bhutans''support for teacher education''by philip wong

8/7/2019 Bhutans''support for teacher education''by philip wong

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ICT in Teacher Education: Case Studies rom the Asia-Paciic Region

2007 UNESCO Bangkok

130 pp.

Keywords:1. Inormation and communication technologies (ICT)2. Education3. Teacher education4. Case studies5. Asia-Paci ic region

ISBN 978-92-9223-151-4 (Print version)ISBN 978-92-9223-152-1 (Electronic version)

Published in 2008 byUnited Nations Educational, Scienti ic and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)P.O. Box 967, Prakanong Post O iceBangkok 10110, Thailandwww.unescobkk.org/education/ict

Editor:

Ellie Meleisea

Co-ordination:

Tinsiri Siribodhi

Design, Layout and Printing:

Themma Group Co., Ltd

Cover photo:

UNESCO / Tinsiri Siribodhi

Printed in Bangkok, Thailand

The designations employed and the presentation o material throughout the publication do not implythe expression o any opinion whatsoever on the part o UNESCO concerning the legal status o anycountry, territory, city or area or o its authorities, or concerning its rontiers or boundaries.
http://www.unescobkk.org/education/icthttp://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict


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Contents

Introduction 1

1. Bhutan Support or Teacher EducationProject 3Philip Wong

2. Malaysias Experience in Training Teachers to Use ICT 10Bismillah Khatoon Binti Abdul Kader

3. Microsot Partners in Learning Programme in Five ASEAN Countries 23Vincent Quah

4. Utilizing a Pedagogical Support System to Develop Intel Teach Communities 38o Learning in the PhilippinesMonalisa Sasing, Celia Balbin and Cecilia Ubarra

5. ICT-Capacity Standards or Teachers in China 53Feng-chun Miao

6. Using Video Technology or Primary School Teacher Training in Rural Nepal 62Sarah Lucas Pouezevara and Binita Parajuli

7. Building Teachers Capacity to Make Better Use o ICT in Philippines schools 74Carol Rodriguez

8. Training Secondary Teachers in Rural Bangladesh Using Mobile Technology 86Sarah Lucas Pouezevara and Rubina Khan

9. ICT in Education Initiatives in Rural Schools in Mongolia 95Carmen Strigel, Lkhagvasuren Ariunaa and Sukhbaatar Enkhjargal

10. ICT or Proessional Development o Teachers in Thailand: The Lead-Teacher Model 110Pornpun Waitayangkoon

11. Teachers and Technology in Education in Samoa 116Carmen Strigel, Ioana Chan Mow and Ruby Vaa


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ICTinTeacherEducation:Case Studies from the Asia-Pacif ic Region


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Introduction

From studies conducted in recent years, it is evident that inormation and communication technologies(ICT) can help to broaden access to education and improve learning outcomes. Research has alsoshown, however, that success in the use o ICT in education depends largely on teachers and theirlevel o skill in integrating ICT into the teaching process and in utilizing ICT to provide learner-centred,interactive education. Thereore, training teachers to be able to use ICT and to integrate ICT intoteaching is crucial or achieving improved educational outcomes with ICT.

In recent years, various programmes have been implemented in the Asia-Paci ic region that seek toraise the capacity o teachers to utilize ICT eectively in teaching or that seek to utilize ICT tools toimprove teacher education, or both. Many o these programmes are innovative in that they havepioneered this type o training in their country or they have introduced new techniques and training

procedures.

This publication contains a collection o examples oICT in Teacher Educationprogrammes romthe Asia-Paci ic region. While these programmes may not always have been successul and are notnecessarily examples obest practice, an examination o such programmes oers insights into theprocess o educating teachers to integrate ICT into teaching and the process o utilizing ICT toolsor training teachers. In addition, these programmes provide inormation about the issues that areoten aced in ICT-enhanced teacher education in the region and the lessons that have been learnedthrough past experience. This inormation will be useul to education planners, teachers, educatorsand researchers, particularly those in the Asia-Paci ic region.

The case studies were compiled within the ramework o the Training and Proessional Developmento Teachers and Other Facilitators or Eective Use o ICT in Improving Teaching and Learning project, which was implemented between 2003 and 2007 by the UNESCO Asia-Paci ic Programmeo Educational Innovation or Development (APEID), with the support o Japanese Funds-in-Trust(JFIT).


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Introduction

This case study describes an innovative project to assist Bhutanese teacher education institutions toprovide trainee teachers with skills in ICT and with the ability to utilize ICT in the classroom to enhancethe quality o teaching and learning. This paper begins with background inormation about the situationin the Royal Kingdom o Bhutan and the need or the project. The two phases o the project are thendescribed and the process o developing an ICT in Educationcurriculum is explained. Following this,other aspects o the project are outlined, including equipment supply, proessional development andthe evaluation process.

Background

The Royal Kingdom o Bhutans education system covers Kindergarten to Grade 12. The medium oinstruction is English with additional lessons or teaching their national language, Dzongkha. Based on2006 statistics, there are about 190,000 students enrolled in about 512 schools. 2 School enrolment is95 percent and the national literacy rate is 60 percent.

Inormation Technology (IT) courses are oered in Grades 9 and 10. Computer classes are oered inGrades 11 and 12 but they are theoretical courses in C++ programming and ollow the Indian syllabus.A local IT curriculum has recently been developed or Grades 11 and 12, however, and this will beimplemented in 2008.

In Bhutan there are two teacher education institutions, namely, Paro College o Education (ormerlyknown as the Teacher Training College and later as the National Institute o Education) and SamtseCollege o Education. Both colleges are member institutes o the Royal University o Bhutan and theyoer a three year undergraduate Bachelor o Education qualiication or primary and secondary schoolteaching. Trainee teachers spend eight months as an apprentice teacher at a school beore embarkingon the Bachelor o Education programme. Postgraduate teacher training (PostGraduate Certi icate inEducation) is oered at Samtse College o Education or those who already have a bachelors degree.Similarly, Paro College o Education oers postgraduate courses such as a Master in Education and aDiploma in Management and Leadership.

Prior to 2000, no ICT in Educationmodules were oered at either o the colleges. At that time therewere not enough trained lecturers nor was there su icient computer equipment to be able to teachcomputer skills to all the trainees.

Recognizing the need to introduce ICT to trainee-teachers so as to enable them to acquire ICT skills anduse ICT in teaching, an approach was made to the Singapore International Foundation (SIF), a non-pro it oundation, or assistance in developing an ICT-enhanced curriculum or teacher education and

1 Philip Wong is an Associate Proessor at the National Institute o Education, Singapore.2 Bhutan Government website.

1.BhutanSupportfor

TeacherEducationProjectPhilipWong

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ICTinTeacherEducation:

CaseStudiesromtheAsia-PacifcRegion

or assistance in building capacity so that the colleges would be able to provide ICT training. The teachereducation institutes were also interested in introducing an ICT track or their Bachelor o Educationprogramme so as to train teachers who could teach ICT skills and use ICT in teaching in schools.

SIF ICT in education project

The SIF ICT in Education project, initiated in 2000, aimed to assist Bhutans Ministry o Health andEducation (MoHE) to introduce ICT into its education system to help bridge the gap between thelow ICT-skills among pupils (the uture workorce) and the growing adoption o ICT technology inthe workplace. The project, conducted by the SIF Specialist inormation technology (IT) team, alsotrained teacher educators and curriculum design specialists to utilize ICT in their work and to integratecomputer-based training materials into the school curriculum. Funding or the project was obtainedrom the Singapore Government and philanthropic oundations in Singapore.

In May 2000, a technical easibility visit was made by a team o specialist volunteers rom one o Singaporespolytechnic colleges to assess the parameters o a project with the Paro College o Education

The project was conducted in two phases. Phase One was implemented in 2001 and 2002, and PhaseTwo was implemented over the period rom 2002 to 2007.

Phase One (2001 2002 ) ICT-literacy training and course development

An SIF IT Specialist Team, comprising volunteers rom Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, conductedthe irst training workshop in ICT-literacy in December 2001. Attended by 25 Bhutanese high schoolteachers, the workshop was held at the request o the Bhutan Ministry o Health and Education, tokick o a three-year Post-Graduate Certi icate in Teaching Inormation Systems that the Ministry hadinitiated.

A second activity conducted by the Specialist Team in 2001 was to assist the Bhutan EducationDepartment to develop a three-module course (called Functional IT ) within the pre-service teachertraining programme. This course was designed to equip all Bhutanese teachers with ICT skills and tohelp them to prepare instructional materials. This course was subsequently introduced at the ParoCollege o Education.and Samste College o Education and was oered to all trainee teachers at thesecolleges.

