Former Minister of Education, Govt. of Singapore, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam had said regarding the ICT marsterplan 2, “Our goal is ultimately not about the use of technology but about changing the culture of classroom and school to support and motivate thinking and independent learning among our pupils…”
To achieve this goal, the old school traditional method of text books and lecture are not enough. Therefore there had to be an attempt to bring in the whole world within the corpus of a class of an hour or so. But talking about the internet and the opportunities that it provides regarding resources and research, the vastness can eventually land a teacher in a sense of deep helplessness. A teacher may find it too difficult to fit in the vast materials available in the internet and that would ultimately lead to utter damage. A clueless programme can only jeopardize the intended goal. And herein lies the vitality of the masterplans, structured by the ministry of education, meticulously on the basis of need so that the whole procedure can act within a sort of frame work and therefore the country as a whole can gain from the new endeavor.
Regarding the necessity of the master plans:--
● It provides a frame work to the teachers to have a clear idea of exactly what is wanted and therefore they can plan their lesson in accordance to the need.
● It provides better perspectives on the part of the students as they are no longer confined within the narrow scope of the text books and now have the sea of information, thanks to the use of internet. More and more innovative views comes out when the student has an access to all sorts of information and perspectives required for a wholesome education.
● The ‘achievement’ section of the masterplan 2 itself states that the students became more “competent in using basic ICT tools” and also teachers found more “productivity” in lessons done aided with ICT tools.
● The introduction of graphic calculators at A level and data Loggers for science practical assessments are of great help. The Video shows how 3D structures and videos are used to teach biology at River Valley School. These can be of great help for the students as they get vivid idea about the topic they are doing in the class.
● Also, it has become easier for the teachers across the country to share their resources and planning, thanks to endeavors like iShare. The education as a whole had gained a lot, therefore from the well thought out planning and these master plans are a great guide for the educators and the pupils that enhance their abilities, helps them learn more effectively and make the whole process of using ICT tools more fruitful than mere introduction of IT things in education. Singapore’s remarkable achievement internationally bears testimony of this fact.
As a student, I ready was not lucky enough to have such great access to ICT tools for learning. I come from India, a developing nation coping up with the challenge of population boom. Also due to its vastness and intricate multicultural, multi lingual diversity, it was difficult for the government to come up with an all pervasive planning. Yet, some of the lectures that I attended were aided with powerpoint presentation. At an higher level, better ICT tools were used, During my Post-Graduation days, films based on the novels in the curriculum or something related to the themes were used and often a debate followed. Also, to prepare our papers we had to delve deeper into the world of internet to come up with more and more points and vies, of course accompanied with our own views.
As a beginning teacher, the biggest role that I think I can play with the usage of ICT tools is, I can ignite the interest of proper research regarding one topic. The biggest challenge is to make the teenager understand the utility of the ICT tools in his/her education. The internet opens up both positive and negative avenues and for an adolescent the later often seems more interesting. There lies my actual challenge, to make him/her use the net and other tools properly for his/her own benefit.
Secondly, it will help me to reach to my students beyond the class room. With more of hands-on projects and use of the net me along with my students can go for an effective group learning and that will be a learning process for myself too.
I'm curious as to whether ICT is used in India more nowadays, since the use of technology has generally become very prevalent worldwide. But I agree with you that the use of ICT has its pros and cons and as teachers, we must try to maximize the benefits. For example, having students respond to everything online might result in the decrease of face-to-face communication and interaction. Should we also think about moderating the use of ICT so as to maintain verbal classroom communication and participation?
ReplyDeleteHey all,
ReplyDeletelike Sheena, I do agree that ICT has to be moderated as like overused phrase puts it, "too much of a good thing can be bad". ICT can indeed help us to connect with the tech savvy students of these times, but there must be proper education as it can be abused.. sometimes, f2f contact has to be first established in order to create a bond between teacher and student, and then from there, other platforms can be used to communicate information down
Hi Surya,
ReplyDeleteit's great to be able to hear from someone who has had education experiences outside of Singapore. Like Sheena, I'm quite curious to know whether more ICT is used in schools in India these days at lower levels. I think the ways ICT may to be incorporated at different learning levels (primary/secondary/tertiary)vary according to the students' needs and their level of independence, so a great deal of thought will have to go into planning to prevent, as you fear, an outcome in which most students use the internet for non-constructive purposes.
Hi Surya
ReplyDeleteI agree with the presence of the pros and cons of ICT usage. After all, since ICT usage is not too widespread still in our schools today, the usage has to therefore be tweaked to fit the needs of the students and used should only it be beneficial. for Example, I know of an english teacher in my ESE school who would make use of a software that enables the students to type out their essays and upload it onto the software who will edit the essay. this will be done several times until the essay is free of mistake. However what was interesting is that once the essay is error free, the teacher does not allow the students to just print out the essay. She would make them print and copy the essay at the same time to ensure that they practise thier writing skills which is after all tested in the exams. I find this very interesting because it shows that ICT has to be coupled with the conventional method of classroom teaching and not on its own to ensure that the best is achieved and given to the students