Enhanced School Experience Blog Entry 2

Masterplans for ICT in Education

The three Masterplans for ICT were implemented to bring about the effective incorporation of ICT in education. MOE realises the need to keep the future generations abreast of technological advances and build up their capabilities to function in an increasingly tech-savvy world. In resource-scarce Singapore, our people are our greatest asset and education must work to create a workforce equipped with 21^st century skills to succeed in a knowledge economy.  

The usage of ICT may seem like second nature to the students of today and teachers and parents often jokingly point out that the roles are reversed in the classroom when it comes to ICT i.e. pupils stunning teachers and parents by their superior technological abilities and know-how. However, it still stands that it is the teacher’s responsibility and duty to impart knowledge and skills to his students. The teacher, as a More Knowledgeable Other (to borrow from Vygotsky) should have in his repertoire, a wide variety of ICT competencies that he can impart to his charges. However, most teachers do not compare with their students when it comes to being tech-savvy. Children of the 21^st century have been exposed to ICTs from a very young age, as compared to adult teachers to whom ICT-based lessons have been a recent development in the world of education. And then there are adults who view technological advances with scepticism and wariness, reluctant to jump on the ICT bandwagon because they continue to believe that older teaching practices are superior.   

The three Masterplans for ICT can then be seen as a systematic plan by MOE to take on the massive task of incorporating ICT into our education system and prepping its teachers and students for the widespread and in-depth integration of ICT in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. By setting up the infrastructure for ICT usage in schools and training teachers in basic ICT skills (in Masterplan 1), MOE tried to create acceptance in the teaching fraternity about the use of ICT skills in education. This paved the way for Masterplan 2, which ‘strengthened the integration of ICT into the curriculum, established baseline ICT standards for students, and seeded innovative use of ICT among schools’ (MOE press release: http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2008/08/moe-launches-third-masterplan.php). Masterplan 3 builds on the initiatives of the previous two phases by strengthening the holistic integration of ICT into the education system and allowing for skills upgrading for teachers and sharing of best practices. This recursive training will allow teachers to always be the More Knowledgeable Other who are able to train and push their students to their fullest potential.

I was in Secondary School from 1996-1999, when Masterplan 1 was being rolled out. I recall being one of the first batches to have computer lessons in the brand new laboratories equipped with MACs and PCs. As a class, we were taught to set up email accounts, surf the internet for information and even create homepages. We were encouraged to use Powerpoint and Director 5 for our project presentations and individual assignments. It was an exciting time in school as teachers and students were introduced to the possibilities of ICT tools. As the teachers themselves were being trained on the usage of ICT tools, they weren’t many lessons conducted using ICT. Instead, it was a time when teachers are students alike were exploring how ICT could be used in school and to enhance our communication skills e.g. email, homepages.

As I embark on my career as a beginning teacher next year, I will find myself squarely in the throes of ICT Masterplan 3. The lessons I plan and conduct must utilise ICT in meaningful ways to enhance my students’ learning experience. It is not enough to superficially introduce ICT aspects to a lesson. The use of these technologies must add value to my lesson and the challenge will be to see how ICT can be embedded in all my lesson plans as a continual learning tool. I will also have to opportunity to tap on the expertise of ICT specialist teachers and educational labs where teachers come to share their best practices. I will have to constantly upgrade my skills and knowledge to stay ahead of the students and be able to offer them the means to push themselves and explore new territories. The challenge will also be to deliver ICT-based lessons that promote actual learning which translates to positive assessment.