popular before the pandemic, were unlikely to be implemented at this time. The circumstances
meant it was still difficult to conduct “learning with concrete experiences, including research activities such as
visits and interviews,” and “learning social views and ideas, such as communicating one’s ideas and comparing
and examining learning issues,” which were actively conducted in social studies classes before the pandemic.
Under these circumstances, it is necessary to continue examining lesson plans that utilize ICT devices
to implement social studies classes that balance “learning with concrete experiences” and “learning social views
and ideas by communicating one’s ideas and comparing and examining learning issues. As a solution, fourth
graders worked on a web application lesson plan.
The title of this lesson was “Comparing Two News Stories”, which was held in December 2019 andJanuary 2020, for 35 fourth-grade students in Takehaya Elementary School attached to Tokyo Gakugei
University. The purpose of this class was to watch two news videos, understand that the content of news differs
depending on how the same event is cut up, and think about the equity of news using a web application. This
web application, called “Let us make news,” allows students to create a news story by selecting a collection ofvideo interviews with citizens and politicians arguing for positive or negative positions on the leisure complex
construction project.2 This lesson utilized a hybrid format that mixed face-to-face classroom time with timespent using learning applications at home. The detail of the lessons (Ueno, 2021, pp.241-242) is as followed.
At the beginning of the unit, students watched news videos containing arguments for and against leisuredevelopment and discussed what is necessary to disseminate information. Based on the discussion, in the middleof the unit, students created their fair news videos at home, and each student were able to experience creating
fair news on their own. At the end of the unit, students deepened their ideas about equity by discussing what they
thought about when they were making the news.
One of the features of this practice is that by using web applications, watching and making news videos
has become a shared experience activity for students. Through this shared experience, the class is designed torecognize “what is necessary to make a fair news program” as a common issue, leading to a deeper discussion.
In actual classes, students are taught the importance of incorporating a variety of opinions when creating a news
program, the difficulty of incorporating a variety of opinions into a short news program, and identifying
differences in ways each student thinks about equity. Through this practice, students learn from a sharedexperience as they create their own news videos. During the temporary school closure, the lesson plan envisioned

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Table 5. The lesson plan of “comparing two news stories”
Unit(hours)Unit 1(1 hours)

Unit 2(1 hour)*Conductedat home

Unit 3(1 hour)

40

Students’ learning flow and main activity
1. Students think back to the experience of compilinginformation from previous learning activities.
2. A news video of the pro-leisure complex construction
project is shown.
3. A news video of the opponents of the leisure complex
construction project is shown
4. Students compare the two news videos and present
their findings and questions.
5. Students discuss their thoughts on the factors that led
to the creation of the two news videos.
6. Based on the factors discussed, students will watch
the new news video, think of pros and cons, andexplore the problems with the video watched at the
beginning of the class.
7. Students write a reflection on the learning of thislesson.
8. Students confirm the operation of the web application
to be used in the next lesson.

1. Based on the learning from the first period, the classwill create “students’ news” the leisure complex
construction project using the chosen web
application.
2. Students fill in the worksheet with the numbers of thevideos the student chose and why they chose them.

1. The teacher checks the students’ impressions fromthe first unit and share their awareness of the issues
with the class.
2. Students watch the news video that was made themost by students.
3. Based on the videos they have watched, students will
think and discuss how news should be presented as
discussed in the first unit.
4. Based on the news videos made from a particular
standpoint, share the reasons for making the videos
and think about how news should be made, thereby
deepening their thoughts on “equity”.
5. Write a reflection on the learning of this time.

ICT equipment is expected to
be used.

PC, and appreciation, projector,
and screen.
PC, and appreciation, projector,
and screen.

PC, and appreciation, projector,
and screen.

PC, and appreciation, projector,
and screen.
PC, and appreciation,

PC, and appreciation, projector,
and screen.

