Singapore ict in Education

Singapore ICT in Education:

• Singapore ICT in Education:

• Perspectives From The Private Sector

Agenda

• Major MOE Singapore ICT Programmes

• Other Key Influencers of ICT in Education

• ASKnLearn Involvement

• Singapore’s ICT in Education Industry

• Challenges Schools Faced

• Examples of Innovation in Schools’ ICT

About ASKnLearn

• Servicing over 180 schools in Singapore

• Member of Educomp Group which caters to 11 million learners in over 21,000 schools in Asia & North America

• Was portfolio company of NUS & NP (2000-2007)

• Largest IT Training Provider in Singapore

• Major E-Learning provider to Singapore Schools

• E-Learning solution for all higher learning institutions in Brunei

• Microsoft & Adobe’s InfoComm Club Training Partner

• IT Partner for PEARSON South Asia

• Red Herring Asia 100 Finalist in 2005-6

• Deloitte Technology Award 2006, 2008

MOE Singapore ICT Programmes Since 1997

Singapore School Landscape

• 360+ primary and schools and junior colleges

• Typical size of 1,200 – 1,600 per school
• 11 Integrated Programme (IP) schools (no O levels)
• Mostly Cambridge exams, some IB, NUS dip

• 500,000 students, 30,000 teachers

• 30+ international schools, few private schools for Singaporeans

MOE ICT Journey

• Masterplan I – 1997 – 2002

• Building IT infrastructure

• Min 2 MB internet for all schools
• Intranet file servers
• Standard LMS (pilot project)

• Standard resources for all schools

• PC labs, video machines, video cams, digital cams

• Providing ready IT resources to schools

• Standard multimedia resources

• Use IT to support existing curriculum, providing teacher-centred education

• Teacher training, conferences

Some ICT MP1 Key Programmes http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/mpite/overview/

• Large scale infrastructure set-up in phases, teacher laptop purchase scheme

• Large scale Ed software procurement scheme (mostly CD-ROMs from overseas)

• Large-scale ICT training for teachers

• School Industry Partnership Scheme (SCHIPS) - creation of tailored programmes for students

• Partnered Economic Development Board to encourage local content development (iLIUP)

• School Digital Media Repository (DMR)

• Demo IT schools

• Data loggers for all schools

At End of IT MP1 (2002)

• Achieved basic IT / Internet skills for most teachers

• Reasonably good IT network for all schools

• Abandoned single LMS in favour of user autonomy

• About 40-50% schools using LMS. Schools want ready content

• Encouraging results from some schools experimenting with new ideas in ICT and e-learning

Masterplan II – 2003 - 2008

• Masterplan II – 2003 - 2008

• Flexible infrastruture (autonomy by schools)
• Integration of technology at planning phase of curriculum design
• Resources for teachers to build customised lessons using reusable lessons and learning objects
• Student-centred and ability-centred learning

Some ICT MP2 Key Programmes

• Baseline ICT standards: BY(i)TES

• Active competitions for students and teachers

• LEAD ICT Schools

• Emergency closure readiness – e-learning day simulations

• Expanded role for HOD ICT

• Education Technology Officers as advisors to clusters

• Backpack .NET

• Future Schools

• (Teach Less, Learn More)

At End of IT MP2 (2008)

• 100% schools use e-learning, all teachers expected to engage students with online learning

• Teachers more comfortable with variety of ways of making own content, customised approaches to use of ICT

• # schools on LEAD ICT, 6 schools selected as Future Schools

• Close collaboration with InfoComm Development Authority

• Active action research by schools and NIE

• Fulfillment of content for schools by industry, low key by MOE

Masterplan III – 2009 - 2014

• Masterplan III – 2009 - 2014

• Strengthening integration of ICT into curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to enhance learning and develop competencies for the 21st century
• Providing differentiated professional development that is more practiced-based and models how ICT can be effectively used to help students learn better
• Improving the sharing of best practices and successful innovation
• Enhancing ICT provisions to schools to support the implementation of masterplan 3

Anticipated ICT MP3 Key Programmes

• More experimentation with one-to-one computing

• Continuation of MPII: future schools, emergency school closure preparedness

• Improved bandwidth (Next Generation Broadband Network) and infrastructure

• Active links with NIE and other institutions for research in ICT in Education, conferences

• More active provision of content by MOE

• Unknowns:

• Centralised vs independent LMS?
• Centralised vs independent core content provision?

