Kazunori Hasegawa’s research while affiliated with Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and other places

We have implemented the PHI system that can be used to acquire vocabularies by using iPods. In addition, we have developed the PSI system that can be used to create learning materials for PHI. In this study, we investigate the possibility of autonomous and collaborative vocabulary acquirement of the learners by using these systems and give the design principle of an environment that promotes autonomous and collaborative learning.

We have developed an autonomous and collaborative vocabulary learning system SIGMA (Special-Interested-Group Material Accumulator). The system has a sub system PSI (Personal SuperImposer) for support of learning material creation. With the PSI system, learners can create their own learning materials for vocabulary learning by using their favorite images or movies. In this study, we investigate the learning effect by creating the learning materials based on two experiments and discuss its results.

In our previous work, we developed a database system to share learning materials for vocabulary acquirement based on iPods. In this paper, we report on a new vocabulary test manager function on 'PodBase', which is one of the subsystems of the online educational system that we have developed. The functions are test generation, test management and score management. The manager enables the users to create, share and evaluate the vocabulary tests. From the functions, the teachers are released from the burden of test creation, and the learners are able to make use of the tests efficiently. In this paper, we report on the design of the vocabulary test manager. We also describe an implementation of a prototype system and the effectiveness of the proposed functions.

In this study, we proposed and implemented "MultiPod", an online educational system for learning foreign words. This system is based on iPods and it uses word learning materials of very short movies. Each learning material consists of a 5-second moving image that corresponds to the word to be learned, its spelling, and its pronunciation. We conducted an evaluation experiment with ten subjects in which we compared the learning method based on our system against the traditional paper-and-pen method. By the t-test for the results, we proved that there is a significant difference between the long-term effectiveness of MultiPod and that of the paper-and- pen method.

In learning the vocabulary of a foreign language, it is ef-fective to increase the time and frequency of learning the novel words. Hence, in our study, we developed a foreign-word learning system based on a popular mobile device, the iPod, that enables its users to make good use of his/her free time. Compared to other mobile devices, the iPod has a larger storage capacity. Furthermore, the user can easily replay the moving image files. These advantages can be put to good use in language learning. In our system, the users first select the foreign words that they want to learn using their personal computers, then download the corre-sponding contents into their iPods. The contents that are downloaded into the iPod consist of the pronunciation of each word together with a series of either still or moving images corresponding to these foreign words. In addition, we conducted an evaluation experiment in which we com-pared the learning method based on our system against the conventional paper-and pencil method. The result indicated that the method based on our system showed as 1.5 times as better ratio of memorization after two weeks, thus verifying the effectiveness of our system.