Lexington Books
Pages: 364
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-0-7391-0564-1 • Hardback • March 2003 • $136.00 • (£105.00)
978-0-7391-0628-0 • Paperback • April 2003 • $54.99 • (£42.00)
Jane M. Bachnik is Professor of Anthropology at the National Institute of Multimedia Education in Chiba, Japan.
Part 1 Introduction: Social Challenges to the IT Revolution in Japanese Education
Part 2 Reluctant Providers, Hesitant Users: IT Support Services
Chapter 3 A Nationwide Assessment of IT Implementation in Higher Education
Chapter 4 The Unbearable Lightness of Being an IT Service Provider: A Case Study
Chapter 5 No Faculty Service Stations on the Information Highway: A Case Study
Chapter 6 Do IT Yourself: Short-circuits in Technical Support Services
Chapter 7 Social and Structural Barriers to the IT Revolution in High-Tech Industries
Part 8 Open Circuits and Closed Doors: Institutional Barriers
Chapter 9 Cyberstructure, Society, and Education in Japan
Chapter 10 Barriers to Educational Use of the Internet in a Japanese University
Chapter 11 Lessons from a Program to Develop Faculty IT Skills
Chapter 12 Developing a University Website: A Webmaster's Perspective
Chapter 13 Implementing IT in the "Perfect Bureaucracy"
Part 14 Pedagogy: More than Technology
Chapter 15 Teaching, Learning, and Computing in Japan and the United States
Chapter 16 The Significance of Off-line Learning for On-line Projects
Chapter 17 On-line Technology Isn't Enough: Transforming the Teacher-Student Learning Process
Chapter 18 Three Critical Gaps in Computer Literacy
Chapter 19 Technology and the Tyranny of Tradition in Japanese Higher Education
Part 20 Conclusion: Technology and the Status Quo: The Paradox of Reform
"Since Japan has promoted IT more intensively than almost any other country, and is itself a leading producer, it is telling that actual implementation has been slow. Jane Bachnik and her colleagues find the reasons not just in bureaucracy and individual intransigence, but in deeper social contradictions. The analyses in this book not only inform our understanding of IT and of Japanese society, but illuminate the relationship between culture and the pressure for practical change in any context."
— Craig Calhoun, Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University, USA
Don't be fooled by the title of this book. Although its theme is Japanese education, it is in fact much more: a far-reaching and critical analysis of the central "tensions"and "paradoxes" facing contemporary Japan—technology versus culture and social structure, plan versus implementation and results, individual versus organization and state, etc. Read this important book to understand the "roadblocks," both intentioned and unintentioned, that can impede social, political, and economic reform in Japan.
— Glen S. Fukushima, President & CEO, Cadence Design Systems, Japan; Former President, American Chamber of Commerce in Japan; Former Director