This year’s curriculum includes programming using micro:bit and video production

Tokyo, Japan, April 9, 2024 — MIXI, Inc. will continue supporting the Shibuya Club Activity Reform Project, a Shibuya City initiative launched in April 2022. The project runs club activities across junior high schools in Shibuya City with the cooperation of local companies and organizations. As in the previous fiscal year, MIXI will provide the curriculum and instructors. MIXI will continue to be responsible for all classes in the Digital Creative Club throughout the year. In addition to the text programming and graphic design classes offered in the previous fiscal year, MIXI will provide newly developed content that uses the company’s resources to help students learn creative skills, including device control programming using the educational platform micro:bit and video production.

■About our support for the Shibuya Club Activity Reform Project

Along with the growing need to promote work style reform in schools and the declining number of students due to a falling birthrate, it has become increasingly difficult for educational institutions to sustain extracurricular club activities for children without support. In response to this situation, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) began full-scale efforts last fiscal year to transition weekend club activities at public junior high schools to community-based programs and regional club activities.
Shibuya City took the lead nationwide by launching the Shibuya Club Activity Reform Project in November 2021. With support from local companies and organizations, they conducted a trial of joint club activities open to students from all eight city-run junior high schools. Full-scale activities began in fiscal year 2022, and this fiscal year marks the program’s third year. In the previous fiscal year, 223 students participated in the joint club activities, and they have been actively engaged across the various activities this program offers.

MIXI has been participating in this project since the pilot program was launched in 2021. In the previous fiscal year, we were responsible for all courses offered throughout the year in the Digital Creative Club. In addition to programming and design, we developed new content on AI, security, and sound design, with the club activities being led by our employees. A total of 29 students joined in the first term and 25 in the second term, with some students having participated since their first year of junior high school. Throughout multiple surveys, many students said these club activities allowed them to gain learning experiences they would not have normally gained. We received comments such as, “I was amazed by how AI can perform enormous amounts of processing in an instant,” and “I thought it would be difficult, but I was surprised that I could create great-sounding music just by combining audio samples.”
This fiscal year, we will continue to expand our support by leveraging our strengths and contribute to local communities.

■Specific Support for This Fiscal Year

We will run all sessions of the Digital Creative Club for the full year with employee-led club activities in three areas: programming, AI and technology, and design.

Curriculum Overview (Tentative)
Content:
■Programming (8 sessions total)
・”Practical Python Programming and Problem Solving”
Learn the programming language Python through original software and lectures while completing assignments. Participants can enjoy learning Python while creating projects.

・”Python Programming for Original Game Development”
Using Python, participants will learn how 3D graphics and games work while they create an original game. They will also get experience with various steps of game creation, including planning the game and creating illustrations.

■AI and Technology (8 sessions in total)
・”Program Conversations With the Conversational AI Robot Romi!”
Using the programming tool Romi Scenario Editor, participants will program conversations with Romi, a conversational AI robot developed by MIXI.

・”Device Control Using micro:bit” (New in FY2024)
This curriculum uses the micro:bit, an educational microcontroller board that can control various sensors and LEDs. Participants program the micro:bit using Python and take on the challenge of creating a wide range of projects by effectively controlling built-in sensors that measure light and temperature, as well as LED displays.

・”Understand AI and machine learning, and expand your ideas!”
Participants try out demo applications and learn how AI technologies work, such as machine learning, where systems learn from data, and deep learning. These technologies are expected to see increased use in real-world applications such as image searches, text searches, and text generation. Participants will also be able to explore and expand their own ideas through this process.

■Design (12 sessions)
・”Information Design”
Through web and app design, participants can get a practical sense of how the size and placement of text, images, buttons, and other elements affect usability.

・”Graphic Design”
Participants express their own vision and ideas through design through effective use of elements such as color, shape, size, and text.

・”Sound Design”
Participants learn how to communicate a theme more effectively by combining background music and sound effects that fit the theme.

・”Video Production” (New in FY2024)
Participants learn how to communicate what they want to convey to viewers through video production.

Schedule:
Every Wednesday, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (JST), from May 2024 to March 2025
(Excluding summer and winter holidays)

Location:
MIXI Head Office
36F, Shibuya Scramble Square, 2-24-12 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Number of Participants:
Up to 30 students

For more details, please see the site below. (Japanese only)
https://shibuyasports.com/digital-creative/

MIXI will continue to participate in the Shibuya Club Activity Reform Project as part of our sustainability activities throughout this fiscal year. We will also provide a wide range of IT education support by leveraging our resources, including support for programming education at Shibuya City junior high schools and the provision of special programming curricula to select private junior high schools in Shibuya City.