It is interesting to observe the reaction of the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore with regards to the H1N1 virus outbreak in Singapore. With enforced quarantine of students and teachers a possible scenario with the start of the new school term this week (in fact, it has become a reality)an opportunity has arisen for Singapore to show the world how far it has gone with the use of ICT for education at the school level.
Initially, there were announcements that schools are ready to go online when the MOE was contemplating extending the school holidays for one week. The MOE claimed that schools were ready to do so. Then the MOE announced that all schools would open except for those that had a certain number of H1N1 victims.
Strange then, that after all that assurance of online lessons being ready, suddenly the MOE is talking about students being given learning packages for them to bring home to offset the school hours missed. There is no more mention of online learning.
One wonders why? Is the MOE not confident that its teachers can deliver suitable online learning materials for students confined at home? Why is this so after more than a decade of the much lauded MasterPlan for IT in Education (MPITE)? Sure the MPITE is not just about online learning, but surely MOE would have to think that online learning is one important aspect of it? Why waste an opportunity to show what ICT can do in such times as this?
In fact one even wonders why MOE decided to go ahead with the starting of the new school term at all when it is clear that the situation is becoming worse with local infections rising? Is it just to show that the show must go on and pretend that there is a semblance of normalcy? Or is it because MOE knows that its teachers are far from prepared to provide good online learning for their students? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if MOE has been receiving feedback from the schools that they are worried about “lost” curriculum hours.
Whatever the reasons are, it is an opportunity lost! We have spent billions on the ICT infrastructure and lots of man hours on training the teachers to be able to use ICT for education. Schools have even spend more money on licensed use of online learning portals operated by commercial vendors. Seems like none of these is good enough to replace the physical white board and traditional teacher talk.
PS. Please do not erase this post.
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Hi,
In my experience, the physical white board and traditional teacher talk offer an opportunity for both teacher and students to engage in a process of thinking together at the same time about maths concepts/knowledge being discussed.
It is an unfortunate fact that ICT lacks the true human element no matter how appealing the multimedia interactive features are.
In my humble opinion, teaching is a human endeavour that can never be replaced by ICT. At best, ICT complements the human teacher.
Thank you.
Cheers,
Wen Shih
Hi Wen Shih. I agree with you that ICT can never replaced the human element despite being a member of ETD for four years. If you have read my posts, you will see that I am pretty critical about the way ICT is used (or not used). However, having said that, isn’t it sad that despite having had the MPITE for more than 10 years, and we still cannot take advantage of ICT use for learning when it matters? When I wrote the post above, what I had at the back of my mind is the failure of MPITE despite claims by MOE that it was a success. MPITE was a success only in terms of providing the hardware. That is the easy part (no disrespect to my ex-colleagues who handled that part). It is easier than changing the mind sets and the teaching repertoire of teachers, and the examinations mentality of the MOE itself. If you compare the achievements of MPITE with the initial stated goals (and even the goals for the newer ICT-rleated initiatives), you will find that we have a long way to go. Thanks for your comment.