At the Asahi East Primary School, fifth-graders are gathered in the computer room staring intently at their computer screens. They are not writing essays, they are not chatting or searching the internet. Rather, they are creating newspapers about the recent sports festival, a traditional school-wide event held in Japan. The process is simple: they simply write their articles into predetermined newspaper formats and decorate the layout.

25 minutes after the start of class, the students who had finished writing their articles picked up their FAVO (Japanese version of the Graphire) pen tablets. They began to draw pictures and edit photographs-decorations and stylistic enhancements that will make their creations look more professional.

The program they are using is called Just Smile, and integrates drawing and photo editing with writing and layout functions. With this simple piece of software, the entire newspaper creation process from writing to layout to decoration and photographs takes place in an easy-to-understand environment. The students paste the drawings and edited photos into their newspaper, then brush up the final version with their pen tablets.

Students at the Asahi East Primary School begin learning to use the computer in the first grade with a pen tablet. So, these fifth-graders have grown up using the pen tablet and find them as natural as typing on a keyboard. Even those students who would otherwise hate computers have accepted them into their lives.

Pen Tablet Allows Display of Individuality

As their newspapers take shape, the different ways that pen tablets are used become clear. Some of the students choose to use their pen tablets to handwrite their newspaper titles. Others add their signatures as publishers and writers. "If I write by hand I can make this my own, original newspaper," one student comments. Another adds, "Because this is my newspaper that I am making, I want to sign my name in my own handwriting." As an expression of their individuality, handwriting with pen tablets are more popular than plain computer fonts with these young publishers.

In addition to photographs, there are of course students who have chosen to draw pictures of themselves in the races in which they participated instead. A few of the students drew themselves as the announcers for the event. And, even though photos are more common, most students make an effort to include some kind of illustration with their photos. They don’t just place the photos as they are, but decorate the photos with things like flames that express their fiery competitive spirit towards the games.

The pen tablet has given them this ability to express themselves creatively on the computer without knowledge of complicated software. According to the class teacher, Nobuaki Sawa, the ability to add illustration makes its biggest impact as a method of creative individual expression. "Photos tell what has been done, but the illustrations drawn by the children express the emotions they felt at that moment."

The Appeal of a Full-Color Production

One student sprinkles a sports cap clip art illustration around the title and adds a colorful frame to a photograph to share her happy feelings with her readers.

"For this newspaper, and of course when they make things that are uploaded onto the web, the kids enjoy colorful creations." Why does this happen? As they draw their pictures, the students are very aware that their creations will be seen and read by others. This encourages them to make it colorful.

Since drawing well with a mouse is nearly impossible, as more students decide to add their own illustrations into their work, they use their pen tablets more and more. They know that they are making these newspapers not only for themselves and their own enjoyment, but for the enjoyment of others as well.

"Drawing" as a Method to Understand

Most teachers immediately think "digital art" when questioned about the use of pen tablets in an educational environment. Recently, however, Sawa has been experimenting with the application of drawing to other non-artistic subjects.

Drawing was used effectively to convey emotions in this newspaper-making project, a part of the students' Japanese class. In science classes the drawing technique is used to reinforce understanding and knowledge.

The observation of plants is one good example. Children feel like they understand everything when they record their plant observations using a digital camera. Yet, if asked what shape the leaf was, few would be able to answer. They return to the classroom immediately after taking the photograph, but without actually observing the plant.

The digital camera is an excellent tool for recording objective data, but as an educational tool it can be quite frustrating. Pressing the shutter button gives the students too much confidence.

Instead, Sawa tests the student's understanding by having them draw a picture. The drawing not only gives the teacher an evaluation method, but also allows the children to see for themselves how much they have learned. Afterwards, both are placed in the plant observation diary on the school's homepage. Combined, both the drawing and the digital photo help the students understand plant growth.

The pen tablet is an important tool

At Asahi East Primary School, in addition to the above activities, computers and pen tablets are used daily for various purposes such as school interchange email and in campus notices. The use of pen tablets started when Sawa joined Asahi East six years ago, but he had been using them for four years at his previous school as well. "I have been using them for so long that I can’t recall what I did before them," he laughs.

In fact, when he found out that there was no plan to include pen tablets with the replacement of computers, he had pen tablets put into the school budget.

"It will deprive students of an important learning tool if pen tablet are not made available. It is difficult for the students to express themselves freely when their drawing tool is a mouse."

Experiencing the Digital Revolution

The benefits that pen tablet use has for education seems obvious, but if even teachers can’t be expected to draw stunningly beautiful images, we can hardly expect detailed drawing from children.

"I think it’s good that students start by drawing a simple part of the flower such as the root for their observation diaries. But it becomes a tiresome task for a child to draw it everyday, so the students rotate the task among themselves. Everyone takes turns on different days, and they are able to teach each other without the teacher’s guidance. Teachers simply lend their support and guidance by pointing out main concepts, reducing work load."

Also, there are fun digital drawing activities like picture relays where students start a drawing and pass it along to a friend who continues it. A school-wide relay helps to emphasize creativity and self-expression among the students as well as strengthening the school community.

"Digital expression with a computer and pen tablet has many advantages including the ability to include special effects, to easily edit and redraw, to change line thickness, and to use a huge number of colors freely. The possibilities are much greater than using actual paints and colored pencils. If these advantages are more widely known, teachers will be able to utilize drawing in the classroom much more effectively."

At Asahi East Primary School, the utilization of digital drawing seems to have given birth to a new teaching style.

The Asahi East Primary School is located in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.