ICT in Education in Singapore

1
ICT in Education in Singapore

• Philip Wong
• Associate Professor
• National Institute of Education
• Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

2
Introduction

• Singapores Vision - An Intelligent Island
• Singapore Education System
• 1st IT Masterplan for Education
• Some examples of projects
• Issues and Problems
• Conclusion

3
Singapores Vision An Intelligent Island

• An era of rapid change information explosion,
  knowledge-based economy
• Demands knowledge workers
• Information Technology is pivotal to these
  changes

4
Singapore IT2000

• To transform the country into an intelligent
  island
• A National Information Infrastructure - Singapore
  ONE
• Broadband infrastructure - enables interactive,
  multimedia applications and services to homes,
  businesses and schools throughout Singapore.

5
IT 2000 and schools

• Set up the necessary infrastructure
• Provide the necessary support from the industries
• Facilitate the infusion of IT in all aspects of
  life
• Foster a social culture that favours IT
  applications

6
Singapores Education System
7
Features of Spore Education System

• The bilingual policy - ENGLISH and Mother Tongue
• 6 years Primary 4 /5 years Secondary 2 years
  Pre-University
• Adaptive education system
• Post-school institutions - Institute of Technical
  Education, Polytechnics, Universities

8
Pre- 1997 IT in education

• Early Stage
• Focused on learning about computers
• Initiatives - 1995-97
• Accelerating IT in Primary Schools
• Students and Teachers Workbench
• JCNet projects

9
Education in Singapore

• Singapore's vision for meeting the challenge for
  the future is encapsulated in four words
  THINKING SCHOOLS, LEARNING NATION. It is a vision
  for a total learning environment, including
  students, teachers, parents, workers, companies,
  community organisations, and government
• Mr Goh Chok Tong
• Prime Minister of Singapore (1997)

10
Initiatives in education

• Masterplan for IT in Education
• Thinking programmes
• National Education
• Project work

11
Masterplan for IT in Education

• 5 Year plan from 1997-2002
• To enhance linkages between the school and the
  world around it,
• To encourage creative thinking and lifelong
  learning,
• To encourage innovative processes in education,
• To promote administrative and management
  excellence in our education.

12
Newspaper reports on IT Masterplan
13
Masterplan for IT in Education

• By the year 2002
• provision for continuous training for every
  teacher in the use of IT in education,
• 21 teacher-to-notebook computer ratio,
• 51 students-to-computer ratio,
• 30 of the curriculum time to include IT-based
  teaching and learning and,
• whole-school networking for every school.
• Internet access for every school.

14
Masterplan for IT in Education

• 4 key dimensions
• curriculum and assessment
• content and learning resources
• physical and technological infrastructure
• human resource development.

15
Curriculum and Assessment

• Reduction in curriculum - up to 30
• Balance between acquisition of factual
  information and critical and creative application
  of information
• IT as tools rather than subject of study
• Use IT for 30 of the curriculum time

16
Content and Learning Resources

• Development of on-line materials
• Courseware development - Mathematics, Social
  Studies, Mother Tongue.
• Educational Software Procurement Scheme - buying
  educational CD ROM at a reduced price.

17
Physical and Technological Infrastructure

• Achieved
• 21 teacher-to-notebook computer ratio,
• 51 students-to-computer ratio,
• School-wide networking
• All schools - at least 2 MB ATM links
• Each school - 1 Technology Assistant

18
Human Resource Development

• Fan approach of training
• 1997
• 22 (Phase 1) Demonstration schools to integrate
  IT into curriculum
• 1998
• About 90 (Phase 2) schools to come on-stream
• 1999
• About 250 (Phase 3) schools to come on-stream
• 2000
• Core training for teachers in every school will
  be completed
• 2002
• Completed training - Start of Advanced training

19
Training of teachers

• Training teachers in integration of ICT into
  education. Every teacher received 30-42 hours of
  training.
• School-based training of teachers by Ministry of
  Education Senior Instructors
• Pre-service teacher training by National
  Institute of Education
• In-service training by MOE and NIE

20
Examples of content and learning resources
projects
21
Examples of teacher development projects
22
Examples of infrastructure projects
23
Examples of school projects
24
Problems and Issues

• Teachers need time to prepare and to use ICT in
  everyday teaching
• Mindsets change If I can teach well without
  the use of ICT, why must I use ICT?
• Assessment The use of ICT for collaborative and
  constructivist learning does it improve my
  students grades?
• Assessment Driven teach for assessment.

25
Conclusion

• Concerted Effort Government, Industries and
  schools
• Schools demonstrated varied and innovative IT
  applications
• Research to study the effectiveness
• Evaluate the effectiveness of 1st IT Masterplan
• Start of the 2nd Masterplan for IT in Education -
  2002 to 2007

26
Thank you