Masterplans for ICT in education

For your second post, share what you think about the following:

·          In your opinion, why do you think it is important for MOE to develop the three Masterplans for ICT in education?

·          Has any of the Masterplans impacted you as a student? Share your experience of how ICT had been used in the classes you attended as a student (if applicable)

·          Based on your enhanced school experience, how do you think the current Masterplan 3 may affect your role(s) as a beginning teacher?

MOE has developed three Masterplans for ICT in education to keep up with the technological advances over these years. The first Materplan (MP1) was introduced in April 1997 and was adopted by the schools up till 2002. According to RADM Teo Chee Hean, the minister for education then, MP1 was aimed to provide an IT-based teaching and learning environment in every school and this would help the students to think creatively, to learn independently and to communicate effectively. By the end of MP1, all schools in Singapore had integrated ICT into their curriculum in one way or another. All schools had the essential physical and ICT infrastructure for ICT-based teaching and learning. For instance, the student to computer ratio of 6.6:1 and 5:1 is achieved in primary and secondary/JC respectively. In addition, trainings and upgrading courses are given to teachers to allow them to have the basic skills in integrating ICT into the curriculum.

The second Masterplan (MP2) was introduced in July 2002 and was adopted by the schools up till 2008. According to MrTharman Shanmugaratnam, the minister for education then, MP2 was aimed to integrate curriculum, assessment, instruction, professional development and the culture of the school altogether. By the end of MP2, it was expected that the students would be able use ICT for active learning; teachers would be able to use ICT effectively for professional and personal growth and schools would have a greater capacity and autonomy in the use of ICT for school improvement as a whole.

The third Masterplan (MP3) was introduced in August 2008 and is adopted by the schools today. It will be adopted by the schools up till 2014. According to Dr Ng Eng Hen, the minister for education then, MP3 was aimed to continue the vision of MP1 and MP2 and also to enrich and transform the learning environments of our students so as to allow them to be global competitive and to succeed in today’s world  

In 1997, many countries, especially developed countries have introduced plans to integrate IT into the school curriculum. According to ASCD Report in January 1997, the United States has established a $200 million Technology Literacy Challenge Fund which will give American students access to computers and more than 6000 schools will be linked. To remain global competitive, Singapore saw the need to come up with a comprehensive Masterplan to harness ICT for education so as to groom students to be comfortable with new technologies and able to use technology to think innovatively and creatively.

Next, it was evident that ICT had improved the way we worked, learnt and played in 1997. MOE has great foresight in believing that the next century will witness the increased use of ICT in our everyday lives. Not only aiming to prepare the younger generations to be comfortable with new technologies and remain global competitive, MOE also wished to integrate ICT in administrative and management areas so that the education system in Singapore continued to remain top-notched in the world.

In 2002, Singapore saw a need to renew MP1 and launch MP2. As the world is rapidly changing, plans have to be revised and modified to achieve the objectives and goals in a more effective and efficient manner. It was important to launch MP2 which built on the achievements of MP1. More training was given to teachers to not only improve on their ICT skills, but also to use the ICT skills in everyday classroom teaching. Using ICT tools as an aid to help the students learn better is the ultimate aim of the Masterplans.

I was in the upper primary and lower secondary when the MP1 was introduced. I was given the chance to go for basic Microsoft Word processing and Microsoft Powerpoint workshop when I was in Primary 3 and 4 respectively. I learnt to use the computer keypad to type in simple letters and learnt to create my personalized name card through the Microsoft Word processing workshop. As for the Microsoft Powerpoint workshop in Primary 4, I learnt to create simple powerpoint slides with visual and audio animations. Unfortunately, there were no more such workshops organized for us as we were busy with Co-curriculum activities (CCA) and core subjects’ curriculum to prepare us for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). In my lower secondary school days, ICT was not integrated into the school curriculum and we were not given any chance to go for any ICT workshops (at least not in my memory).

When MP2 was introduced, I was in upper secondary and junior college. In secondary 3, when SARS caused a worldwide frantic, we did e-learning for a week or two as the school was closed. An online portal was created for us and we had to do independent learning. After watching the video uploaded by our various teachers and reading up the textbooks, we had to do online assignment to test on our understanding for the topic learnt by ourselves. It was then when we realized the importance of e-learning, especially in times of emergencies and disease outbreaks such as SARS. And so in subsequent years in my education life, there will always be e-learning week in a year. In college year 1, we had to do a project work. During project work lessons, our teacher will bring us to the computer labs to ease our completion of the project.

In YPS, I have observed that students tend to enjoy more during lessons in which their teachers have made use of the ICT tools. Despite the ICT tool used is just a simple laptop with powerpoint slides prepared to teach certain concepts, the students tend to pay more attention and ask more questions. Some of the visual and audio animations in the powerpoint slides capture their attention. In my opinion, I feel that using videos to reinforce the main idea of the lesson is a great way of making the students learn and remember them clearly. In addition, whenever I was doing relief in YPS, most of my classes would ask me whether I will bring them to the computer lab. And whenever I said I will bring them to the computer lab if they behave themselves, they will be really well-behaved throughout the entire day. This carrot-and-stick approach I have used and the general observations on classroom teaching by the experienced teachers in YPS have proven to me that most of the children love to have ICT- based lesson.   

Based on my enhanced school experience (ESE) in Yishun Primary School (YPS), I think that the current Masterplan 3 (MP3) is going to affect my role as a beginning teacher in many different ways.

Firstly, I will need to constantly upgrade myself with not only the knowledge in my school curriculum, but also knowledge outside it. I will need to read widely, get in touch with the world news and made use of various ICT tools so as to expand and enrich the learning environment of my students. Due to the advanced social media and technology improvements, students are now exposed to a lot more things than in the past and are perhaps more IT-savvy than teachers do, as a role of a beginning teacher, I will have to constantly keep up with the latest technologies and news so as to engage my students better.

Secondly, I must not be afraid to learn from my students as well. Some IT-savvy students can really know more things than teachers do. After all, teachers learn from the students as well. As quoted by John Cotton Dana, who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

Thirdly, I hope, as a beginning teacher, through the various ICT tools available, I can make my teaching more interesting to students and make them want to learn more. Perhaps, with time, I can even come up with new teaching ICT tools to instill my students to think creatively and innovatively, which is one of the ultimate goal in which all the Masterplans will want to achieve.