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Practical education of information technology Based on the collaboration within a community

Practical education of information technology Based on the collaboration within a community

by Yoshimichi Ogawa, Department of Welfare Systems Engineering, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, JAPAN
Saturday 1st July 2006

1. Introduction
The Kanagawa Institute of Technology (KAIT) has two faculties: the Faculty of Engineering (5 departments), and the Faculty of Information Technology (3 departments), located in Atsugi city which has a population of around 220,000. KAIT is conducting a collaborative comprehensive programme with community members and different faculties. Its purpose is to promote disabled citizen's quality of life and develop a practical education involving disabled users concerning IT.

2. Outline of the practical education
This education programme is being conducted to provide motivation for the first-year students to study IT and to understand the special needs of the community. The procedure is as follows:

• KAIT set up a planning group, an operating group, a system constructing group, and a supporting group in order for the programme to run smoothly. These community groups are members: Independent Living Center, the volunteer group for teaching IT, IT industries, and Local government.
• The goal of this practical education is to create a digital 'accessibility' area map for disabled people.
• Two departments collaborate with 220 first-year students in total.

The three components of this programme are:

1.  
   1.  
      1. 1)Session 1: Introduction
         a. Lecture by a disabled person
         Disability and environmental factors
         Disability and information technology
         b. Guidance about checking barriers and accessible places, and how to upload the data
      2. 2)Session 2: Practice in community & Upload the data correctly.
         This practice is to organize an effective group, observe the environmental situation on a street, discuss about accessibility with disabled people, note comments about the accessibility of streets checked, and upload their comments and photos on the street that they took.
      3. 
         3) Session 3: Presentation & Discussion
         Students report each group's survey and have a question & answer period, then listen to comments from disable people of the Independent Living Centre
      4. 5. Students submit their own report about this practice
         The contents of the report include (a) an impression of their experience using wheelchairs, (b) an understanding of the realistic environmental situation, (c) the effectiveness of the digital 'accessibility' map, and (d) the points to improve the IT system, (e) the evaluation of the team working, (f) any opinion.

3. Discussion
As a result of this education process, the students have understood why they need to communicate with users equally, and have realized the necessity of IT for contributing to community needs. Additionally, the faculty members have received advice and opinions about this programme from community participants.

This education programme is different from the conventional one. It is based on the participation of disabled people in the community who want to use the 'accessibility'� map. The important point of this programme is to be user-centered and is involved in the process of being user-centered from the beginning. The technical support for people with some special needs has existed for the users until now, but should be user-involved in development. That is, it should be accomplished for the purpose of with the user, based on the user's conception.