May 3 (Fri), 4 (Sat), 5 (Sun) in 1996
A personal computer course, "The 2nd Digital Hiking", was held from May 3 to 5 (sponsored by Nippon Broadcasting and backed by IBM, Japan) at Inogashira Park (Musashino City), located in suburban Tokyo. This event was planned to acquaint beginners to use the personal computer not as a "tool for business" but as a "toy". The theme was "Introducing our Inokashira Park on Internet" where children could make their own home pages. 40 children participated with their fathers and mothers to make their unique home page.
40 IBM Aptivas were set up on the 2nd floor classroom of the Document Museum located within the Park. The children first received instructions on how to use the mouse from Mr. Hideki, the Digital Hiking Chairman. They were then briefed on the highlights of Internet and were demoed childrens playspots around the world, including NASA and Disneyland. They must have felt very "International" after viewing these locations.
In the afternoon, they were each given a digital camera and a map and soon dispersed to the musuem, aquarium, zoo, botanical garden, and sculpture museum located within the compounds.
It didn't take much time for them to return to the classroom to scan in the pictures that they had taken into their home pages using the "Home Page Builder"program. It was not long before they they began to input titles to these pictures from the keyboard and to input their own stories. However, this process was more difficult than said and took more time.
Mai Takeuchi, a 2nd grader at Nerima Ward's Oisumi Elementary School, and who attended this event with her father said "I never thought I could learn about computers in the natural environment. It was a very HAPPY day". Also, the father of Ohno Yurika, a 3rd grader at Tateno Elementary School, said "We both had a very memorable experience". The organizing committee's policy of "Let the children know the capabilities of the computer so that they may stride to new horizons" was fully realized on this day and computers will surely be used by children more and more.
Now let's go on to look at each of their works. Click a button.
[Japanese]