Development and Application of Digital Content for Elementary Social Studies using Inquiry-Based Learning: An Online Learning Plan for Local Study to Encourage Wide Area Communication of Elementary School Students in the Context of Municipal Mergers

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of the development of thirty digital contents in “NONTA Classroom”, for deepening regional understanding. We propose the pedagogical foundations for implementing them in the curriculum of elementary school education. We conceived of an online local study for elementary school social studies, in which the Board of Education mediates between Educational Vison Research Institute (EVRI) of Hiroshima University and elementary schools in Higashi-Hiroshima City. Future research will examine how children’s citizenship and teachers’ curriculum design are improved in the context of actual practice