A Comparative Study on the ELSI Issues of EdTech in the U.S. and Japan

<p>Japan has lagged behind other developed countries in the use of ICT at schools for a while. However, in the past couple of years, the opportunities of the use of ICT in schools are rapidly increasing with the development of educational policies such as educational responses to new coronavirus infections and “personalized learning”. In the midst of these situations, ELSI's response to the further development of ICT utilization and EdTech will be an urgent issue. In the U.S., a leading EdTech country, the utilization of learning data in schools is being promoted. On the other hand, a number of the ELSI cases, including the appropriateness and reliability of the data use or personal data transfer without permission, have been emergent in the country. There were problematic cases of data transfer in public schools to the army recruiters and the polices. Especially, the polices made a list of children who were supposed to be committed the crimes based on academic achievement at schools. To avoid those cases, stricter ELSI protections have been constructed in the federal act and regulations, as well as the voluntary guidelines developed by non-governmental organizations. The reporters will show the expected ethical, legal, and social issues of the EdTech policy in Japan from the perspective and experience of cases in the U.S.</p>