Phase Two (2002 2007) Curriculum developed or a Bachelor o Education in IT

The key objective o the second phase o the project was to develop and launch a new elective ICTsubject within the Bachelor o Education (B.Ed) programme. To achieve this objective, another Specialist

Team rom Singapore expanded the ICT resources available at the Paro College o Education, providedtraining or lecturers at both colleges, and provided assistance in conducting the new elective subject.

The Specialist team worked with the lecturers rom the Paro College o Education to design and developan IT curriculum which would achieve two goals. First, equip the trainees who opt or this elective withsuicient skills to teach computer studies in middle and high schools. Second, provide trainees with theskills required to design and develop teaching materials and to teach using ICT.


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The ten-module curriculum that was developed, known as Enhanced IT(EIT), is similar in terms ocoursework demands to other courses oered in the Bachelor o Education programme, requiring aperiod o three years to complete. In addition to taking the EIT modules, trainee teachers also specializein another discipline.

The curriculum development process took approximately one year. It began with an initial ace-to-ace

meeting which was ollowed up on through a series o e-mail exchanges. When the curriculum wascomplete, it was submitted to the Paro College academic board or approval, which was obtained in late2002. The irst batch o six trainees started the course in February 2004. Initially, the curriculum will onlybe oered at the Paro College but in time it will also be available at the Samtse College.

Aside rom developing the curriculum, the project involved providing various training courses tolecturers at the Bhutan colleges in order to develop human capacity and ensure lecturers have theexpertise required to teach the EIT curriculum. Training was provided by Singapore volunteers in Bhutan.Lecturers rom both colleges also attended training courses in Singapore.

The use o computer technology in education can be classi ied into three categories.3

Computers can be considered as an objectwhich students learn about (hardware and sotware).Computer technologies can be an aspect, which means using them as tools in subjects, suchas computer-aided design courses, or as general tools in educational settings, such as the use ographic design sotware to create web pages or a school.Computer technologies are a mediumor instruction. In this category, computer technologiescan be used or teaching and learning.

The curriculum that was developed or the Bhutan teacher education institutes incorporated all o thesecategories, with a good balance between the categories.

A number o competencies and skills are required o a 21st century learners,4 including digital-age literacy.A 21st century student needs to be aware o various tools or digital communication and be able to usethem. Recognizing this, the concept o digital-age literacy was taken into consideration when developingthe inormation and communication technologies (ICT) curriculum or Bhutan.

Conventionally, teachers are trained to use a teacher-centred approach, however, in developing the newcurriculum or teacher training institutions in Bhutan there was a conscious shit towards approachesthat lead to constructivist and independent learning. This shit was made in recognition o the actthat through the use o computers and the Internet new orms o learning can take place, includingproblem-based learning, project-based learning, and authentic learning using real-lie scenarios.

Curriculum development process

The EIT curriculum was designed with the ollowing goals in mind.

To equip trainees with skills in using the computer and related applications or improvingproductivity, or preparing teaching materials (lesson plans and multimedia instructionalmaterials) and or integrating technology into their teaching.To prepare trainee teachers to be able to teach computer studies to students in grades 9 and 10.

3 Plomp, ten Brummelhuis, and Pelgrum, 19974 NCREL, 2003


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service provider. There was only one computer lab and it was open to all trainee teachers, not only thoseenrolled in the EIT programme. Relevant sotware was not available and unds were limited. To helpout, various sotware titles were donated to the college. One approach was to donate older versionso sotware. For example, when the university in Singapore bought a newer version o a program, itdonated the old version to the teacher education college in Bhutan so that trainee teachers couldhave access to a legal version o proprietary sotware. In addition, desktop and laptop computers were

donated or student use. The college also received unding orm an international source to constructa block to house computer labs, and or proessional development o the lecturers and purchase oresources. Recently, three computer labs were built in the new block, along with a server room, and oneo the computer labs is reserved or use only by trainees in the EIT programme. The Paro College hasslowly built up its resources and now has ast Internet, with satellite connection.

Proessional development o lecturers

When Phase Two o the project began in 2002, it was anticipated that the lecturers teaching thecourse would need help to build their capacity. As such, a proessional development programme wasdeveloped. Due to time and resource constraints, proessional development was carried out in phases

and aligned with the module schedule. There were three phases o training activities.

In the irst phase, volunteers visited Bhutan and conducted a week-long training course based on the modulethat the lecturers would be teaching in the ollowing semester. For example, i a module was going to beoered in Semester 2, then a proessional development course to prepare the lecturers to teach that modulewas conducted in Semester 1.

A number o academic volunteers rom the Singapore National Institute o Education and TemasekPolytechnic were involved in conducting these training courses. Each volunteer was selected basedon their expertise and on the content o the modules. During the training in Bhutan, the content wasintroduced to the lecturers at the college, and lecturers developed teaching materials that they would

be using, designed assignments and exercises, and participated in discussions about the sequenceo content. Also, the lecturers experienced working as a team, which had the advantage o enablingteaching resources to be developed aster.

In the second phase o the project, a volunteer was attached to the Paro college or one year. Previously thehead o the IT department in a school in Singapore, the volunteer helped the lecturers to develop trainingmaterials or Modules 1, 2, and 3. The volunteer also taught some o these modules and she helped thelecturers to mark the assignments.

In the third phase o the project, seven lecturers rom Paro and Samtse college went to Singapore orthree months, December 2005 until February 2006, or proessional development training at the NationalInstitute o Education (NIE) in Singapore. While in Singapore, the lecturers also visited educationalinstitutions and interacted with sta rom e-learning companies.

The lecturers received training in the ollowing areas:

Content:Preparing multimedia materials with AuthorwareUsing Macromedia Flash to create animations


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Editing pictures with Adobe PhotoshopCreating webpages with DreamweaverPrinciples o programming - Java Script Language

Curriculum:Development o e-portolios

Instructional Design

These modules were specially designed to enable the lecturers to conduct the teaching o modules EIT7, EIT 9 and EIT 10.

Review and evaluation o the curriculum

I. Mid-project review

In May 2005, one and hal years ater the programme o study began, a review was conducted to evaluatethe curriculum and to make any necessary modi ications. By the time o the review, Modules 1 to 4 had

been completed by the irst batch o trainees and a second batch o trainees had completed Modules1 and 2. During the review process, trainees rom both batches were interviewed to obtain eedbackabout the content, methodology o delivery, assignments and adequacy o resources.

Based on the eedback, no changes were made to EIT Module 1 since this was a basic course. All traineeswere required to attend FIT modules and the trainees rom the EIT programme attended EIT 1 and thisis equivalent o two FIT modules. However, since many trainees were irst time users o ICT, the traineesrequested more time to practice and to allow them to go at a slower pace. Trainees taking EIT moduleswere given more access to computers and extra disk space on the network drive.

For Module EIT 2, a method module, the use o an instructional CD ROM was discontinued as this kind

o media was no longer easily available. Instead, learning objects based on Java or Flash were used, asmany o these are available on the Internet and it would be easy or trainees to incorporate them intotheir school lessons.

II. End o project review

In March 2007, the volunteer team rom Singapore visited Bhutan again to undertake a inal evaluationat the end o the ive-year project. The review involved conducting a survey to obtain eedback rom thetrainee teachers, graduate teachers, lecturers and the Director o the Institute on the eectiveness o thecurriculum and the project. Classroom observations were also conducted to determine how teacherswere using the new skills they had gained.

Feedback rom trainee teaches and graduate teachers indicated that many were concerned that theprincipals o their schools expected them to be expertsin computers and to solve hardware andnetwork problems. Since schools do not have technicians, teachers attempt to solve minor computerproblems but are unable to go beyond this.


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Based on the eedback and observations, some modi ications to the curriculum were made. The mostnotable changes were the addition o hardware maintenance training, instruction in basic networkingand in setting up simple networks, and training in the use oFlash sotware rather than Authorware asa developmental tool.

As technology is constantly changing, the curriculum will need to adapt accordingly, so urther

changes and updates to the curriculum will be conducted at regular intervals in uture.

Conclusion

The project succeeded in bringing about changes in teacher training in the area o ICT. The surveydata indicate that teacher educators skills and knowledge increased tremendously as a result o theproject. Lecturers went rom not knowing anything about computers to being able to design webpages a tremendous jump in skill acquisition. In terms o pedagogy, teacher educators moved romthe conventional teacher-centred approach to more collaborative modes. There was also an increase ingroup work activities, use o project-based teaching, exploratory methods o learning, and constructivistapproaches.