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creating a space similar to a face-to-face social studies class in real-time using ICT devices. However, the sharedexperience here was focused on discussing ideas about the learning issues, and not enough direct experience
related to the learning that had taken place before the pandemic was prepared in the lesson plan. The use of web
applications written in the lesson plan ensures students can have direct experiences related to their learning tasks.
The second feature of this practice is that the lesson plan is designed to use a web application to create
news programs in students’ home learning situations. As mentioned in the lesson plan, this practice consists of aunit divided into two parts: learning in class and learning at home. The strength of web applications is thatanyone can use them by downloading the application from their own device. It also allows each student to create
a news program at their own pace, which creates an environment in which students can adequately contemplateand reflect on fair and objective news programs. In this way, by positioning the use of web applications in thelesson plan, it may be possible to realize the “hands-on activities” and “learning through comparison andexamination of one’s ideas” that were conducted in social studies classes before the pandemic.
However, it may be argued that using web applications to create lesson plans does not solve all issues.
This lesson plan is based on the assumption that face-to-face classes can be conducted and without regardingwhether the same learning effects would have been generated in a situation like a temporary school closure
period. In such case, it is assumed the plan would be to conduct remote classes using a digital whiteboard,
however consideration of students’ ability to operate ICT devices at home will be necessary. Assuming that allclasses will be conducted remotely, preparing more tools to support classes other than a digital whiteboard willbe essential. The relationship between social studies and ICT became more evident, especially with the use of
ICT such as web applications being central to the social studies classes. The contrasts between before thepandemic, during the pandemic, and after the pandemic are evident, as explained in this article.

The Way Forward: Post-COVID-19 Pandemic
As the period of living with the COVID-19 pandemic has become elongated, the ICT environment inschools has changed dramatically. At the Takehaya Elementary School attached to Tokyo Gakugei University,
the ICT hardware has also been improved. For example, every student has been given a PC, the school has
installed a high-speed Wi-Fi environment with no limit on the number of connections, each floor has a large TV
with one projector in each classroom, and software to support classes. As a result, it has become an everyday
occurrence for teachers to plan lessons using ICT.
In the lessons planned for February 2021 and March 2021 for 35 fourth-grade students in Takehaya
Elementary School attached to Tokyo Gakugei University, the following practice of social studies using ICT
were implemented. The first is a social studies lesson in which students present their town by connecting
Yamada Town in Iwate Prefecture and Bunkyo Ward in Tokyo via the Internet. This lesson aims to deepen
students’ understanding of Tokyo by reexamining the city and recognizing their limited understanding of Tokyo
based on questions about the city from students in Yamada town. This practice was conducted as a face-to-faceclass with an online connection to a remote location. The lesson plan is as follows.
The unit consists of six hours. In the first unit, Takehaya Elementary School and Funakoshi Elementary
School in Yamada Town were connected using a web conference system. Students from Funakoshi Elementary
School gave a presentation about Yamada Town to capture the region’s characteristics outside of Tokyo. Then,

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Table 6. “Let’s introduce about Tokyo to the students of Funakoshi elementary school”
Unit(hours)Unit 1(1 hours)

Unit 2(4 hour)

Unit 3(1 hour)Students’ learning flow and main activity
1. Students from each school will introduce themselvesusing a web conference system.
2. Students listen to a presentation by students from
Yamada Town about the attractions of Yamada Town.
3. Students ask questions to the Yamada students about
Yamada Town.
4. The students from Yamada ask questions about
Tokyo, and students in Tokyo answer the questions.
5. Students make a list of the questions they wereunable to answer and make a plan to research Tokyoso that they can answer the questions at the next
exchange meeting.
6. Students reflect on this lesson.
1. Based on the list of questions, students conduct aninternet search on Tokyo.
2. Students use the Internet to search for information
about Tokyo’s attractions in and around Bunkyo
Ward that students would like to share with students
in Yamada town.
3. Students prepare a presentation by summarizing
what they have learned on a flip board.
1. Students use the web conference system to answer
questions about Tokyo that they were unable toanswer last time.
2. Students make a presentation on the attractions ofTokyo around Bunkyo Ward that they would like toshare with the students of Yamada Town.
3. The class receives and answers questions about thepresentation from students in Yamada Town.
4. Students reflect on this lesson.

ICT equipment is expected to
be used.
Web conference system,
projector, screen, PC,
Web conference system,
projector, screen, PC,
Web conference system,
projector, screen, PC,
Web conference system,
projector, screen, PC,

PC, high-speed Wi-Fi service,printerPC, high-speed Wi-Fi service,printer

Web conference system,
projector, screen, PC,
Web conference system,
projector, screen, PC,
Web conference system,
projector, screen, PC,

students of Funakoshi Elementary School asked questions about Tokyo. The focus of the activity was for the
students of Takehaya Elementary School to reexamine the characteristics of Tokyo so that they could answer all
the questions. Students researched Tokyo based on the questions and prepared a presentation in the second unit.
In the third unit, an activity was planned to summarize the characteristics of Tokyo by connecting Takehaya
Elementary School and Funakoshi Elementary School again via a web conferencing system and presenting
what they had learned from their research.
A unique feature of this practice is that students from Iwate Prefecture, more than 500 km away from
Tokyo, are able to connect via the Internet for a shared learning experience. Even before the COVID-19
pandemic, there were times when students connected to other schools via the Internet to hold exchange events.
However, what makes this lesson plan significant is that due to a limited learning environment caused by the
pandemic, the chance to hear directly about the local situation and ask questions about it from a remote school
through an Internet connection can be seen as an activity that complements the direct experience of the interview
activities that were conducted in social studies lessons before the pandemic. This practice also suggests that

