Making Connections Between Your ESE and the Masterplans for ICT in Education

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.

Juying Secondary School places much importance on ICT, and as such places like their computer labs are well equipped and up to date. Also, 12 IPads have recently been brought in so that students can use them to learn more effectively. A compulsory e-learning day once per semester is also put in place so that they can make use of educational resources even when they are out of school. Teachers also try to use ICT in the form of at least powerpoint slides to make the lessons more interesting for the students.

Besides this, self-directed learning also takes place with a collaborative project between two departments, Webquest. For my school, the English department collaborated with the Geography department in order to come up with a project for the students to do. In this project, the students have to address an issue in groups and do research online. The teacher does not help in this research but only guides them through after they have some results. This helps to cultivate the independence of the students and also allows them to evaluate whether the sources are reliable or not. Also, by making this a group project, the students are able to learn from each other at the same time, fulfilling one of the aims of Masterplan 3 which is for collaborative learning to take place.

Masterplans in ICT for Education

In your opinion, why do you think it is important for MOE to develop the three Masterplans for ICT in education?

Technology in society is gaining importance at an unprecedented rate, and as such the integration of IT into students’ curriculum is crucial. By being able to master at least the Baseline ICTs, it will help in the acquiring of more complex skills later on. Also, in case of any emergency that requires schools to close for a period of time, students are still able to continue their education through e-learning which can take place anywhere else and not just in school. On the teachers’ end, by integrating ICT into lessons, it makes the content taught more interesting and can help to maintain student attention. Besides that, especially for subjects like science, by showing videos the students would be able to grasp the content more easily.

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).

As a secondary school student, I remember a Math lesson in which my teacher brought my class to the lab. By using the software provided, we were able to learn more effectively about angles because we could manipulate the shapes on the screen and see how they were formed. In this way, I think ICT really helped in enabling us to retain what we had learnt more effectively, such as in that I can still remember this lesson quite clearly even though it has been many years ago.

Based on your enhanced school experience, how do you think the current Masterplan 3 may affect your role(s) as a beginning teacher?

I think that the current Masterplan 3 would require me as a beginning teacher to create more resources which are ICT based. Besides this, my lessons would need to be created in such a manner that students would be able to do self-directed learning and investigate an issue on their own, rather than me just telling them what to do. As such, it is very important that I guide them on how to use the internet safely and responsibly. Also, I need to take group tasks in mind as well when I give them resources so that students would be able to learn from each other. I would also need to set some time aside for myself so that I can upgrade myself on the tools required for ICT learning, so that I can facilitate the ICT sessions efficiently for them to learn effectively.

My Enhanced School Experience (ESE)

Enhanced School Experience: Classroom Observations of ICT Use
Specific Observations
School Name:  Juying Secondary School
Class: 2A1

Profile of the class: The class is a Normal Academic Secondary 2 class which is quite focused on learning and receptive to teaching. However more time needs to be given for them to follow the lesson effectively and as such going through content needs to be done slowly.

Subject: English Literature

1)What ICT tools are used in the lesson?

Powerpoint slides were used for the presentation of the lesson.

2)Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson.

The teacher used powerpoint slides to go through the points, namely the different kinds of short stories with the students. Each point was written in a concise manner so that the students could follow easily and leading pictures were also used eg. Picture of a princess for fairytales. The use of pictures in the powerpoint slides also helped the students to follow the lesson more effectively and clearly, enabling them to answer leading questions by the teacher. After that, pictures without any title were shown to them in order to let them guess what kind of short story was being portrayed.


General Observation:

3) How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning?

The school believes strongly in ICT and students are required to have E-learning day once per semester. Teachers are also required to integrate the use of IT in curriculum, instruction and assessment in the belief that this would make lessons more effective. JSS supports ICT strongly and it has even brought in 12 I Pads for the students to use and enhance learning. Besides that, there is also a collaboration between two departments (Webquest), which requires the students to use internet resources to do a project. This is viewed in an important light and my CT spent quite a while explaining to the students what was required to be done as well. Believing that ICT would help the students improve, the teachers try to encourage them to search for and use internet resources independently.