A new program called Booster shows students their attendance record for the day. This is made possible by a lecturer at a university in Osaka.
Booster is an education software that Takanobu Kameda helped create. When a student clicks o one of the classes that has a particular color setting in his computer, he gets to see the attendance report of his classes.
Students may think that the school is tracking their attendance for the usual reason, cites Japan Times. According to Kameda, the aim of the software is to help students with developmental disorders such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the like) manage their class schedules. Some students may think it is a means to control behavior. But for the 34 year old lecturer, it is merely an assistance program.
Students who have been diagnosed and are suffering from ADHD or other developmental disorders are prone to losing track of their class schedules. They would tend to miss their classes and even their assignment due dates. Missing classes oftentimes also hits the students' morale. They would sometimes ask themselves why they are unable to complete or do something as simple as attending classes. Something that a lot of people can do.
Because of this, some students needed to repeat their academic year because of the classes they missed. Kameda himself has been diagnosed with ADHD. He knows what students with developmental disorders go through. Which is why he thought of this program.
What the students are going through now are the same things he committed when he was younger. Regardless of his good grades, he could never keep track of the tiniest details.
Because he himself is diagnosed with the illness, he now works as a university lecturer and offers career and job advice to students. For him, it is a personal mission that can help students get through school.
