Education for disaster prevention that aim s at imparting disaster knowledge and fostering a “sense of ownership,” based on individuals’ awareness of the possibility of themselves becoming a victim of disaster , is becoming more and more important in preparing for natural disasters. It is necessary to foster an “attachment to place” that leads to a sense of community from the perspective of community disas ter management. This learning is necessary not only for the cooperation of local communities but also for the family when targeting elementary and junior high school students. In this paper, we describe the design of a learning activity using a smartphone that combines Town Walking and Mystery Solving for regional learning on the theme of disaster prevention for elementary and junior high school students . In addition to fostering attachment to place through this activity, we aim to impart disaster preventio n knowledge appropriate to the region and to foster risk perception, disaster awareness , and a sense of ownership .

In this study, we conducted a learning activity with high school students on creating disaster prevention maps using tablet devices, in order to improve learners’ awareness of disasters through experiential activities. The learners moved around outside the school premises and recorded locations such as dangerous places, evacuation sites in the area, and useful facilities for disasters in the disaster map creation support system. They then learned about local characteristics and disaster preparedness through classroom activities that used the information they had gathered. It was confirmed from the learning records that the students recorded freely at various places within the learning area. Those who used the system frequently evaluated their operation experience positively. A subjective survey revealed that the learner's awareness of disaster prevention, and their understanding of the area where they live, changed following the learning activities. The students who participated in the learning activity by actively using the system had a better learning experience, and could better understand local characteristics.

In a previous study, we developed the Mobile Application for Summary Speaking Task by self-study (MAST) and proposed a learning design which combines MAST and pair work in an English class. Learners practice summary speaking task with MAST by self-study and explain the summary to their peer in a classroom pair work. In this research, we improved the learning design by scaffolding self-study using a task like a conversation and by visualization of learners' learning achievement using proposed worksheet for the pair work aiming to increase the frequency of English-speaking self-study. We conducted an experiment for four weeks and analysis of the results implied that the improved learning design might be effective for increasing the frequency, which occurs from high self-efficacy and appropriate self-reflection.

Today, e-learning through video-on-demand, such as MOOCs, has become popular. However, there is a problem in the evaluation of learning outcomes of the large-scale e-learning environment. This study’s aim is to solve the problems related to the load on learners that affect the mutual evaluation of the e-learning environment. Therefore, we developed an Online Video Presentation Evaluation System to reduce the load on learners. In addition, we conducted a questionnaire survey about its operability for learners. Consequently, it is revealed that OVPES is a tool that can reduce the burden of conscious on learners.

Motivating Japanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners is essential if they are to learn English conversation effectively. We developed an English conversation mobile learning system based on a heuristic model of variables influencing the concept of "Willing to Communicate" by MacIntyre et al, with "interactive English conversation", "topics based on interests and life of learners", and "applications which learners can use anywhere and anytime". The results of experiments showed that the "interactive English conversation" style worked well in making learners feel relaxed and making them speak fluently.

In this paper, we developed a presentation software for being used in web programming language course. It has functions to display sample source code of web programming language, edit it, and display its execution result in one slide. The reviews by nine teachers proved its efficiency in programming language teaching. By evaluations, good results were obtained for the functions that enable programming classes to be more interactive between the teacher and his/her students.