ESE and ICT Masterplans

For your third post, describe which achievement(s) of the three

masterplans for ICT in education are evident in the

school/classes that you are attached to for your ESE. You

may want to refer to your blog post about your ESE.

I think Masterplan 1 and 2 has been applied in Lianhua Primary School. However, I don’t see it being used pervasively actually.

 As mentioned in the previous post, they most clear implementation of ICT is in the effort in pushing forth Robotics as part of Primary 3 project work. This project work by student is then assessed by the teacher and recorded inside their report book.

When I say pervasively, I refer to the weakness of the infrastructure for example, the class pc that has technical faults i.e. too slow, sound system faulty etc. These small problems become a hindrance to teachers who have a lot of work in their hands and should they ‘depend’ on the computer and ‘something goes wrong’, their lesson plan for the day has to be changed. This will demotivate them to use ICT and will make them see ICT as more of a big hurdle to learning than to facilitate learning.

As to Masterplan 3, I have not seen it being implemented especially in the area of Collaborative Learning.

Thoughts about ICT Masterplan

•  In your opinion, why do you think it is important for MOE to develop the three Masterplans for ICT in education?
• The masterplans for ICT is important for the very fact that the world is moving forward. In order for the country to keep up and even stay ahead of the competition especially in the area of economic growth, it has to be updated with technology and has to have its people be used to technological advances, always has the attitude to try new things and is able to harness technology to improve efficiency and efficacy in their work.
  
  
  The attitude and inclination towards usage of technology has to start from young, as many research has shown that what is learnt from young becomes acquired easier and the fact that young children absorbs things faster than adults.
  
  
  And thus, in order to support this endeavor, the teaching fraternity has to be equipped to teach them and be comfortable to use them effectively and efficiently in the classroom.
  
  
  On another area, due to technology, information is quite easily accessible through the click of a mouse. This enhances learning by manifold as information can be obtained anywhere and anytime. This implies that learning can also be enhanced manifold, thus the catchphrase of “Teach less, learn more” may be applied.
  
  
  I think Masterplan 1 has correctly identified that putting in the infrastructure and getting teachers ready for the next leap in Knowledge-based economy is the first steps in achieving those ideals.
  
  
  Masterplan 2 has extended the use of ICT in lessons, which I actually see in LIanhua Primary school, which actually makes learning more engaging and fun for these 21^st century students. Fin and angaging is definitely an important element in making the students interested in learning and improving their motivation to achieve towards the subjects taught.
  
  
  Masterplan 3 is definitely important to bring the use of technology to the next level as it will encourage more independent learning, self-drive as well as provide a community of learners who will be able to share their thoughts learn from each other.
  
  
  
  
•  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 (if applicable).
• In my experience as a student, never has ICT been used. The most advanced technology during my days as a student was the OHP. 
• Based on your enhanced school experience, how do you think the current Masterplan 3 may affect your role(s) as a beginning teacher ? 
• It is definitely challenging as it means, as a beginning teacher, there are another set of skills that we have to be equipped with other than the traditional teaching skills. (Though I think as long-serving teachers would find it more difficult as they have to break the pattern of their proven effective teaching throughout the years)
  
  
  To equip ourselves, the first thing is our readiness in our hearts and mind to accept that the world is moving forward and that we have to have the skills for ourselves and for our students in order for them to get the most of ‘what is out there’.
  
  
  And I must say Masterplan 3 looks really challenging to someone like me who is only used to Office products, Youtube, internet games and some blogging. A lot of other things are alien to me especially CoL. As a start, I do feel some apprehension as to whether I am able to carry out this use of technology in my class.
  
  
  I would want to start the right footing in NIE for me to develop the interest and confidence to use these tools effectively. And thus, when I enjoy doing them, I should be able to pass on that enjoyment to my students.
  
  

Usage of ICT during ESE stint

I had the opportunity to teach in Lianhua Primary School for about 7 months, in which the first 6 months having to take a Primary 3 form class.

This particular class I'll be commenting about are are above average and/or higher in terms of academic abilities. They are in the 2^nd best class for primary 3 level.

They are responsive and most have a listening attention span of at least 10-15minutes, afterwhich the teacher would have to engage them in some form of activity.

For this particular session, the computer was used for showing of powerpoint slides, videos as well as playing background sounds to enhance their experience of their role-play.

This was a picture composition lesson, in which the students are guided on writing well through experiencing the situations depicted in the pictures by getting them to role-play the situations.

There are actually 5 sessions altogether(though only reporting on 1 lesson) Each 1-hr lesson discusses only 1 picture, where it will start with a tuning-in activity, the writing of dialogue for the pictures,  role-playing the picture scenario according to the dialogues written,  guiding the students with vocabulary and phrases that can be added to describe the feelings/happenings surrounding that situation and then the writing activity itself.

The use of ICT is largely in the tuning-in activity and in the role-playing whereby background sounds/music is used to enhance the whole experience of being there (in this example being in the park, with the sound of birds chirping etc.)

Since the composition was about 2 boys cycling in the park/ nature reserve where later they got themselves into an accident after deciding to race downhill, the tuning-in activities consists of a music video with song “I love to go awandering”, a clip on dangerous but practiced bicycle stunts and the last one on a bicycle crash.

The students had fun watching the clips as a tuning-in and later on they had discussions and role-plays which has added variety in their learning. It was found that they wrote better for that composition as compared to other compositions they have written for the semester.

On a wider scale, the school itself does ensure that ICT is used in at least every subject and every level. There is an ICT baseline programme for every level and subject. Some examples are: In primary 3 the students learn 1 lesson of fractions using the computer, the primary 1 learn 1 lesson of structuring sentence in Word Document etc.

The school also subscribes to LEAD portal in which students can do revision on their own at home and teachers can also give students assignments via LEAD.

Since I sit in the English committee, I see that it is being used in quite a few programmes. They use koobits, newsmaker to enhance the experience of using English.

In Science, there are experiments that uses data logger (starting at primary 4) where the students learn to take data from their experiments using the instruments which will automatically chart a graph on the program they use on the computer.

Robotics is also one of the more popular CCA in which the school has always invested their interest in. In robotics, students learn how to assemble and programme robots and the best students in doing these are sent for competitions. In fact, all students are given a taste of robotics and programming when they are in primary 3 through a 4-week workshop.