Do primary and secondary schools need wireless Internet? (Zhang Chun Yu, ZB Forum, 14/6, p12)

As the $850-million Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOE) system will begin operations from 2012, our students will be able to tap onto a network that has a bandwidth as high as 1Gbps from 2014 to go online wirelessly anywhere on school campus. They will also be able to use laptops on their own for e-assessments.

The fact the Government has injected such enormous manpower, resources and funds into education technology shows that the Government will not hesitate to invest heavily in education. However, is there really such a dire need to provide this amount of technical support for day-to-day classroom teaching and learning?

While I agree that wireless Internet is needed on university, polytechnic and junior college campuses as tertiary students spend more time engaging in independent learning, I do not see the need to do the same in primary and secondary schools. This is because primary and secondary students are still young, and they still need to learn from teachers’ classroom teaching and guidance most of the time. They are yet to be ready to use laptops to carry out e-assessments on their own in any corner of the school campus. Moreover, these students will not have much time to search for information online with their classmates in school due to their busy classroom learning as well as CCA programmes.

Taking a step back on this issue, even if there is such a need, students can still go to their school’s computer laboratories and library where they can use the computers for free. If MOE is to spend so much money to equip all schools with such comprehensive wireless systems, does it mean that on top of their schoolbags, our primary and secondary school students will have to bring laptops to school in the future? Or would we see what some schools have already tried i.e. turning textbooks and workbooks into an electronic book so that all students have to do is to bring a laptop to school and all teaching and learning activities can be carried out on the Internet?

Unlike universities, primary and secondary education is focused on the mastery of foundation knowledge and basic skills. As for Mathematics and Science, the focus is on the establishment of concepts and the application of formulas. As for humanities subjects, the emphasis is on having a good grasp of the accuracy of history, cause and effect as well as an understanding of words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and passages. Only with a solid foundation can students attain the ability to develop and bring forth their creative talents. Early exposure to the Internet will lead to distractions and barriers to their learning from the complicated information or misinformation available on the Internet. There will also be undesirable consequences should students be allowed to use computers for writing when they have yet to learn to write with a pen.

Hence, to make wireless connectivity available on primary and secondary school campuses is an excessive strain on resources while the image of children doing their tests on their computers at any corner of their school campus is merely a beautiful illusion.

ICT is a double-edged sword; don’t turn love into harm (Shen Yu Sheng, ZB Forum, 18/6, p23)

Recently, MOE has announced a piece of good news that a $850-million Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOE) for schools systems will kick off in 2012, enabling all schools to have 1Gbps wireless broadband access systems. This aims to allow students to use portable computing devices and interactive multimedia resources in school-wide wireless connectivity environments for outdoor learning as well as doing tests on computers. Hence, students will be able to learn independently and search information online efficiently. Schools can also provide students with different learning materials or tests according to individual students’ learning approach, and encourage students to do deeper learning via different forms of ICT…this is a very beautiful vision. However, to realise such a beautiful vision, do we need other requirements other than splashing a huge sum on hardware?

I have been using IT for nearly three decades since my Pre-U days. I am well aware of the various benefits that IT brings to mankind, particularly in the area of learning where IT helps people seek information online more swiftly and efficiently. However, as a parent as well as a cultural education volunteer, I have also seen the harm that computers bring to our youth.

In March this year, The New Paper reported a news article that readers can draw lessons from. It reported that USA had allowed the previous generation of students to use laptops. However, in the recent decade, the situation of computer abuse among students had been worsening. Hence, professors from a number of universities had banned students from bringing laptops to campus. They discovered that laptops, coupled with wireless connectivity, seemed to lure students’ attention away from class and distract them with emails, blogs, YouTube video and even online games. To serve as a warning to all, one Physics Professor poured liquid nitrogen onto a laptop and smashed it into pieces to express his strong dissatisfaction. Evidently, the situation of ICT abuse among American children is serious and we should draw lessons from them.

Essentially, IT is only a tool and its value will vary according to the user. To children, IT can have its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, employing high speed network systems will, of course, lead to greater efficiency in terms of work and learning. However, having been used to working at high speeds over time, students might grow up to be impatient people.

Hence, I wonder if the authorities have considered ways to avoid such “harmful” effects when employing this ‘double-edged sword’.

