SPEECH BY MR GAN KIM YONG, MINISTER OF STATE, AT THE 13th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION 2005 ON 30 NOVEMBER, 2005 AT 9:00 AM AT THE LT 1A, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

SPEECH BY MR GAN KIM YONG, MINISTER OF STATE, AT THE 13^th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION 2005 ON 30 NOVEMBER, 2005 AT 9:00 AM AT THE LT 1A, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Prof Leo Tan

Director, NIE

Prof Chee Yam San

President, Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education

Distinguished guests and participants

Ladies and gentlemen

Welcome

1. Let me first extend to all of you a warm welcome to the Conference. To those of you who have come from abroad, a special welcome to Singapore as well.

2. This conference provides a good opportunity for a meeting of minds and an exchange of practical experience. Whether you are a researcher or a practitioner, the confluence of scholarship and experience, from different countries and settings, will enrich your discussions during the conference.

Theme

3. The theme for this conference is “Towards sustainable and scalable educational innovations informed by the learning sciences”. Many of us here have committed ourselves to the journey of innovating with ICT to advance education. Our challenge is how to maintain the momentum of change and build on our existing strengths to go beyond what we have accomplished to date.

Achievements

4. What have we achieved so far in ICT implementation in our Singapore schools? The video you have just seen shows the creativity of schools in harnessing ICT to engage diverse groups of students. These teachers believe that empowering students with technology offers a promise for engaged learning.

5. Generally, the use of ICT has expanded learning opportunities for our students, bringing them beyond their classrooms into authentic learning environments. I would like to share with you one particularly intriguing project “Lichens, Lichens, Everywhere”. In this project, 120 students from 8 secondary schools formed and tested their own hypotheses on the quality of air around their schools. They did this by studying lichens, a bio indicator of air quality, found on trees in their school vicinities. They mapped out the instances of lichen growth around their schools on digitised maps obtained from the Land Transport Authority, using the Geographic Information System (GIS). In their fieldwork, they used a Global Positioning System (GPS) loaned from Singapore Polytechnic. The GIS enabled the students to visualise and analyse layers of geographic information superimposed on one another. The students exchanged information online and investigated the effects on air quality as a result of coastal wind, land inclination and proximity to urban features, such as car parks around their schools. Through this authentic learning experience, the students realised that some of their preconceived ideas had to be changed.

6. I would like to also encourage you to join in the sharing by our teachers in the local track. This video can only show you flashes of innovations while the sharing sessions in the local track will give you an idea of the thinking and hard work behind these innovations. For example, at these sessions, you will learn how Geylang Methodist Primary harnesses technology as a mindtool for students to learn ratio through data manipulation; how Shuqun Primary explores alternative assessment with e-portfolio; how Pasir Ris Secondary utilises blogging for the learning of the Malay language; and how Jurong Secondary utilises robotics to create an authentic problem-based learning environment.

7. We have come a long way since our Second Masterplan for IT in education, or mp2 in short, which was launched in 2002. A recent mp2 review indicates that students’ ICT competency is high, and more than 85% of teachers consider themselves to have basic proficiency in the integration of ICT into the curriculum. What is even more heartening is that over 75% of the teachers surveyed believe that usingICT can enhance teaching and learning. However, many of them feel there is a need for more quality curriculum-related digital resources and more time for lesson planning.

8. We hope to build on our success in the use of ICT in education so that we can help bring our teachers’ use of ICT to greater heights.

Sustainability

9. To encourage and sustain the use of ICT for engaged learning in our schools, we have adopted three key strategies. Firstly, we are establishing baseline standards and targets for students’ learning experiences using ICT, teachers’ ICT integration practices, and IT Heads of Department’s planning. Secondly, we fully support early school adopters who are ready to achieve higher levels of ICT use on their own. Thirdly, schools will take ownership of ICT implementation.

10. My Ministry will adopt the approach of top down support for bottom up initiativesto encourage our schools to implement innovative ICT-based pedagogical practices.

Scalability
11. To work towards scalability of ICT innovations in our schools, we promote a sharing culture among our schools such that our teachers and school leaders are able to work collaboratively with one another, engage one another in dialogue and have varied opportunities to bounce ideas off one another. For example, we are increasingly finding clusters of schools working collaboratively on the development of digital resources and lesson activities.

12. The selected early school adopters, who will be taking the lead in the use of ICT in education, will serve as models for other schools to emulate that will lower the learning curve of these other schools in integrating ICT into the curriculum. Currently, we have a total of 7 Incubator Schools who are actively experimenting with the use of ICT, from harnessing ICT to support an inquiry-based learning framework in Fuhua Primary, to adopting tablet PCs to engage students in learning in River Valley High, to using 3D Virtual Learning Environments for interdisciplinary learning in Canberra Primary.

13. Beyond schools, there is the TecXplorers platform, a voluntary community of teachers from various schools who come together regularly to explore emerging IT tools and pedagogies and to share their frustrations and success stories.

14. We will continue to build the capacity of our school leaders and teachers to effectively use ICT for teaching and learning.

Time and Space for Innovations

15. As part of a wider Ministry initiative, we will be improving our teacher-student ratios over the next 5 years. We will also be creating more time by freeing up an average of 2 hours per week for our teachers to be able to reflect and engage in professional development. This “white space” in our curriculum will allow our teachers to experiment and explore innovative pedagogical practices that will include the use of ICT where appropriate. We will continue to explore imaginative ways to free up time for our teachers so that they can concentrate on bringing about engaged learning for our students.

Research and Development

16. Lastly, let me briefly highlight the importance of Research and Development on ICT in education. R&D is a key strategy to build Singapore’s competitive advantage in a knowledge-based economy. Singapore encourages R&D by providing various funding schemes, economic incentives and research facilities. This year, we have supported the establishment of the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education. The work of this Lab will strengthen our R&D capacity on the use of ICT in education. It provides a platform where ideas, practices and tools related to ICT-enabled learning environments are explored and prototyped with the view of transferring to our classrooms. It complements the work of another research centre at the Institute, the Centre for Research into Practice and Pedagogy, by focusing on school-based interventions which are mediated by technology.

17. An upcoming project by the Lab will involve the design of digital games for our National Education programme. This will make the subject come to life.

Conclusion

18. Let us work together, researchers and practitioners, as we strive to teach and engage our students more effectively, and prepare them better for life.

19. It is now my pleasure to declare ICCE 2005 open.

20. Thank you.