Installing computers will change classes. I really hope that the Internet realizes a students-centered class and becomes an excellent opportunity for students. I think that these quotes show Mr. Kageto's deep understanding and instinct about the Internet and its potential in being an agent of change in Japanese schools and Japanese education. But they also show a confusion that exists in all of us about how meaningful change takes place within complex social environments. Basically we understand very little about this aspect of sociology and psychology.
Outer effects are one thing, inner effects are another.
When we use mass media to talk about change, we unconsciously fall into the trap of magnifying our work or the effect of it. I'm having a lot of trouble expressing my idea about this. In one way of looking at things, of course the introduction of the Internet or computers into an environment does have big effect, but I think it isn't the item itself that has the effect, but rather the way it is used. If I buy a computer and put it in a big box in the closet of my classroom, we would certainly say the effect is very minimal on the members of that environment. The effect of doing something in one environment is very small if the larger culture doesn't support what is being done.