Making Connections between your ESE and the Masterplans for ICT in Education

For the school that I was attached to, which was Stamford Primary school , the first master plan which was mainly introducing ICT to schools was the most evident. All classrooms had at least 1 computer and 1 projector. This projector is not the old OHP that we use but one with a camera mounted. Networking was also done up such that all classroom computers could access the school’s intranet and also the internet. This made teaching very efficient as teachers could quickly search for pictures or videos to answer some of the questions students ask.

The second master plan was also seen when kids had “lab time” where they are brought to computer labs and taught how to use Microsoft word, excel and PowerPoint. There was also an “apple lab” whereby all the computers there were from Apple. This gave all kids opportunity to access different operating systems and learn how they work.

Teachers were also very IT savvy when it came to lessons. Most lessons were conducted using the computers and examples would be such as www.LEAD.com.sg, the ever wonderful PowerPoint, and YouTube to showcase videos for classes.

However, for the latest master plan, the only clear picture I could see was for kids to do research on their own for Science. And as mentioned in my previous blog, there was only a certain extent of how much of this master plan could be implemented for kids this age.

To customize teaching so that each student would learn best would be near impossible now that the streaming system of EM1 EM2 and EM3 is removed. How can teachers customize teaching to fit a class of students with such extremities in ability?

At the primary school level, for most students to ask the right questions would be also quite hard to accomplish as most of the time, or from what I have seen, students will digress and ask about things completely unrelated to the lesson. If they are not thumbed down, the entire class will suffer as the teacher will be stuck to answering the unrelated questions.

And for kids to learn anywhere, will MOE provide free Ipads or Iphones to these kids? There are many kids from Stamford primary who are from the lower income family and need financial help. They can only access computers from the school labs. To encourage them to be independent learners, they need to have the resources.