  In this paper, we discuss at The 8th International Workshop on Application of
Big Data for Computational Social Science, October 26-29, 2023, Venice, Italy.
To achieve the realization of the Global and Innovation Gateway for All (GIGA)
initiative (2019), proposed in December 2019 by the Primary and Secondary
Education Planning Division of the Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau of
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, a movement
has emerged to utilize information and communication technology (ICT) in the
field of education. The history of ICT education in Japan dates back to the 100
Schools Project (1994), which aimed to provide network access environments, and
the New 100 Schools Project (1997), which marked the beginning of full-scale
ICT education in Japan. In this paper, we discuss the usage dynamics of
smartphone-based learning applications among young people (analyzing data from
January to September 2020) and their current status. Further, the results are
summarized and future research topics and issues are discussed. The results
show that there are situations in which ICT learning environments can be
effectively utilized and others in which they cannot, depending on the
differences between digital students and analog students who utilize ICT in
their studies; this indicates that we are currently in a transition to a
generation of digital natives. ICT education has both advantages and
disadvantages, and it is expected that it will be used in combination with
conventional educational methods while assessing the characteristics of ICT
education in the future. Of course, there are many challenges. We plan to
discuss how to appeal in this regard at the Workshop.
