A longitudinal look at Japanese students’ experience with technology

Abstract

As Japanese students are introduced to the world of artificial intelligence (AI), it is important to understand their experience with educational technology in general. This paper presents survey data from 2010 to 2019 investigating Japanese university students’ experiences with using technology in learning. The surveys were conducted among over 1,000 first-year university students at both private and public universities. The survey results will be presented with both quantitative and qualitative details about what types of things were learned using technology. The public university students reported high levels of computer ownership and internet access in their home, while private university students’ home computer ownership varied greatly from year to year. Also, in the early years of the study, public university students’ experience using technology to learn something varied from 40% to 80% through 2017 but then rose to between 80% and 100% in the remaining years. Private university students’ experience varied even more greatly from zero experience to almost 90% in different years. Knowing what experience the students come to the classroom with will allow teachers to better plan for the integration of new AI and other technologies into their lessons and advise students on how to effectively use technology in their learning pursuits.