Other Key Influencers

• IDA (Since 2000)

• FastTrack@School Broadband Ed (2000-2002)
• Project Work consortium (2003)
• Backpack .NET (2004-2007)
• InfoComm Club for 250 schools (2007-2011)
• Future School (2008-2014)

• EDB (1997-2003)

• iLIUP

ASKnLearn’s Involvement

• All IDA initiatives

• 50% of FastTrack schools, Project Work, Backpack, FS, 30% of ICC training

• Currently providing e-learning for 35% schools (>50% sec schools)

• Supplied content for MOE VITAL (staff training portal), development of content for MOE Science and Geography

• Largest supplier of full-time ICT Educators and ICT Executives to schools (100)

Industry Evolution (I)

• Pre-ICT Masterplan (Stone Age)

• Ednovation (pre-school multimedia content), Times, SNP, Daiichi Multimedia producing limited range of content
• Then-NCB (now IDA) Student-Teacher-Workbench (pre-Internet content delivery)
• Small-time ICT training providers to schools

Industry Evolution (II)

• ICT Masterplan 1 (Bronze Age)

• Horizon Educom (SCHIPS, Data loggers)
• Ednovation (School DMR)
• Boom of local content developers supplying to MOE: MoreatOnce (former Daiichi Multimedia), IT21, EDN Media (Malay), A-Star Interactive (Chinese)
• Mushrooming of LMS providers (Postkids, IQMind, ASKnLearn, Litespeed, Wizlearn, etc) from dotcom boom (from 1999)
• Mushrooming of ICT providers providing training (and often hardware) to students and teachers: Knowledge Village, ACP, Cyberland, Cybertech, Horizon

Industry Evolution (III)

• ICT Masterplan 2 (Industrialised Age)

• Disappearance of providers dependent on large MOE contracts (Horizon)
• Disappearance of many dotcom companies
• Convergence of content and LMS as school solution
• Merger of Moreatonce, Times Multimedia, Ednovation school division into Learning Edvantage, with investment by Popular E-Learning
• Merger of ASKnLearn and WizLearn
• Listing of Litespeed on Msia Mesdaq. Declined towards end of MP2
• Decline of pure ICT providers. Growth in companies providing e-learning with ICT trainers
• Romance of 3 kingdoms (LEAD, ASKnLearn, Litespeed)
• Backpack application specialist: Heulabs, network: iCell, Content tools: KooBits

What Shaped The Evolution?

• Centralised vs Autonomy

• New and small players thrive under autonomy

• Active Experimentation

• Initiated by IDA to spark local ICT industry
• Caught on by MOE under MP2

• SARS -> Serious use of e-learning

Challenges For Schools

• Teachers not used to process of content / product development

• HOD IT becoming IT managers

• Understanding how to use ICT effectively for teaching & learning

• Rapid technological changes

• How to drive usage across the board (teachers, students)

• Change of vendors => re-learning, content migration

Selected School ICT Showcase

• Online Simulations

• Learning Objects

• Video Journalism

• Games in learning

• ePortfolio

• eBooks

How Contents Are Used

• Teacher-led learning in classroom

• Simulations with Applets
• Animation of Concepts

• Students’ Independent Learning

• Home-based learning days
• Preparation for Tests / Examinations

Teachers’ Courseware

Use of EduBlog

• Students reflection, e.g. literature review

• Students’ personal pages & project work

• Staff outreach to students Staff Blog / Student Blog

Game Builder – Teachers can create their Own Games easily!

Sample Games

Forum

eBooks

Lessons Learnt

• Creativity from autonomy, but wastage too

• Authorities can push development of industry through speed marriages of driven schools with innovative companies. Seed ideas then support winners

• How to support new role of HOD IT as IT manager?

• What support needed for innovative e-learning and ICT use by teachers?

Thank you.