Study in Japan
After spending almost a year in an IT 専門学校(college) in Tokyo, I’ve realized that the IT education here is disconnected from the needs of modern programmers. The gap between what schools teach and what the industry demands is huge. Exams for Java were written on paper. The frontend resource was W3Schools, not terrible, but MDN is the standard. Networking(CCNA) was all textbook reading and filling out worksheets, sometimes on Excel 方眼紙(grid paper). There was no real hands-on experience, no actual application of what we were “learning”.
It’s no surprise that students struggle. Almost no one I’ve talked to felt like they learned anything useful in these courses. Some relied on YouTube tutorials, others paid for online courses in their own languages. Using your native language might save you from “katakana hell”, but poorly translated Computer Science jargon makes things harder. For example, the Simplified Chinese translation 句柄(handler) confused me more than it helped.
I’ve always been a self-taught developer, starting ten years ago during university. I met many talented self-taught programmers much younger than me in online groups and forums. They helped me a lot. I’m also good in reading English, so I have access to sufficient online resources. I know how hard it can be to learn on your own, but I also know how much community and the right resources can help. I started sharing useful online resources with my classmates, but it quickly became clear that self-study doesn’t work for everyone. Many of my classmates were juggling full-time school and part-time jobs; they didn’t have the time or energy to figure everything out on their own.
So, I started hosting small teaching sessions after school twice a week. I’d invite classmates and explain concepts using the Feynman method, teaching others helps you learn better too. But there was only so much we could do in two hours a week. IT is such a broad field, covering frontend, backend, networking, and computer science basics, and it’s impossible to cover it all in a few sessions. On top of that, when new classmates joined us, the material I had prepared didn’t suit people with varying knowledge backgrounds, and people do forget. I must find a better way.
I thought about one thing that kept me motivated when learning something new — games. I’ve drafted a board game to teach binary concepts. It starts with matching powers of 2 with the results, then introduces bits and bytes, IP addresses, subnets, masks, and so on. The idea is to build understanding step-by-step, making the process enjoyable. I’ve implemented the powers of 2 matching game using paper cards; it received great feedback from my classmates.
Alongside that, I’m considering bite-sized, mobile-friendly lessons with a smooth learning curve, “from 0 to 0.1”, that are easy to pick up even when you’re tired after work and class. There are existing successful examples like Duolingo, which gamifies learning and provides an illusion of continued study, which is precious for forming a habit of studying. Also, Brilliant(thank you Kurzgesagt) breaks complex topics into digestible pieces.
Another idea is to create a system for tracking progress. Similar to a DnD game, we can have challenge levels like building a binary converter or subnet calculator to get hands dirty. Completed challenges could be verified by the creator(dungeon master!) and hosted on GitHub as Proof of Work — something students can show as a badge of achievement or even use when applying for jobs. I think achievement badges can tell more than a 2-hour interview with a 500-question personality quiz. Even if the employer insists, students can talk about the stories behind the badges.
Japan is a magical place where you don’t need to be a genius to live a decent life and do what you want to do. Not everyone has the luxury of time or the aptitude to learn IT in wild web. That’s why I want to create tools that are engaging, flexible, and fit into busy lives—to make learning accessible not just for students in Japan but for anyone in the world who desires to learn, to lift the Curse of Knowledge.