The ive-year project can thereore be considered a success. One o the success actors was the supportgiven to the project by all parties, including the Ministry o Education o Bhutan, the teacher educationcolleges in Bhutan, the Singapore International Foundation and volunteers, and the donors and sponsorsrom Singapore and Switzerland. All participating organizations had a role to play in the project andtheir combined eorts resulted in a successul outcome.

Reerences

Bhutan Government website.http://www.bhutan.gov.bt/government/newsDetail.php?id=208%20&%20cat=6

Paro College o Education website.http://www.nieparo.edu.bt

Samtse College o Education website.http://www.niesamtse.edu.bt

Plomp, T., ten Brummelhuis, A., & Pelgrum, W.J., 1997, New approaches or teaching, learning and usinginormation and communication technologies in education. Prospects Quarterly Review o Education,27 (3), UNESCO, Paris

Posner, G. & Rudnitsky, A. 2005, Course Design: A Guide to Curriculum Development or Teachers (7th

Edition). Allyn & Bacon, New York

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) 2003, The enGauge 21st century skills.http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/skill21.htm
http://www.bhutan.gov.bt/government/newsDetail.php?id=208%20&%20cat=6http://www.nieparo.edu.bt/http://www.niesamtse.edu.bt/http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/skill21.htmhttp://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/skill21.htmhttp://www.niesamtse.edu.bt/http://www.nieparo.edu.bt/http://www.bhutan.gov.bt/government/newsDetail.php?id=208%20&%20cat=6


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6 Bismillah Khatoon Binti Abdul Kader is the Managing Director o Internexia Sdn. Bhd.7 The Malaysian government set aside RM105.6 billion or education in the 8th Malaysia Plan. This represented an increase o 50.4 percent o the

budget or education in the 7th Malaysia Plan.

2.MalaysiasExperiencein

TrainingTeacherstoUseICTBismillahKhatoonBintiAbdulKader

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Introduction

This case study begins by describing the Malaysian Smart Schoolproject and goes on to explain theteacher education component o the project. This paper examines the key areas in which teachersrequire training and discusses the issues that have been experienced in Malaysia in training teachers toutilize inormation and communication technologies (ICT) eectively to improve learning outcomes.

Background

At the turn o the century, educationists and policy makers in Malaysia debated about the challengeso the new millennium. In particular, policy makers were keen to know how to make the best use o

inormation and communication technologies (ICT) to deliver knowledge and inormation to all; toacilitate communication; to provide greater interaction; and to encourage innovation and creativity toimprove national productivity and competitiveness.

In its Seventh National Plan (1996-2000), Malaysia outlined its strategy to develop the labour needs othe nation, particularly in the ields o science and technology. The Plan identiied one o the objectiveso education and training as to produce an adequate number o highly skilled workers and gave highpriority to reorienting the education and training system so that by 2020 Malaysia would have workerswith the knowledge, skills and expertise necessary to support a knowledge-based society and economy.Malaysia saw innovations in ICT as an opportunity to review the countrys public education system.Schools were identi ied as having a key role to increase the number o ICT-skilled people to meet the

demands o industries that would be integrating ICT into their processes.

The purpose o this paper is to introduce readers to the Smart School initiative and a range o relatedactivities that Malaysia has undertaken. A major government initiative, the Smart School initiative hasocused on preparing a pilot group o selected schools or the changes that are taking place as a resulto the advances being made in ICT. This initiative provides selected schools with ICT tools and manageschange towards integrating ICT into teaching and learning. As a result o this project, which has beenunderway or ten years, Malaysia has accumulated considerable understanding o the potential andthe pitalls o introducing ICT into education. The work is continuing and other projects are now beingrolled out across the country, designed in the light o the experiences gained through the Smart Schoolinitiative.

The Malaysian Smart School Project

Since 1996, the Government o Malaysia has targeted education as one o the main vehicles to bringabout the planned accelerated development o Malaysia. Knowledge and inormation were identi iedas important prime movers o the nations economy or growth, wealth creation and competitiveness.7


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In 1997, the Smart School initiative was launched as one o the agship applications o the MultimediaSuper Corridor, under the management o the Multimedia Development Corporation8 (ormerly MDC,now MDeC). The Smart School concept came out o a brainstorming session held at the Ministry oEducation. O icials rom the MDeC, the Ministry o Education and industry representatives produceda Conceptual Blueprint o Smart Schools, then appointed Telekom Smart School Sdn Bhd (TSS), aconsortium o seven Malaysian companies and three multinational companies, in a project management

role. TSS became a partner o the Ministry o Education, and was responsible or implementing theSmart School Integrated Solutions (SSIS) in cooperation with the Ministry. It was the irst partnershipo its kind or a national education project. In support o this initiative, the Government invested inthe development o Malaysias ICT inrastructure, to enable new technology to be used in the selectedschools. The arrangement was or TSS to complete a pilot programme or a group o selected schools byDecember 2002. On completion, the programme would be rolled out to all o Malaysias 9,000 schoolsby 2010. The project involves 87 schools nationwide.

Malaysias Smart School project involves a wide range o inter-related initiatives. These include schemesto improve Malaysias ICT inrastructure, training in change management or teachers and schoolmanagers, a national school management system to link schools and the communities they serve,

integration o sotware, and a help desk acility. The result is the incorporation o ICT into schools at arate not ar behind the rates o more developed nations.9

The irst step in the Smart School initiative was the introduction o computers, related applications,sotware and courseware into schools, classrooms and the teaching and learning processes. The 87participating schools were divided into three types or models. There are our Model Aschools andour Model B Plusschools.10Model Aschools , all o which are situated in the Klang Valley (whichincludes Kuala Lumpur), are equipped with computers in every classroom and with video conerenceacilities. In these schools, the ratio o students to computers is 5 to 1. Model B Plusschools11 areequipped with computers in selected classrooms and in the science laboratories. The other 79 schoolsare Model B schools.12 These schools are equipped with a single computer laboratory.

Smart School Integrated Solution

The Telekom Smart School and its consortium members developed the components o the SmartSchool Integrated Solution(SSIS). This comprehensive approach to integrating ICT into educationencompasses ive main elements:

Teaching-Learning Materials.Materials include 1,494 items o courseware and printed matter or our subject areas: Bahasa Melayu(Malay language), English, Science, and Mathematics.13

Smart School Management System (SSMS).This is sotware or managing and administering student enrolment, educational resources, school inances, human resources, external resources, acilities, technology, and hostel acilities.

8 MSC Malaysia, ormerly known as the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is a national initiative spearheaded by the Malaysian Government topromote the national ICT industry and to provide a test-bed or the global ICT industry.

9 Frost and Sullivan, 2004, Benchmarking o the Smart School Integrated Solution (Strive or Knowledge), Smart School Development, EducationalTechnology Division, Ministry o Education, Malaysia. p.11.

10 Model A provides schools with 520 computers, ive notebooks, six servers and video conerencing equipment and COINS leased line (512/256 kbps).11 Model B Plus provides schools with 81 computers, two notebooks and three servers and COINS leased line (128/64 kbps).12 Model B provides schools with a computer lab comprising 37 computers, two notebooks and three servers and COINS leased line (128/64kbps).13 Courseware is being developed or other subject areas, such as Physics, Biology and Chemistry.


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14 Frost and Sullivan, 2004, Benchmarking o the Smart School Integrated Solution (Strive or Knowledge), Smart School Development, EducationalTechnology Division, Ministry o Education, Malaysia.

15 Ibid, p.10. The comparative study shows that this works well in developed countries where expenditure per student as a percentage o per capitaGDP is relatively high compared to developing nations. Malaysia spends 10.7 percent o GDP per capita on education. The US or example spendsa high 18 percent o its GDP per capita on education. The US GDP is more than eight times that o Malaysia.

Technology Inrastructure.The inrastructure provided to schools included hardware, sotware and other equipment.

Systems Integration.This was implemented to ensure integration between the various components and processes o theSSIS, between the Smart School System and other agship applications, and to ensure data integrity

and security.

Support Services.The support services include Help Desk services, maintenance and support. The Help Desk is located atthe Educational Technology Division o the Ministry o Education.

The SSIS was implemented in the 87 pilot schools at a cost o about RM300 million (USD78 million).

Malaysias innovative approach

In a study comparing Malaysias approach to introducing ICT into schools with the approaches taken

by eight other countries, researchers ound that Malaysias approach is radically dierent rom theothers.14 In Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA, initiativesor incorporating ICT into education have tended to be initiated by schools rather than by the nationalgovernments. The schools set the goals themselves, with the governments providing unds.

