Hiking the e-trail

Two conference participants from Malaysia sit among representatives from 12 other countries.

However, this ICT revolution will not be complete without the "software," in other words, the professional development, curriculum design, supporting policies and long-term implementation plans. Thailand still has much to learn from its international counterparts about this type of "software" revolution, particularly from Singapore.

"From our observations, teachers, regardless of which schools they come from, are better than the Ministry [of Education] in pinpointing the students' areas of interest," says Dr. Rangsun Wiboon-upptum, computer educator at the Bureau of Information and Communication Technology, at Thailand's Ministry of Education.

"But the problem is that our teachers cannot synthesise this information and organise it into a body of knowledge for writing curriculum plans."

Singapore's IT master plan

Speaking at the Second East Asia Regional ICT Conference - an event recently organised by the British Council - a representative from the Educational Technology Division (ETD) of Singapore's Ministry of Education shared his country's perspective regarding its ICT policy and practical implementation in Singapore schools.

Between 1997 and 2002, the government of Singapore implemented its "Master Plan I" for IT in education. Like many other pioneering countries, the Master Plan I comprised a blueprint for IT use in Singapore schools and access to an IT-enriched school environment for every child. The emphasis was on four major areas: curriculum and assessment; learning resources; human resource development; and, physical and technological infrastructure.

Students, says ETD representative Ang Gim Chai, saw the achievements in the infrastructure, basic competencies of teachers, and exposure and access. "It's not a question of 'do you want to embrace all the technology?'," Ang says. "It's asking ourselves how can ICT be leveraged for engagement learning? And how do we bring in a student-centric learning environment?"

Despite these initial efforts, teaching and learning in schools was still characterised by the teacher-centred style. Although teachers were aware that ICT can be harnessed for teaching and learning, Ang adds, it did not translate into practice.

In July 2002, the Ministry of Education promulgated its "Master Plan II", which builds on the achievements of Master Plan I and continues to apply the holistic approach in the four key areas mentioned above, including a fifth prong: research and development. The added vision, says Ang, is to successfully implement engaged learning, where both students and teachers use ICT effectively to promote active learning.

In doing so, the ministry fosters three key strategies. Firstly, all students leaving elementary and secondary schools must have at least a basic understanding of ICT. Secondly, schools have full authority regarding the implementation of IT, meaning they are free to spend government funds on various professional development and knowledge planning programmes.

This freedom, of course, comes with a close collaboration with the education ministry. "At the end of 2008, we hope to see at least 95 percent of our schools having capable leaders in place - from the school's principals to vice principals to department heads," says Ang.

And thirdly, while the ministry is happy with the average implementation rate among schools, it is prepared to support schools that are ready to take ICT in learning to a higher level. These are schools that have a clear set of IT goals and have encouraged student-centred learning through the use of ICT. "We are talking about full ownership," says Ang. "I think the day we are successful in [implementing] technology as part of Singapore's education system is when my division - Educational Technology Division - will have worked ourselves out of the job."

Case study

The division is indeed heading in that direction, as one of its most crucial roles is to help teachers and schools develop curricula that effectively integrate the use of ICT. One such curriculum is called the "Wireless E-trail" at Qihua Primary School, a collaborative project between the Educational Technology Division and Qihua Primary School.

The Wireless E-trail, says Qihua School teacher Sharon Ho, requires Primary Four students to perform pre-assigned, location-specific tasks, such as finding an exercise programme that helps the school's basketball players achieve the optimal heart rate or composing a Haiku from English words hidden in the school's ecological garden. To complete the tasks, students have to exercise such skills as gathering information and processing it via a wireless Internet connection.

"We are all aware of the potential of wireless technologies - such as PDAs, Wi-Fi, and tablet PCs - to bring learning out of the classroom," Ho says. "However, we didn't want to jump onto the bandwagon and use the latest IT just for the sake of using it. We wanted to make sure that the wireless e-trail is backed by some pedagogy."

As such, she adds, all activities at the learning stations have a basis in proven research and modern teaching methodologies, such as the current theory that learning should take place in an authentic or real-life context.

In creating an authentic context for learning, all activities must satisfy three criteria. Firstly, each activity must take place in a reality-based physical environment, since tasks that are fictitious and set in a fictional setting provide little connection with real life.

Secondly, the physical environment must contain information that is unique to and is useful in solving the tasks. For example, given that the location is in the school's library, the task that requires students to promote the library, using available resources, provides a more authentic context than one that merely requires students to search for certain information that can also be found elsewhere (such as on a field trip) because the former maximises interactivity with the given environment, i.e., the library.

Thirdly, the task must be applicable to real world situations. "The task that requires students to imagine that they are scientists from the Ministry of Environment investigating a food poisoning case at the canteen is quite an unrealistic one because they would rarely encounter that on a day-to-day basis in real life ," Ho says. Instead the more realistic task would be to require the students to find the most nutritious fruit from a given budget, she adds.

In completing each task, students will have to access online information as well as available resources and data from the physical environment. ICT, in this case, facilitates the communication and collaboration process, as well as allows teachers to track the students' progress as they move from one station to the next.

The wireless e-trail project provides one example of what the Singapore Ministry of Education is doing to guide schools through the process of maximising the use of ICT in school education.

The ministry's role, therefore, is not only to launch national policies or to equip schools with hardware, but also to support creative curricula that result in practical lessons being implemented in schools. By doing so, both teachers and students will learn to embrace ICT together and experience how it benefits their respective teaching and learning, rather than being left to generate the lesson plans on their own.

To learn more on Singapore's ICT in education projects, visit www.moe.gov.sg/edumall/index.htm . Send comments on this story to the editor of Learning Post at learningpost@bangkokpost.co.th .