12 November 2003

SPEECH BY MR CHAN SOO SEN, MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND SPORTS, AT THE OPENING OF THE LEARNING OBJECTS CONFERENCE, ON WEDNESDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2003, AT 9.00 AM, AT THE GRAND COPTHORNE WATERFRONT HOTEL, HAVELOCK ROAD

1. It gives me great pleasure to be here at the opening of the Learning Objects Conference and to give away the prizes to the winners of the Learning Objects Competition, organised by the E-learning Competency Centre (ECC) and the Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC).

2. I understand from the organisers that the competition drew many outstanding entries; I commend all the participants who have spent countless number of hours perfecting their projects, so that they could benefit future educators and students. One of the significant benefits of learning objects is their ability to be stored in repositories for reuse in many different instructional contexts. Hence, teachers and parents alike can use them as lessons, case studies or even as quizzes. As these learning objects can be "recycled", they are efficient both in terms of time and cost.

3. Let me give you an idea of the immense scope of the entries garnered by the Learning Objects Competition. The organisers received a total of 83 learning objects submitted by 71 teams, both from educational institutions such as the universities, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education, and from e-learning providers and members of the public. The entries covered a myriad of issues, ranging from the technical to the artistic such as architecture, object animation and the fundamental principles of hydraulics, modules on how to find a suitable job, Sun Tzu's Principles of War, an introduction to the Tao Te Ching and even Singapore's Total Defence.

4. The wide range of topics covered reveals the flexibility of learning objects as a mode of instruction for teachers, and as an avenue of learning for students. It also reveals our educators' fundamental creativity in designing engaging and stimulating lessons, so that learning becomes an enthralling experience for our children.

5. Learning objects support e-learning; we use them to harness the benefits of e-learning. E-learning is a creative process that engages the learner as an active participant. Today learning objects are designed to draw the student in at several levels, using multimedia resources that engage various senses. They cater to different learners with different learning styles and preferences, and are therefore more flexible in terms of usage than conventional teaching materials. We believe that it is only when a student is actively engaged in the learning process that his mind will be stimulated and his passion sparked. In this way, there is much scope for learning objects to enhance our students' learning experience.

6. We in Singapore are blessed with all the modern supports of learning - we have the infrastructure to support e-learning to a degree that some other countries can only dream of at this point in time. All our schools are equipped with computers and Internet access; and learning tools like CD ROMs and information databases are familiar to our students. Our educators have harnessed technology to design many an interesting pedagogical tool, so that teaching and learning become more effective.

7. I am proud to note that our teachers are now adept at utilising this powerful resource. Visit any of our schools now, and you will see that our children are using this portal to learn beyond the confines of the classroom, and to discover knowledge beyond the covers of their textbooks. They have access to an immense body of knowledge that, up till as recently as one decade ago, was not so readily available to previous generations.

8. It is my hope that conferences such as this where educators come together to learn from one another and to improve on their teaching materials can be held frequently. In this way, we in Singapore can keep up with the revolutions in education and ride on the e-learning wave.

9. Finally, I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to all prizewinners for the well-designed and well thought-out entries. The learning objects that you have designed will undoubtedly be put to good use by educators and students alike. I hope you will enjoy this two-day conference and will learn and share as much as you can.