These ICT initiatives usually began as small-scale projects. Many started with installing ICT tools inschools and then providing proessional development or teachers. This was normally ollowed by thedevelopment o a communications network and provision o access to on-line content. In the othercountries studied, the schools aimed to integrate ICT into education and teaching and learning materialswere usually produced as a result o the proessional training and development o teachers.15 Oten,projects began at school level and moved on to a cluster o schools and then to the national level.

The SSIS is innovative because it is government-led and is multi-aceted in its approach. An advantageo the leadership role o the government is that relevant policies are in place to support the necessarychanges in theory and practice in education.

Another innovative aspect o the SSIS is the partnership between the Malaysian Government and theprivate sector in development, testing, installation and implementation o the SSIS. The Governmentsets the vision and provides the budget. For example, the building o schools and computer laboratoriesand the setting up o networking systems in the Smart Schools have been entirely unded by theGovernment. The private sector provides their expertise in their particular area o interest.

A urther innovative aspect o the project is its ocus on developing locally-relevant courseware. Thecourseware was created in recognition o the act that teachers require digital content that is compatiblewith the curriculum. The quantity o courseware created has been impressive. By 2003, 1,494 coursewaretitles had been created at an approximate cost o RM1 million (approximately USD285,000). Each title


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required about nine months to develop. The courseware were created in our subject areas: Bahasa Melayu,English language, Science and Mathematics, or students rom Year 1 to Form 5 (Grades 1-11). They areweb-based and run on all platorms, including open source. They also conorm to the Shareable ContentObject Reerence Model (SCORM) standard or web-based e-learning. The subject matter incorporatesMalaysias education philosophy, which includes knowledge, competency, moral values, and personalwell-being o an individual and the need or each citizen to contribute to the harmony and betterment o

amily and Malaysias multicultural society and nation.16

The courseware was distributed to all the schoolsparticipating in the project.

The Smart School initiative emphasizes the constructivist approach to learning, taking the ocus oteachingand placing it on learning. This approach recognizes that students will construct knowledgeor themselves i teachers create the right learning environment.

In Malaysia today there is nationwide awareness o the Smart School initiative. The launch o theproject sparked new ICT training initiatives, schemes or parents to buy computers or the home andinitiatives to establish learning centres, colleges and universities which specialise in ICT and multimediadevelopment.

Obstacles and Challenges

The initial phase o the SSIS exposed a range o obstacles and challenges. Achieving a consistent level oICT inrastructure in schools has been one o the biggest challenges acing this project. There continuesto be enormous disparity in the level o ICT availability and in the level o ICT use in schools, especiallybetween schools in rural areas and schools in urban areas.17 The issue o lack o Internet connectivity is aparticular challenge. At the current rate o development o connectivity, it is unlikely that the inrastructurewill be in place in time to connect all schools to the Internet by 2010.

The lack, or low quality, o connectivity in rural schools threatens to ampliy the disadvantages o rurallearners. Without inrastructure and connectivity, the integrated system (encompassing web-based

courseware, on-line management tools, and technical support) provided by the Smart Schools projectis not accessible to rural schools. This poses a big challenge or the Ministry o Education. To addressthis issue, the Ministry provides schools in remote areas with special training programmes and providesteachers with notebook computers and with CD-ROMs containing teaching materials. In addition, theMinistry has launched special schemes or the schools and communities which are located on remoteislands and in mountainous districts. For example, in Bario, an isolated community on the island o Borneoin the Malaysian state o Sarawak, there is no road access and poor telecommunications inrastructure.For Bario, the Smart School project was divided into two Phases. Phase I involved conducting a baselinesurvey to gain an understanding o the inormation needs o the local Kelabit people. Phase II involvedthe establishment o a telecentre in a secondary school. Internet access was provided to this school viaa VSAT satellite link. Another initiative implemented in remote areas is the Demonstrator Application

Grant Scheme.18

16 Quoted rom the Malaysian National Philosophy o Education.17 Zaitun Abu Bakar, University o Malaya, Malaysia, The utilization and integration o ICT tools in promoting English language teaching and learning:

Reections rom English option teachers in Kuala Langat District, Malaysia, 2005.18 The Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme (DAGS) was launched by Ministry o Science, Technology and Innovation on 21st April 1998. DAGS

is a key initiative or the realization o objectives set out in the National IT Agenda. The grant scheme is a platorm or building human capacityand capability through ICT applications.


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19 Between 1999 and 2005 signicant changes were made to the school curriculum and there was a major change in teaching o science and math ematics.20 Integrating Courseware or Teaching and Learning in Classroom Setting, Mathematics, MSC and Ministry o Education Malaysia.21 The Smart School Roadmap (A consultative paper on the expansion o the Smart School initiative) 2005-2020: An Educational Odyssey, October 2005.

The integration between the Smart School System and other agship applications is another challenge.Developing the courseware through a single vendor (though the vendor is a consortium) led toover-reliance on a single source o supply. Some companies within the consortium could not producethe work on time and to the quality speci ied. Beset with internal administrative problems and issuesrelating to evolving needs, and suering rom a lack o insight into developments in new technologyand changes in national education policies,19 TSS lost the monopoly on the production o courseware.

Government tenders or courseware development are now open to all companies. This involves lengthyprocedures or tendering and evaluating and selecting companies but has seen an increase in thestandard o courseware.

Currently, courseware developers or the Ministry o Education assign their intellectual property rightsand copyright to the Government. The contract or developing courseware includes minimal servicelevels, mostly restricted to meeting speciications and satisying user acceptance tests and other technicalcriteria. Advanced services or updating and corrections post-delivery have not been sought so ar.

Providing teachers with courseware has its advantages but this system also has disadvantages. Underthis system, teachers are not trained to create and implement teaching materials themselves. There is no

requirement or teachers to experiment with the particulars o using ICT in the classroom or to explore thevast resources available on the Internet. In addition, some teachers see the courseware as a replacementor pedagogy. A common misconception among teachers is that using the courseware simply meansassigning a topic or students to learn or search. Thus, the teacher merely projects the courseware on thescreen and the students use the courseware without any guidelines or teacher supervision. At the otherextreme, some teachers claim that teaching with the provided courseware requires more preparation timeand creates more work, requiring them to structure the learning by providing a ramework, ormulatingguide questions, recommending websites and acilitating discussions. Some teachers eel they can teachmore content and make students understand better by using traditional chalk and talk methods.20 Thecourseware remains in its boxes or these teachers.

To make the best use o new ideas and tools, teachers must understand the relevance, useulness andusability o those ideas or tools. Teachers need to be computer literate themselves and be conident in theuse o ICT in order to understand what ICT can do to enhance their own development and to enrich thelearning experience o their students.21

Teachers also need help and support when things go wrong or technology does not unction. Whiletechnical support is a component o the SSIS, it is perceived by some as being inadequate. In a reviewo the SSIS carried out by the Ministry o Education, an important recommendation was in the area otechnical maintenance and the need or more suitable and adequate technical support or teachers inschools.

Opportunities

Positive unintended consequences have arisen rom the decision to provide courseware to the 87 SmartSchools. This major investment o Ministry o icers time and Government unds has resulted in thedevelopment o a vibrant e-learning and creative content industry with over 100 companies. Malaysia isbecoming noted or its capability in content development or on-line learning and its expertise in areas


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such as interactive multimedia courseware development. Phase One, which covered the launch in 1996through to 2003, saw small and medium sized enterprises and multi-national corporations workingtogether, generating over 5,000 jobs.

Alongside the growth o companies which specialize in developing on-line learning content, and thesotware and related technology or delivery o on-line learning, a growing number o teachers

and o icers are developing skills in mapping curricula and using progressive checks on learnersachievements. Involvement in courseware development and evaluation has enhanced the proessionaldevelopment o teachers and o icers at a much aster rate and in more depth than traditional trainingwould provide. Teachers with subject specialization were seconded to companies in the TSS consortiumas subject matter experts and evaluators.

Training Teachers to Use ICT

Training teachers in computer skills and the incorporation o ICT into lessons to improve studentsachievement were not major ocus areas o the SSIS. This was an obvious omission in the Smart Schoolproject.