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students’ learning does not have to be kept within the ICT devices at school. In this practice, the students discover
new insights about Tokyo by being asked questions about the city from students of another school, they thenproceed with their research activities. In the past, students have compared and discussed their ideas with thoseof others in the same classroom, but by using ICT devices, they were able to connect with other schools andcompare their ideas with those peers. Even though the direct experience that played a central role in social
studies classes before the pandemic is not sufficiently available at this point, this practice shows that ICT devices
can be used to expand opportunities. The relationship between social studies and ICT changed from ICT having
a minor role in lessons being used for recording to ICT being vital for connecting during the pandemic, especiallywith school closures. Even if restrictions caused by the pandemic are lifted in the future, the use of ICT to support
learning in social studies lessons will continue.

Conclusion
This study examined the changes in the use of ICT devices in social studies classes before and during
the COVID-19 pandemic. As a method, the purpose of using ICT devices was approached by extracting andcomparing the way ICT devices were handled from the lesson plans of social studies classes conducted before
and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are two main conclusions of this study. The first conclusion is that before the COVID-19
pandemic, the use of ICT devices was used as a “backup” and not used to conduct lessons, as seen in classes
prior to the pandemic where ICT devices were mainly used to record lessons. However, after the pandemic, theuse of ICT was included in lesson plans as necessary equipment for conducting activities. Through the use of
ICT devices, students and teachers were able to deepen discussions and simulate direct experiences similar to
those before the pandemic that they could not conduct during this time. The second conclusion is that ICT
equipment allows us to expand the learning environment outside school. For example, the same learning can be
carried out outside school by using web applications. In addition, by connecting to other regions via the Internet,
students can directly listen to the ideas of people in other regions and compensate with interview research via theInternet the direct experiences that were not able to be realized. These two conclusions can be used in social
studies lessons in after the COVID-19 pandemic to further the development of future social studies lessons.
Finally, the practices described in this study are only a few examples among many. From these examples,
we can see that the role of ICT has become more emphasized, with the relationship between ICT and social
studies becoming more evident. It will be necessary for social studies teachers to understand and learn about therelationship between social studies classes and ICT in the future.

Notes
1. This article is based on the manuscript of a presentation, “Issue Research I: Reconstruction of Social
Studies in ICT and Digital Society with a View to the Post-COVID-19 Pandemic society”, given at the
71st National Research Conference of the Japanese Association for Social Studies (JASS), held on
November 28th, 2021. Related article is followed:
Ueno, T. (2021). Elementary School Social Studies Practice and the Use of ICT in the COVID-19
Pandemic -Focusing on the Transformation of the use of ICT in lessons before and during the Pandemic-,

43

Takahiro Ueno

The National Conference Presentation Papers’ Collection of the Japanese Association for Social
Studies, 17, 240-243.
2. The web application, “Let us make news,” was created by NTT group and the editorial advisor was Dr.
Seiji Kawasaki, professor of Tokyo Gakugei University. This lesson plan proceeded on December 15th,
2020 and January 13th, 2020, as a part of the project of “Fostering social equity judgment using ICT and
web applications.” This project was granted by the doctoral course of Tokyo Gakugei University.

References
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the actual status of the informatization of education in schools in the year of 2019. https://www.mext.
go.jp/content/20201026-mxt_jogai01-00009573_1.pdf
Ueno, T. (2015). Chapter 7: A practical example from the third grade: Our lives and sales work. In K.
Osawa (Ed.), Social studies education (pp. 97-108). Ichigeisha.
Ueno, T. (2016). Thinking about the pollution problems hidden in our daily lives: A case study of theTokyo air pollution lawsuit. In T. Sakai (Ed.), From social crisis to regional revival: Deepening active
learning in social studies (pp. 76-95). Tokyo Gakugei University Press.
Ueno, T. (2020). Case #47 let’s make study questions by using a text-mining tool. In M. Sato (Ed.), 70
examples to understand and do: Elementary school online class guide. (pp. 102-103). Meiji Tosho.
Ueno, T. (2021). Elementary school social studies practice and the use of ICT in the COVID-19 pandemic:
Focusing on the transformation of the use of ICT in lessons before and during the pandemic. The
National Conference Presentation Papers’ Collection of the Japanese Association for Social Studies,17, 240-243.

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