GIGA School Device Usage Case Study of Hyogo Prefecture's Himeji City Board of Education
— Elementary, junior high, and high schools in Himeji City adopt the made-in-Japan filter software designed to meet domestic needs, i-FILTER@Cloud —

Information security solutions provider Digital Arts Inc. (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; CEO: Toshio Dogu; hereinafter referred to as "Digital Arts"; Securities Code 2326) is pleased to announce on October 18 it released an introduction case study of the Himeji City Board of Education in Hyogo Prefecture, which used the web security cloud service i-FILTER@Cloud GIGA School Edition as a security measure for the one device per student GIGA School Program.

Introducing a Case Study of a Board of Education That Introduced Filtering to Ensure Proper Use of Devices

The GIGA School Program, which aims to provide devices and high-speed internet to every student nationwide, coupled with the increased need for online learning brought on by the pandemic, has led many local governments to fully introduce devices by the end of fiscal 2020. Each municipality continues to promote the use of ICT in schools and investigate the optimal way to operate the program, including how to use devices for learning and usage rules for students.

In the midst of all this, it was found that a tragic incident occurred in September where an elementary school girl in Tokyo committed suicide after being bullied in chat rooms on devices distributed through the GIGA School Program. Children are still in the developmental stages of relationships and communication, and their internet literacy, too, is in its infancy. At this stage, both the issue of whether to allow students to use devices connected to the internet without restriction and the use of GIGA School devices have been highlighted. To prevent such incidents from happening again, is there any way to keep an eye on children's safety and allow them to use their devices safely?

Since April 2020, Digital Arts has been providing the web security cloud service i-FILTER@Cloud GIGA School Edition (hereinafter referred to as i-FILTER@Cloud) so that students can use GIGA School devices safely and teachers and parents can have peace of mind in letting their children use the devices. On October 18, we released a case study of the Himeji City Board of Education in Hyogo Prefecture (hereinafter referred to as Himeji City), which introduced i-FILTER@Cloud GIGA School Edition and leads ICT education by integrating devices into daily use.

Filter Software Developed in Japan Features Detailed Settings That Provide Teachers and Students With Peace of Mind

Himeji City introduced approximately 44,000 Chromebooks in April of this year and distributed Google Workspace for Education accounts to all students as part of its efforts to develop a learning environment that is in line with the government's one device per student initiative. What Himeji City is focusing on in its ICT policy is the expansion of daily use of technology in schools. For example, at an elementary school, children use Google Classroom for classroom communications, or to practice typing during recess and create programming games, and use digital drills during morning study. It is this kind of daily use that contributes to the use of technology in the classroom.

However, there are endless concerns about children's use of technology outside of the classroom, where teachers cannot keep an eye on them. To address this issue, Himeji City introduced i-FILTER@Cloud for teachers to be able to use devices safely and securely. Kenji Yabuue, section chief of the Education and Training Division at the General Education Center of Himeji's Board of Education, who was in charge of developing the ICT environment, said, "If teachers are worried about not knowing what students are looking at, they may not use the devices. We believe that children will only be able to use the devices freely when teachers feel completely secure. Since we were considering implementing off-site learning from the beginning, we thought filters would be essential."

Since 2010, Himeji City has been using the at-school version of i-FILTER in the computer rooms of elementary and junior high schools. Speaking on why they chose to adopt i-FILTER@Cloud for the GIGA School Program as well, Mr. Yabuue said, "I trusted i-FILTER@Cloud as it had proved safe and secure during our use of the at-school version. Being able to fine-tune the settings to meet our needs as Japanese schools gives us peace of mind." He also praised the software saying, "I wouldn't have expected anything less from filter software developed here in Japan." In addition, Himeji City uses a function to control the usage hours of devices and deny access between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. to protect the daily rhythms of students, and also uses the "application control" function to restrict the registered applications. They also use i-FILTER@Cloud as anti-malware software as well.

The "Child Protection System" Provides Peace of Mind That Students Will Be Protected Even if Something Happens When Learning From Home

Although Himeji City has been emphasizing the use of ICT in schools, the scope of its use is expanding beyond the classroom as it continues its efforts. During summer vacation in the second year of the GIGA School Program, fifth to ninth-grade students from all elementary and junior high schools in the city took home devices to study at home. They worked on homework using technology at home which included keeping diaries using Google Docs and creating a summer research assignment that uses photos and slides.

The i-FILTER Child Protection System, a special feature of the GIGA School Edition of i-FILTER@Cloud, has also been used so that when children access suicide-related websites from their devices, the Board of Education is alerted and the relevant websites are blocked. Mr. Yabuue added, "With the at-school version, we were only able to detect website access on the school network, but with the cloud version, we are now able to detect access outside of schools and respond quickly." "When the Board of Education receives an alert, depending on the nature of the alert, we relay the information to the school and ask the homeroom teacher to keep a close eye on the behavior of their students. We believe that this will help prevent serious incidents and accidents from occurring," said Satoki Sakata, supervisor of the Education and Training Division at the Board of Education's General Education Center.

City High Schools Also Adopt i-FILTER@Cloud to Address Need for High School Students to Have Filtering

Himeji has three city high schools, all of which we are proud to say use i-FILTER@Cloud. Rather than thinking filtering is unnecessary for high school students, Mr. Sakata says, "Just because high school students have their own devices they can use freely, I would still like them to realize that their learning devices are tools to be used in the same way as they would be at school."
For the future, Mr. Sakata would like to tackle new forms of learning, such as online exchanges between schools at the elementary and junior high level and online classes for schools that are facing a shortage of specialized teachers.

■The full case study of the Himeji City Board of Education in Hyogo Prefecture can be found here
▶ https://www.daj.jp/bs/case/case84/

Digital Arts "i-FILTER@Cloud" GIGA School Edition Special Lineup

In addition to "post controls" and "web service controls," which prohibit posts related to cyberbullying, our system is also equipped with a "Child Protection System."

Digital Arts' web security cloud service i-FILTER@Cloud GIGA School Edition is a filtering service for schools that has been improved to enable the use of the GIGA School Concept's one device per student initiative and allow safe and smooth learning in educational settings. Based on i-FILTER's filter database, which has the No.1 share in the domestic market*, detailed filtering rules can be made to meet the learning environment's needs.
In addition, all three operating systems recommended by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in its GIGA School Concept can use the "post controls" function, which controls the posting of messages by students on hidden message boards and social media websites, and the uploading of photos taken with the device's built-in camera. This will prevent children and students from using the devices for private use, using them for purposes unrelated to learning, and writing messages that could lead to bullying. In addition, "Web Service Controls" controls functions such as login, writing, uploading, and downloading for each web service, and the "Child Protection System" blocks students' access to suicide-related websites from their own devices using i-FILTER@Cloud and alerts designated teachers and staff or the Board of Education by e-mail. These functions help support educational settings to keep an eye on children's safety and find distressed students as soon as possible.
https://www.daj.jp/es/lp/GIGA/

*Fuji Chimera Research Institute, Inc. "2020 Network Security Business Survey General Guide" Web Filtering Tool Market Share (FY2019) (Published November 2020)