TSS and other vendors saw this as an opportunity to propose ICT training or teachers as an additionalelement to the SSIS. Fujitsu Systems Business (Malaysia) Berhad (FSBM), submitted a proposal to theMinistry oering their on-line teacher training sotware, the Malaysian Teacher Training Program (MTTP).FSBMs on-line teacher training sotware was designed by Internexia, using as a guide the UnitedKingdoms Teacher Training Agency (TTA) speci ication,22 to equip teachers with ICT skills and with theknowledge and understanding to make decisions about when and how to use ICT in their teaching andto improve students learning achievement.

The teacher training sotware that Internexia designed or FSBM is an on-line learning tool, enablingteachers to learn at their own pace, place and time. The sotware incorporates tracking o learning anda sel-assessment system, and also maps the learning pathway or each teacher. Teachers are expectedto complete the training in nine to 12 months at their own pace. On successul completion, teachers areawarded an internationally recognised certi icate o competency.

In 2004 FSBM and partner organization Prestariang Technology Sdn Bhd were awarded a contract bythe Malaysian Ministry o Education to train 100,000 practising teachers to use the FSBM program, MTTP.The sotware was given a new title: BPPT (Bimbingan Perguruan Proesional dalam Teknologi Maklumatdan Komunikasi) or Teachers Continuing Proessional Development in ICT.

The aim remained the same: to equip teachers with the knowledge, understanding and skills aboutwhen and how to use ICT in their teaching. Most o the original objectives were also retained:

To raise the standard o students achievement by increasing the use o ICT in their learning.

To create a national resource data bank o high quality, technology-enhanced teaching andlearning materials created by teachers or teachers.

22 The specication listing expected outcomes or teachers was provided by the UK Governments DEE or training teachers in the use o inormationand communications technology in subject teaching under UKs New Opportunities Fund (NOF) Training. NOF is the 230m. o lottery unds setaside or the purpose o helping teachers use the potential o ICT to raise pupils standards o achievement in the NC core subjects at primary leveland NC core, and non-core, subjects at secondary level. Every maintained school in the UK benet rom the NOF training, a big initiative in theproessional development o teachers and school librarians. The money is to be spent on training in the use o ICT, not basic computer skills.


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To enable teachers to make sound judgements about when and how to integrate ICT in theclassroom.

To enable teachers to acquire the con idence and skills to make use o and to integrate ICT intotheir lesson plans and teaching o the subjects in the classroom.

To provide teachers with access to the national resource data bank: an ever-growing pool oteaching materials.

The Malaysian Ministry o Education required the training to be implemented through ace-to-aceinstruction to accommodate the style o learning preerred by teachers. Prestariang Technologyre-worked the on-line program into a ull-time,10-day, ace-to-ace training course. Internexia wasappointed by Prestariang Technology to train a group o irst-level Master Trainers who would undertakethe nation-wide training o 100,000 teachers. The BPPT was launched in 2004 and the irst phase was tobe completed in mid-2007.

The adaptation rom an on-line, part-time sel-study programme to a two-week ace-to-ace course had

advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages were: concentration on training without beingdistracted by day-to-day teaching activities; immediate tutorial support rom the trainer; opportunitiesor collaborative work with ellow teachers; and a quick evaluation o progress. The disadvantages werethat ICT skills and new pedagogy require time to be absorbed and adopted into classroom practice.The intensive ace-to-ace training did not allow time or teachers to absorb the lessons and teachersreturned to the classroom and tried to implement what they had learned without continuing supportrom the trainer. Another disadvantage o the ace-to-ace course, rom the schools perspective, wasthe need to replace teachers or two weeks while they attended the training programme. This causeddisruption and detracted rom the motivation o teachers to participate in the training course.

Using ICT in Teaching

Broadly speaking, ICT can be used in education in two ways: as a subject (learning to use ICT) and as atool (using ICT to learn). Using ICT to learn requires irst learning to use ICT.

The BPPT course ocuses on using ICT to enhance learning rather than on teaching strategies. The coursecovers our main areas: inormatics; independent learning skills; goal-oriented, resource-based subjectlearning; and assessing achievement.

InormaticsThe BPPT provides training in inormatics (how to use computer-related technologies). The coreo inormatics competence training include enabling teachers to: use standard o ice applications;understand the components and structure o computers and networks; and utilize relevant educational

sotware. The BPPT also ensures that Master Trainers were in a position to develop and incorporateoptional modules to suit particular national needs and student aspirations. Such options coveredcompetences or language learning, mathematics, science, engineering, sotware development,multimedia production, and sotware applications, among others.

Independent learning skillsMany studies have shown that learners are motivated to learn and learn best when what they learn isrelevant to their needs at the time o learning and how they learn is consistent with their individual


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learning styles. Conventional curricula and approaches to ormal education tend to neglect both theseaspects o learning. An emphasis on students as learners, rather than as recipients o teaching, demandssigniicant shits in teachers behaviour and attitude. ICT oer opportunities to bring education closer tothe needs o the individual learner. The BPPT course encourages teachers to become amiliar with ICTtools or accessing learning resources and inormation, solving problems and presenting results. Thecourse also enables teachers to learn to support their students in adopting learning skills that would

enable them to learn independently in the uture.

Goal oriented, resource-based subject learningThe BPPT course explains that using technology to develop new skills is a means o re-balancing thecurriculum, but does not imply abandoning subject-based learning. The course demonstrates that mostsubjects can be explained and enhanced through using ICT applications. The course also promotes ashit rom interpreting the curriculum as a list o acts to be learnt towards treating a subject as contentwith a set o competences to be acquired. This is most obvious in subjects such as language, inormaticsand mathematics, which are already both learned and tested as skills. But relevance and a ocus onindividual learning styles, as well as the need or communicative and collaborative skills, require that evenknowledge-based subjects, such as history, science and geography, should be learned in the context o

problems to be solved and challenges to be undertaken. The challenge or teachers, and the trainers oteachers, is to restructure subject learning as a series o increasingly demanding goals to be achieved, withtechnology tools giving access and structure to the resources needed to stretch the students capabilitiesand to measure their success in rising to the challenges posed by the curriculum.

Assessing Value Added and AchievementAssessment is conventionally seen as something that schools and teachers do to students, throughtests and examinations. ICT tools provide an opportunity to enable the student to participate moreactively in the process.

Various aspects o assessment lend themselves well to technological enhancement and to the closerintegration o assessment into the learning process. Diagnostic assessment can be used by studentsand teachers to identiy gaps between present knowledge and skills and the required knowledge andskills. This helps to ocus on the progress to be made in learning and in achievement. Furthermore, witha curriculum expressed as measurable learning outcomes (as is the case now in Malaysia), the distinctionbetween learning and assessment blurs. Formative learning, at the early stages o a subject or level odi iculty, can be closely guided and monitored with the support o ICT tools. Technology-enricheddevelopmental learning activities enable the student to attain knowledge and skills beyond the basics,and help the student to identiy the subjects most closely suited to his or her needs, desires and talents.Problem-based learning is particularly well suited to provide learning activities that develop competencies,and to measure the outcomes o such learning.

What skills should teachers have?

Teachers are the key to the successul integration o ICT into education. They manage the processes oteaching and learning. Without the active, enthusiastic and skilled participation o teachers, innovationsto enrich education with the advantages oered by technology are doomed to ail. The ull participationo teachers in adopting new technologies to enhance education requires a commitment to ongoingproessional development o teachers.


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Two broad questions stand out or attention:What are the competences that can reasonably be expected o a teacher engaging in ICT-enrichededucation?What are the methods by which the expected levels o competence in the teaching proession canbe achieved?

All teachers who use ICT to enrich their teaching and their students learning need to develop speci iceducational competences to do so eectively. Teachers should be volunteer learners, motivated tolearn to use ICT based on their interest in seeking out learning opportunities and in managing thechanges taking place among their students, and in their classrooms, schools and proession. Teachersare motivated to learn when the new knowledge or skills can be used to better their position or tomake improvements. They are not always interested in knowledge or its own sake. For many teachers,learning is a means to an end, not an end in itsel.

In any ICT in Education proessional development programme, teachers irst need to gain theknowledge and judgement to be able to select and evaluate ICT resources that are suitable orteaching and learning in their own subjects. In particular, teachers need to be able to use the internetto search and select, with a critical eye, inormation and resources that are relevant or their subjectand their students.

Secondly, teachers need to be able to judge when and how to integrate ICT into their lessons. Manyaspects o education can be enriched with the judicial use o technology while some topics and aspectscannot. A teacher needs to be able to distinguish between these, and iner, distinctions.

Thirdly, teachers need to able to evaluate the eects o ICT on their teaching and on their studentslearning. I the curriculum is de ined in terms o learning outcomes, and standards or ICT-enrichedteaching and learning are clearly deined in measurable terms, then the teacher would be able to applythe outcome measures, both to their own teaching and to students results.