I personally think that the government’s “Cyber Wellness“ programme is not only inadequate but also ineffective. This is because it basically follows the models of Western countries. However, since Western countries have yet shown success in solving the problem of ICT abuse in education, why are we following in their footsteps?

In fact, the use of mobile phones in class by students today has been causing great distress to schools and teachers. If students do not strive to be more self-disciplined, the use of laptop computers with wireless network will definitely lead to more disastrous consequences than the use of mobile phones in class. And schools will become a “disaster area” once SOE is implemented.

Apart from affecting lessons, I believe that a more serious problem is that our young minds can be ‘poisoned’ by violence and pornographic information. I have two children in Primary Three and Primary Five, who sometimes need to go online to do their school work. Besides putting in effort to help my two children develop good character and teach them correct values, I would normally allow them to use the computer only when there is adult supervision. This is to minimise any negative influence from undesirable online information. However, with the implementation of SOE where students can have wireless Internet access anywhere on school campus, we have to rely on students’ wisdom to exercise their own self-control for their healthy development.

The problem is that it is not easy for students to be able to make a wise choice and exercise self-control. A few years ago, I had already seen primary school pupils being lured by undesirable online information and doing Google searches for “naked women”. I believe that secondary school students’ ‘Internet poisioning’ is probably far worse.

Beside the problems of violence and pornography, there is the more serious threat of virtual reality world where students gradually cannot distinguish it from the real world. Children would eventually be trapped in the virtual reality space and shut themselves out from the real world.

To equip our next generation with the ability to exercise their choice and self-discipline, parents and teachers themselves must also be self disciplined. They should always ask themselves: Do we have self discipline? How much do we know about the significance of education? What are we pursuing in life? People should have self-awareness and self-reflect. If there is a lack of self-reflection and self-discipline, the rapid advancement of science and technology will only lead to a quicker degradation of human beings at the same time. From this perspective, will the “good news” from Ministry of Education mean more harm than good?

Restrictions should be imposed on the use of IT to aid teaching (Xiao Guo Rong, ZB Forum, 21/6, p21)

I read the letter by Shen Yu Sheng (“ICT is a double-edged sword; don’t turn love into harm”, ZB Forum, 18/6) and agree with the writer’s points. I am a teacher and technology is generally used as a teaching aid by teachers while students still use the general stationery and books.

Wireless broadband has become more widely-used with the advancement of science and technology. It covers not only heartlands and city areas but also educational institutions. Even primary and secondary schools have been equipped with wireless connectivity in phases. Once the wireless network is installed, students will be able to use their laptops anywhere on school campus. Such convenience is indeed welcomed by many students.

However, laptop computers are students’ “valuables”. It would be an additional burden on parents if students misplaced them carelessly.

Currently, teachers are already troubled by students losing their mobile phones in school. Moreover, more students now use their mobile phones during lesson time without the permission from their teachers. If students are allowed to use their laptops to search for data during lesson time, could we ensure that they would not enter the chat rooms or access undesirable content online at the same time?

I feel that if the search for information online is part of classroom activities, teachers should take students to the computer laboratories where students can use their school’s computers rather than their personal laptops. As school computers are under the control of a centralised computer system in the school itself, websites visited by students would be restricted to a certain extent.

In addition, I feel that schools should remind students not to bring their laptops to school unnecessarily. Even if the laptops are kept in storage lockers, it may not be safe.

Some schools have started using a kind of mini computers, called “Tablet PC”, which are equipped with learning software. Schools provide students with these computers for use during lessons and there are more advantages than disadvantages for students using these computers. Moreover, students’ mastery of computer learning skills through the Tablet PCs will benefit these students for life.

In addition, some classrooms are equipped with Interactive Whiteboards that come with Internet functions. When such Interactive Whiteboards are used during lessons, the selection of websites will be decided by teachers and students are not allowed to surf websites by themselves. In this way, effective learning will be achieved.

There are indeed advantages as well as disadvantages in using ICT to support teaching and learning. Nonetheless, advantages will outweigh disadvantages as long as all schools tighten the control on the use of ICT in teaching and learning. Schools should also attain an appropriate level of synergy between employing ICT in teaching and using traditional teaching aids such as textbooks and whiteboards to allow students to learn via various avenues.