What Teachers Should Know About JSON

In recent years, the use of cloud services and school administration support systems has been advancing in schools.

Furthermore, recently,

• ChatGPT

• Gemini

• Claude

• Copilot

and other generative AI tools have begun to enter the educational field.

Amidst this,

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

is a term that is being seen more frequently.

You may have heard of CSV, but perhaps you are not familiar with JSON.

Many teachers might feel this way.

However, considering future educational DX and the use of generative AI,

JSON is one of the data formats you should know, alongside CSV.

What is JSON?

JSON stands for

JavaScript Object Notation

.

It sounds difficult, but

simply put

A format for organizing and recording data

is what it is.

For example, representing student information looks like this:

{
  "氏名": "山田太郎",
  "クラス": "2A",
  "出席番号": 15
}

it becomes like this.

If CSV is a table format,

JSON is

a dictionary format

or

data with name tags

is easier to understand.

Differences from CSV

The CSV introduced in the previous article is arranged like this:

Name,Class,Attendance Number
Taro Yamada,2A,15

It is arranged like this.

While it is simple and easy to handle,

what each thing means

depends on the order of the columns.

On the other hand, JSON

{
 "氏名":"山田太郎",
 "クラス":"2A"
}

manages data with names like this.

Therefore,

The meaning of the data is easy to understand,

and it is also suitable for communication between computers.

Why JSON now?

In fact, many modern cloud services

use JSON behind the scenes.

For example,

• Google Workspace

• Microsoft 365

• Slack

• Discord

• Notion

and so on.

When you press a button, data is sent.

Information is displayed on the screen.

Often, information is exchanged in JSON format behind the scenes.

In other words, JSON is

one of the common languages supporting the modern internet

itself.

A familiar example for teachers

For instance,

Let's say you are creating a student dashboard.

If it were CSV,

Name,Japanese,Math,English

it would look like this.

However, with JSON,

{
 "氏名":"山田太郎",
 "成績":{
   "国語":75,
   "数学":82,
   "英語":90
 }
}

you can have a hierarchical structure like this.

In other words,

"putting data inside data"

is possible.

Compatibility with Generative AI

The biggest reason JSON has been attracting attention in recent years is

its excellent compatibility with generative AI.

For example,

if you ask an AI to "organize student information,"

you can have it output in JSON format.

It looks like this.

{
 "氏名":"山田太郎",
 "得意教科":"数学",
 "課題":"英語"
}

By passing this to another system,

automatic processing becomes possible.

Relationship with Local LLMs

This is the end of the explanation.

The same applies to local LLMs, which have been gaining attention in recent years.

For example,

Read grade data CSV
↓
Convert to JSON format
↓
AI analyzes
↓
Output HTML report

This workflow is possible.

In fact, when creating student dashboards or learning analytics systems,

cases of converting between CSV and JSON are increasing.

The Foundation of the AI Agent Era

AI agents, which are a hot topic recently,

also make heavy use of JSON.

For example,

consider the process of "extracting students with consecutive absences."

This is the process to consider.

AI will return the results

{
 "生徒名":"山田太郎",
 "欠席日数":5,
 "注意レベル":"高"
}

in a format like this.

It is not just for humans to read,

but can also be understood by other systems.

This is the strength of JSON.

Not All Teachers Need to Become Programmers

I do not want there to be any misunderstanding here,

but not all teachers need to write JSON.

You can use Excel without knowing Excel functions.

Similarly, you can use generative AI without understanding JSON.

However,

if you know JSON,

• what the AI is doing

• how systems coordinate with each other

will become visible to you.

It might be the next generation of 'reading, writing, and arithmetic'.

In the past,

• reading

• writing

• abacus

were the basic education.

In modern times,

• word processing

• spreadsheets

• presentations

are said to be the basic skills.

And in the generative AI era,

• CSV

• JSON

• AI

Understanding the relationship between these might become a new form of information literacy.

Conclusion

If CSV is the "common language for tabular data" that supports school DX,

JSON is the "common language for structured data" that supports the generative AI era.

Teachers may not often find themselves writing JSON.

However,

Generative AI

Cloud services

Local LLMs

School administration support systems

and other technologies use JSON as a matter of course behind the scenes.

In future educational DX,

"being able to use a computer"

is not enough;

"understanding how data flows"

will become important.

Knowing JSON might be the first step toward understanding education in the era of generative AI.