The training course oers the ollowing: competence in the use o relevant technologies; competenceto apply these technologies appropriately to teaching; competence in the development o resourcematerials and content or teaching; and competence in working collaboratively to improve thequality o ICT-enriched resources.

The course begins with providing training in basic ICT applications Introduction to Computers andApplications (ICA). ICA is an on-line sel-learning course with eight modules. The course comes with aset o instructions which include text, audio and images. Practical exercises can be ollowed by teachersto learn how to utilize ICT to develop lesson plans and teaching materials. Teachers have access to theon-line programme 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Beyond the computer skills, the course extends teachers competence in ICT to a level that enablesthem to produce teaching and learning materials or their own use and to share them with subjectcolleagues. In particular, the course gives instruction in how to access and utilize a resource bank whichcontains examples o lessons, and how to share their resources with others.

The training model is exible and can be adapted to meet the needs o individual schools. The trainingco-ordinator is a key element in the organization and delivery o the course. Action planning is


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addressed throughout the training and there are opportunities or teachers to meet ongoing needs asthey are identi ied. The provider has rigorous procedures in place or quality assurance, which con irmsits commitment to a programme o ongoing monitoring and improvement.

Following participation in the training course, most teachers responded positively in their eedbackorm and on the BPPT website.23 Teachers reported that the training had a positive impact on their

proessional practice and that they were increasingly conident in the use and application o ICT in theirteaching.

The BPPT website provides examples o (unedited) responses rom teachers who have participated inthe training course. Some o the teachers comments are reproduced below.

This course has enabled me to use ICT in teaching and learning in line with the currentdevelopments in the education system.Ater the course I became aware o the importance o ICT or the uture and learned that it is veryimportant to use ICT in Teaching and Learning. The use o ICT enables the process o teaching andlearning to be more enhanced and complete.

This program has enabled me to increase my knowledge and skills in ICT. In particular it is a greathelp or me in lesson planning. I received a great deal o understanding and knowledge rom myriends and peers rom other schools.This is an eye opening to a new way o teaching.Its a great course, a useul tool; opening doors to learning, to turn children on to lielonginterest.A very bene icial course to all teachers regardless o what subject we teach. For sure this is one othe best ways to educate and guide our pupils/students.To all teachers, grab this opportunity to attend this BPPT course because it has many bene its orteaching and learning.This course is very signi icant or me where I where I was able to learn many things about ICT.It also helps me in my area o teaching and learning.

In 2007, consultants rom the International Islamic University o Malaysia began evaluating the BPPTprogramme. When complete, the evaluation report will be published on the BPPT website.

Malaysian Grid or Learning

In response to eedback rom teachers, a decision was made to upload to the Malaysian Grid or Learningportal the best lessons developed by teachers.

The Malaysian Grid or Learning (MyGL) is a strategic initiative and a vital part o the MalaysianGovernments commitment to the creation o a knowledge-based society. MyGL is managed by the

Malaysian Government through the Ministry o Education (MOE) and aims to cater to the educationalneeds o learners and educators o every age, in both ormal and inormal learning environments,towards achieving national excellence in education. The MyGL Formal Learning portal oersall schools in Malaysia a one-stop gateway to useul educational resources rom Malaysia and othercountries.

23 BPPT website: http://www2.bppt.com.my/index.php
http://www2.bppt.com.my/index.phphttp://www2.bppt.com.my/index.php


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Assessment o the SSIS

In 2005, the Ministry o Education and MDeC published a report which documented an study othe changes brought about by SSIS and the impact the SSIS had on teachers, students and schooladministrators. The study also assessed the irst-o-its-kindpartnership between the Government andthe private sector in the development, testing, installation and implementation o the SSIS.

The study ocused on initiatives undertaken between 1999 and 2002. It surveyed 33 o the 8824 SmartSchools and ound that around 90 percent o students in the schools were ICT literate and could use ICTacilities or learning. Although teamwork, peer learning and independent learning are valued by morethan 50 percent o the students in the survey, the study report noted that there was reluctance amongstudents to work in teams because this was seen as an obstacle to completing assigned exercises duringlessons.

The study also ound that a high percentage (83 percent) o teachers were ICT literate. Furthermore,around 90 percent o teachers were using the computer laboratory or lessons and preparation omaterials and most teachers (73 percent) ound their productivity improved by using ICT acilities.

The report noted, however, that there was a need to establish a minimum ICT competency level orteachers, particularly in terms o competency in the innovative and creative use o ICT in teaching. Thereport recommended urther provision o training in teaching methods and recommended that theteacher training curriculum should incorporate competence in the use o speciic ICT tools, competencein integrating ICT into subject teaching, and competence in utilizing ICT or planning, preparing,teaching, assessing and evaluating lessons.

The report also recommended updating courseware to incorporate changes in the curriculum and intechnology. The report noted that there was a need to implement the Smart School initiative in a moredeined, structured and balanced manner and to improve the management o the various projects.A key recommendation was to enhance the classi ication standards or what quali ies a school to beSmart.

Smart School Quali ication Standards

In June 2006 MDeC published the Smart School Quali ication Standards (SSQS).25 The SSQS a ive starranking system provides the criteria or achieving Smart School recognition. The SSQS also providesa set o indicators or measuring progress.

The objectives o the SSQS are to:Develop a system to measure ICT use in educationProvide a basis or policy planning and programme improvements

Raise standards in educationServe as a catalyst or educational changeEmpower teachers and learners

24 Thirty-three o the 88 pilot schools were selected or the purpose o impact assessment study, which was undertaken in October 2005. Students,teachers o Bahasa Melayu, English, Science and Mathematics and administrators provided insights and eedback on their experience o the SSISimplementation. Frost and Sullivan, 2006.

25 Smart School Qualication Standards (SSQS), MSC Malaysia Client Contact Centre (CliC), Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd, 2007.


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The SSQS has our ocus areas or assessing Smart Schools: utilization o resources, human capital,applications, and technology inrastructure. The schools must achieve the minimum conditions(1 star) or each o the our ocus areas to qualiy as a Smart School. An essential criterion is the ability oteachers to utilize the schools resources (such as ICT-enabled tools), to bring about an increase in pupilslearning and achievement.

Ministry reports state that the initiatives and implementation o the SSIS are heading in the rightdirection. Teachers are adopting new roles in the changing school environment, developing their ICTskills. Teacher training has brought about several signi icant eects. ICT training programmes haveimproved teachers ICT skills, enabling them to incorporate ICT in their lesson plans. Teachers are able toproduce digital materials and to integrate ICT in teaching and learning.

The Ministry has also provided a programme to train trainers to meet the demand or the large numbero courses conducted by MOE. Encouraged by the improvement in teachers skills and knowledge, theMinistry has recently identi ied 30 schools as centres o excellence.

The Ministry continues to monitor strengths and weaknesses o the SSIS to enable appropriate

intervention and support or schools. In a recent paper, Dr Masnah binti Ali Muda26

wrote that theviability o the SSIS depends on ensuring that its management modules are scalable, web enabled andexible or integration with on-going ICT initiatives. He also recommended that the student-to-computerratio should be reduced, with better connectivity and broadband access; that schools should createchampions who will lead change; that schools should take a holistic approach to change managementissues; and that the Ministry should continue to provide guided training. Echoing the indings o theimpact assessment study, Dr Masnah concluded that there should be alignment o policy objectives atall levels within the Ministry o Education, between Ministries and among agencies.

Conclusion

Through the Malaysian Smart School project the Malaysian Government has: made a strong commitmentin policy, created a blueprint and guidelines, provided unds and resources to develop the necessaryinrastructure, identi ied experienced and quali ied teachers and o icers, allocated a large budgetor the development o teaching and learning materials and initiated a national thrust to bring aboutaccelerated improvement in the application o ICT in education.

