Blog Two

BLOG 2:
MASTERPLANS FOR ICT IN EDUCATION 

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

Investing in ICT is costly. However, encouraged by the success of ICT to improve test scores in other countries, MOE chooses to make use of the advancement in technology in education. The ICT tools, if carefully and skillfully employed, can help to equip students with the skills and competencies to stimulate creativity and thinking skills needed for global challenges in future.

ICT can invoke the five senses of students to use them in class and thus, enriching their learning experience in class and engaging them more.

Well-trained and knowledgeable teachers are insufficient; technology is needed to amplify the efforts and complement the teachings in class to achieve high educational goals.

The plan for these technologies to be incorporated into the education system has to be carefully structured and implemented. The three masterplans for ICT in education will give clear directions to use these technological tools effectively.

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.

Masterplans 1 and 2 have impacted me when I was a student in my secondary school.

I remembered the integration of ICT into my daily lessons during my secondary school days. It went beyond the mere use of powerpoint presentations to replace the transparencies and the old overhead projectors as reminisced from the primary school days. I was taught how to use Microsoft Word and Excel in daily assignments and mindmap softwares to create highly professional mind maps to aid my learning. This led to greater interaction and engagement in the learning process. I also remembered my class outings being enriched by mobile learning with the development of dataloggers and PDAs.  

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

We need to appreciate that ICT is a very useful and effective tool to maximise the learning approaches and outcomes for each and every student.

As a beginning teacher, I need to have the passion, commitment and willingness to learn new skills in ICT and be constantly updated on its latest development. The current Masterplan 3 will encourage me to always upgrade myself to be capable in order to contribute in moving further up the ICT value chain on top of strong pedagogical groundings.

However, ICT savviness is useful but not sufficient. As a beginning teacher, I will need to be constantly reminded that base effective outcomes on sound pedagogical principles are still needed when I use ICT tools to bring out a particular learning point.

Nevertheless, as the Masterplan 3 represents a continuum of the vision of Masterplans 1 and 2, it is essential to continue the use of ICT to transform the learning environment for my students in order to further engage them and encourage them to be more self-directed learners.

In line with the twenty-first century competencies, I will need to bring ICT into the core of the education process. To do this, I can integrate ICT into the daily curriculum in schools for instance, during planning and design of lessons plans and work through implementation details of curriculum and assessment.  For example, visualisation and simulation of scientific phenomena that are not visible to the bare eye can help to enhance my students’ understanding.

As a Chemistry teacher-to-be, the use of rich interactive multimedia resources can be incorporated into making the learning of Chemistry more interesting for students. Different learning environments can be simulated in classroom and thus providing more opportunities for students to learn.

I can also consider incorporating the same format in tests and assignments to promote better interest and greater willingness to learn amongst the students.