A Learning Activity Support System for Children with Long-Term Hospitalization

Children of school age are required to go to school, but some cannot because they must receive long-term hospital care. In Japan, because every child has a duty to study for at least nine years (6-15 years), classes are offered in the pediatric ward of some large hospitals, such as university and children's hospitals. Teachers from nearby elementary and junior high schools are dispatched to give lessons in the hospital classroom. With the results of interviews to the doctor, teachers, and mother of such a patient, we designed a learning support system we named “KOCHI” to support this kind of learning activity and to help with monitoring of a child's educational and health condition during their hospital stay. “KOCHI” consists of an “Educational part” and a “Communication part”. We developed a prototype of the educational part, which contains a textbook index, quizzes, and educational games. “KOCHI” was evaluated by a doctor and three teachers. Each evaluator gave us positive, negative, and constructive opinions. Here we show its functionality and the results of our evaluation of the educational part. From our experience with this pilot study, we are developing the full system.