Teachers at Malaysian Smart Schools are perhaps some o the most advantaged proessionals in theregion. Their schools are well equipped and they are well supported in terms o access to ICT tools andto teaching materials and resources. Impact studies, government monitoring and evaluation reports odevelopments27 and reports o visits to schools show that there is widespread use o ICT in the 87 SmartSchools by teachers, students and administration sta. Nevertheless, what is missing are the ingredientsthat make teachers innovative and creative in their role as acilitators to promote learning. There remains

a need or teachers to develop conidence in new methods o promoting learning. The BPPT programmeseeks to address this issue by providing training or teachers, giving them competence in the use ospeci ic ICT tools, competence in integrating ICT into subject teaching and competence in utilizing ICTin planning, preparing, teaching, assessing and evaluating lessons. This training enables teachers to

26 Dr Masnah binti Ali Muda is a senior ofcer in The Educational Technology Division o the Ministry o Education Malaysia.27 Laporan Ujian Diagnostik, Pengajaran-Pembelajaran Sains Dan Matematik Dalam Bahasa Inggeris (PPSMI), Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia, Kemen

terian Pelajaran Malaysia, Ogos 2005


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develop conidence and encourages teachers to introduce more innovative methods in teaching. Whilethe training has been warmly received by teachers, conventional didactic methods are deeply ingrainedinto educational practices and will not be overcome easily.

The 87 Smart Schools are poised to be graded according to the SSQS ive star ranking system. Thisranking system aims to encourage teachers to be innovative and creative in using the large collection o

educational aids available to them, including ICT tools, courseware and other materials, to bring aboutan increase in students learning and achievement.

Reerences

Ministry o Education, 2007, Integrating ICT-Based content in teaching and learning English Language,Ministry o Education, Malaysia.

Ministry o Education, 2007, Integrating ICT-Based content in teaching and learning Mathematics,Ministry o Education, Malaysia.

Ministry o Education, 2007, Integrating ICT-Based content in teaching and learning Science, Ministryo Education, Malaysia.

Ministry o Education, 2007, Smart School Quali ication Standards, Ministry o Education, Malaysia

Ministry o Education, 2007, ICT in Education: Malaysian Experience by Dr Masnah binti Ali Muda,Educational Technology Division, Ministry o Education, Malaysia.

Frost and Sullivan, 2006, Impact Assessment Study o the Smart School Integrated Solution and OtherICT Initiatives, Commissioned by MSC Malaysia and the Ministry o Education, Malaysia.

Laporan Ujian Diagnostik, Pengajaran-Pembelajaran Sains Dan Matematik Dalam Bahasa Inggeris(PPSMI), Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia, Kementerian Pelajaran malaysia, Ogos 2005

Ministry o Education, 2005, Advancing e-Education: New Thinking, sharing New Zealand and MalaysianExperiences, 28-29 June 2005, MSC Malaysia, Ministry o Education, Malaysia.

Ministry o Education, 2005, The Smart School Roadmap 2005-2020:An Educational Odyssey, Ministryo Education, Malaysia

Ministry o Education, Smart School Flagship: Catalyzing the E-Education cluster Vol 1: 2004-2005,Ministry o Education, Malaysia.

Frost & Sullivan, 2004, Benchmarking o The Smart School Integrated Solution (Strive or Knowledge),Smart School Development, Educational Technology Division, Ministry o Education, Malaysia.


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Introduction

This case study describes the Microsot Partners in Learning (PiL) initiatives in the area o trainingteachers to utilize inormation and communication technologies (ICT), in ive Association o South EastAsian Nations (ASEAN) countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. The casestudy also examines the impact o the PiL programme on education communities, and its contributionsin driving the integration o ICT into education in these ive countries. The study urther illustrates thevalue o sustainable corporate-community partnerships in enhancing ICT in Education initiatives.

Background

The dierence between communities with and without access to the latest technology (the digitaldivide) is both signiicant and troubling, maniested in both quality o lie and economic development.In an attempt to narrow this digital divide, Microsot has devoted US$253 million to its Partners inLearning (PiL) initiative. Under this initiative, Microsot establishes partnerships with Ministries oEducation, national and local Government bodies, and other stakeholders to develop ICT capacityamong educators around the world. This multi-aceted approach aims to increase access to inormationand improve digital literacy.

This case study presents examples rom the PiL Learning Grants teacher training schemes in ive ASEANcountries, illustrating successes as well as areas or improvement inormation potentially applicable toother teacher training initiatives in the Asia-Paci ic region.

PiL goals are two-old: skills development and pedagogical transormation. In each o the countries ithas been implemented in, the PiL Learning Grants ramework is adapted to suit speci ic needs.

PiL Teacher Development Project

The ocus o this study is the teacher developmentproject o the PiL Learning Grants ramework,the most popular o the projects developed in each country. Basic Skills and Advanced Skills trainingcourses or teachers have been held in each o the ive ASEAN countries. In addition, online communityportals, designed to acilitate sharing o lesson plans and teaching materials among teachers and schoolleaders have been set up in each country. Furthermore, because proessional development or schoolleaders is a signi icant component o eective integration o ICT into education, PiL Leadership in the21st Centurymodules have been oered in our o the ive countries.

The implementation o PiL in the ASEAN countries is relatively recent; most countries oicially launched theirinitiatives rom late 2003 to mid 2005. PiL has nevertheless made signi icant inroads in improving teachingand learning using ICT in schools. Its areas o impact include curricula, proessional development o schoolsta, improved school ICT culture, teacher use o ICT or teaching, and student use o ICT or learning.

3.MicrosoftPartnersinLearning

ProgrammeinFiveASEANCountriesVincentQuah

28

28 Director, Public Sector Programs, Microsot Asia-Pacic


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PiL has been notably successul in improving Basic ICT Skills, reaching large numbers o teachers whothen teach others. Peer Coaching has also been eective in every country in this study. The impact oPiL is also evident in changing pedagogical methods, but will require a long-term commitment to eectlasting transormation in education.

Although the approaches or implementing the PiL initiative vary among the ive countries, and the levels

o ICT use in teaching and learning dier, there are similarities in the experiences o implementation.The areas in common are as listed below.

ICT integration is a key component o national education goals in most countries. However, inmany cases, there is little availability o instruction in ICT skills or students.

Lack o unding continues to be an obstacle in every country, and rural and remote communitiescontinue to be plagued by weak inrastructure.

In many countries, there remains an ongoing need or ICT learning resources in local languages.

In many public school classrooms, the prevailing pedagogical practice is best characterized byrote learning and a teacher-centred approach. ICT learning is student-centric and community-based; thus conventional, ingrained pedagogical habits need to be dislodgedwith culturalsensitivityor ICT training to be eective.

The country-speci ic sections o this study identiy the unique eatures o the PiL programme in thatcountry and the impact o the teacher training programmes, and oer lessons that are potentiallyapplicable to others.

There is growing recognition o the importance o public-private partnerships or sustainabledevelopment. Governments increasingly recognize the need to engage local and multinationalcompanies in their eorts to transorm the daily lives o their citizens. Yet i such engagements are tohave long-term sustainability, long-term partnerships, rather than patchwork solutions, are called or.

Innovation is the central theme that governs the PiL programme in terms o scope and implementation.Firstly, although the Partners in Learning initiative is a global programme, it has been designed toincorporate local requirements and needs in the way projects are designed and in terms o scope.This is a critical step to ensuring that the projects are relevant to local community needs. Secondly,there is evidence rom the various country implementations that suggest that the Partners in Learninginitiative acilitates important cross-group collaboration, not only between dierent divisions o theMinistry o Education in each country, but also between other stakeholders in each countrys educationcommunities. Thirdly, while we believe that the provision o teacher training is an essential componento the initiative, nevertheless, it is important to move beyond a training mentalityand embrace a

longer term proessional development approach through the establishment o a coaching/mentoringenvironment in schools, or even at the district or national levels.

The concluding section o the study identi ies successul elements shared by the various countryprogrammes, as well as weaknesses, and discusses obstacles and challenges. The hope is that thiscase study, illustrating a series o innovative corporate-community partnerships toward productiveeducational change through the integration o ICT in the teaching and learning process, will be useul


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or the many stakeholders in community development and education in the Asia-Paciic region who canlearn rom the PiL projects and implement similar initiatives.

Indonesia

Background

The Government o Indonesia is concerned about the low use o ICT in teaching and learning in schools.Although ICT is an essential component o the 2004 national curriculum, not all schools are able to useICT. This is because o the lack o su icient hardware and sotware in Indonesian schools. Furthermore,schools lack ICT-literate teachers and the ability to develop ICT-based learning materials.29

In the inancial year o 2005, the projected and achieved targets o our key projects were as ollows:75,075 teachers and school leaders were trained;574,000 students were reached by the curriculum;37,580 (ar exceeding the proposed 20,000) assessments and certi ications were completed;5,000 schools implemented a student help desk programme.

The PiL Indonesia programme

On 1 November 2003, Microsot signed a memorandum o understanding (MOU) with the IndonesianMinistry o Education (MoE), valid or a period o ive years. The PiL partnership with the MoE ocuseson increasing ICT pro iciency throughout Indonesia, and narrowing the technological gap betweenIndonesia and its neighbours.

Goals and practices ocus on working with and supporting the Government o Indonesia, as well asindustries, communities, NGOs, policy makers, partners and media to:

develop the nations ICT capacity;provide schools with aordable PCs equipped with licensed sotware;ormulate strategies or achieving higher levels o ICT pro iciency;accelerate the process o improving ICT pro iciency;assist teachers by developing course materials that use ICT in the classroom.

PiL works closely with the national government with respect to its ICT Masterplan in Education, androm this close working relationship, signi icant goals have emerged. These include:

Proessional development o teachers, rom basic ICT competency to advanced competency;Design o a national curriculum o ICT-literacy or K-12 students.

In order to ensure that the MoE was not avouring any one product, Microsot products were not mentionedin the curriculum and standards. To support the delivery o the curriculum, PiL also co-developed (with

the MoE, teachers, teacher educators and private sector) a set o materials to be used to meet curriculumobjectives. All these activities were initiated and overseen by the working group in the MoE.

Microsot Indonesia has created strong and sustainable partnerships with universities and teachereducation institutions in Indonesia. Microsot Indonesia also has valuable partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

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Overview of pedagogical issues

In many public school classrooms, rote learning and deerence to the teachers authority best describethe prevailing pedagogical practices. Also, a tendency persists to teach ICT as a separate course, ratherthan as an integrated eature o education.

Further, the countrys diverse ethnic mix necessitates localized curricula to supplement the nationalcurriculum. Most o the teaching and learning resources were translated rom English, and the materialswere localized to make them more amiliar to Indonesian students.

Issues and challenges

Problems identi ied locally, but which have widespread application include:Lack o access to computers in schools or at home or many teachers, thereore computers are notyet part o their liestyle;Diiculty in encouraging inormal dialogue among teachers to teach one another; and in devisingmeans o making ICT-use routine, such as requiring lesson plan submission via email;

Many o the older teachers tend to shy away rom ICT (the average age o the teachers in someschools is about 50 years).

Additional issues raised by teachers include the lack o a physical o ice or virtual space to meet,suggesting that Microsot Indonesia may need to provide a common meeting place. Finally, the lack o abig picture o the PiL project and knowledge o the activities o other agencies hampers planning. Bettercoordination is needed between agencies to exchange inormation and to avoid wasting resources.

Innovative practices used in the PiL programme

The Peer Coaching programme trains master teachers to integrate ICT into the curricula and to train andmentor other teachers at their school. Described by one participant as a bottom-upapproach, teachersare empowered to participate in their schools education policy. The programme acknowledges thatteachers are best-quali ied to tailor ICT planning in terms o their speci ic school needs.

The success o Peer Coaching is partly attributable to the selection o subject-area specialists, as teachersare more likely to buy into the use o ICT in teaching and learning when they can see the use o ICTwithin their own subject areas. Peer Coaching can be credited with generating the cascade eectoICT use in schools in Indonesia.

Examples of best practice

Despite his extensive subject-area knowledge and pedagogical skills, Teacher A, a high school biology

teacher, was nevertheless almost completely lacking in ICT skills. He was identi ied by a Microsot PiLAdvisory Committee member to attend the Peer Coaching programme. There, he was completely wonover by the concept o Peer Coaching and the need or ICT use in the classroom. When he returned tohis school ater the training programme he immediately set about transorming the science curriculum,training ellow teachers and students, and integrating ICT into all acets o the school culture.


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A best practice example o the cascade eect can be ound in School A. In this school, peer teaching isprominent; ICT is used or school work and ater-school activities, administration, and in daily lie. TheICT team has constant dialogue with the teachers to shape the ICT vision o the school. The increasinguse o ICT by the students has also changed the learning culture o the school, as teachers are no longerviewed as the sole source o knowledge and expertise.

Conclusion

PiL Indonesia has been most eective in three areas:Promoting the development o an ICT curriculum in the schools;Proessional development o sta;Increasing presence o ICT in school culture including collegial exchanges o knowledge andactive student learning.

The indings in this country study suggest the positive impact o the PiL initiative and the lessons thatcan be applied elsewhere. However, challenges remain. PiL should continue to acilitate dialogue amongmajor stakeholders; should undertake tracking and monitoring o teachers who have undergone the

proessional development programme, to measure success; and should provide post-training support,as teachers need on-going technical, administrative, and pedagogical support.

Malaysia

Background

No o icial ICT Integration Masterplan exists or Malaysian schools. However, a 1997 Smart Schoolsblueprint is regarded by some as a de acto ICT Integration Plan, as it emphasizes the centrality o ICT inuture learning environments.30

The Ministry o Education (MoE) o Malaysia reports that 50 percent o schools are equipped withcomputer labs (99,000 computers and 4,600 servers) and 95 percent have broadband connection.In addition, the MoE has provided selected schools with 97,000 laptops and 70,000 LCD projectors, andhave provided English-language courseware in the subjects o Science and Mathematics, or Forms 1 to4, in all schools throughout Malaysia. Eighty-eight schools in Malaysia are taking part, as pilot schools, inthe Smart Schoolsinitiative, which seeks to promote ICT use in schools. Many Chinese primary schoolshave acquired their own hardware and sotware through the inancial support o their Parent-TeacherAssociations and the community...

In 2005, the PiL project had achieved the ollowing:6,324 teachers and school leaders were trained;950 students were reachedby the curriculum;

ive partners were engaged;100 assessments were completed;18 Innovative Teachers were registered.

But these numbers do not tell the whole story. Since August 2004, 46,000 teachers have been trainedunder the Bimbingan Perguruan Proesional dalam Teknologi (BPPT) partnership programme.

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Furthermore, 18,000 teachers have been trained to use laptops as part o the Teaching o Mathematicsand Science in English (PPSMI) Laptop Roll-Out project.

The PiL Malaysia programme

On 20 June 2004 an MOU was signed with the Malaysia MoE, outlining ten broad project areas. The PiL

activities in Malaysia ocus on programmes endorsed by the Government o Malaysia.

The PiL programme works with the national education authorities to provide sotware to schools ata discount, and collaborates with ministry o icials to organize training programmes or teachers. PiLprovides training curricula and materials, while the MoE identi ies participating schools and teachers,and organizes workshops. PiL acilitates meetings between the Curriculum Development Centre, MoEand international organizations.

Several types o proessional development programmes or teachers are available, including the StudentICT Help Desk programme, the Peer Coaching programme, MyGuru Portal, and the Laptop Roll-outprogrammes. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and empowerICTare programmes designed to promote

new pedagogical practices using ICT (30).

PiL has contributed signi icantly to the success o several MoE projects. Successul programmes includeStudent ICT Help Desk Project, ICT Innovation Program or Chinese schools, BPPT Partnership Projectand the PPSMI Roll-out Project. The impact o other projects, while not apparent now, will be testedin the near uture. These include: the Curriculum Project, the Peer Coaching Project, Smart EducationPartnership Project (MyGuru Portal) and the impending Leadership Development Project.

Issues and challenges

No ICT curricula are available, nor are national standards or students ICT competency available. However,despite the lack o policy changes, pedagogical changes are taking place; student sel-assessment, orexample, has been introduced in the Chinese schools, whose teachers are being trained in PBL.

Examples of best practice

Teacher B, winner o the 2005 Microsot Innovative Teachers Competition, attended a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) training workshop. Following the workshop, Teacher B helped to integrate PBLexperiences into co-curricular activities or students in her school. Her award-winning project involveda team o six teachers and 400 students in a PBL activity. Press coverage o her award helped generatepositive buy-in rom other teachers or a PBL training workshop.

School B, an overcrowded Chinese school in suburban Kuala Lumpur oers two best practices examples.

The school is a sel-made Smart School. It engaged the services o a private company to set up computerlabs (each with 27 computers, LCD projector and Internet access) and equipped each o its 25 classroomswith a PC and a TV or an LCD projector. The community and the Parent-Teacher Association contributedunds or this purpose. Each amily pays a nominal monthly ee or purchases and services. The schoolprovides ee-waivers or students whose parents cannot aord to pay to help ensure that no studentis denied the opportunity to use ICT in school. Other schools have sent teams to visit and learn romSchool B, which acts as a catalyst in the community or ICT-enhanced teaching and learning.


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However, in spite o its success in obtaining equipment, School B is not entirely successul inintegrating ICT use into teaching and learning. In particular, while both the principal and thete

bhutans''support for teacher education''by philip wong

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