Education: Wired For Life - Extracts

Singapore's hopes are matched in many Asian countries as governments seek to nurture a technically savvy workforce to safeguard their nation's economic future. The (unproven) theory is that in maybe as few as 10 years from now, anybody who can't find his way around the Internet or at least do his banking from home will not only be a comical dinosaur but a drain on resources - unemployable in an increasingly high-tech workplace.

Energized by this scenario - and by pressure from parents who fear their children may be left behind - many Asian governments are giving top priority to making information technology (IT) a tool for learning. In many aspects of this wired revolution, Singapore leads the way. Its IT Masterplan, unveiled in 1997, aims to provide one computer for every two children by 2002. This would allow 30 percent of school curriculums to be delivered through computers. There will be a hefty price tag. The government has committed $1.25 billion over the five-year period. The money is to be spent, among other things, on computers, networking schools, software and teacher training. Another $375 million a year is earmarked for hardware maintenance and replacement, developing software and continuous training of teachers. The aim - and it is central to the whole undertaking - is that teachers will not only know how to use information technology, but will be able to apply it in the classroom.

Two and a half years after the wraps were taken off the five-year plan, Education Minister Teo reports: "We have crossed the hump." He says IT is now used in 5 percent to 15 percent of curriculum time, depending on when schools entered the program, and 95 percent of teachers have been trained to use the technology. "Every school has broadband access to the Internet. There is one computer for every six students - double what it was three years ago - and we expect to double the number again within three years."

While Singapore was mapping out its IT future, Hong Kong was distracted by political wrangling over the handover from Britain to China. It has had to do some catching up - fast. In his 1999 Policy Address, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa vowed that local school children would "master the general application of information technology" and "connect to the Internet within five years." The aim is that by the 2002-2003 school year, 25 percent of curriculums will be taught with the support of IT. By 2001, most secondary and primary schools should each have an average of 40 and 82 computers, respectively. All secondary schools are now connected to the Net; by late last year, about 300 primary schools were also online. About 85,000 IT training places are to be provided for teachers.

In Japan, where until recently the cost of going online was prohibitive, one school in three is connected to the Internet. The government aims for all 40,000 institutions to be online by March 2002. Three years later, every child should have access to a computer, compared with one in two at the moment. The big challenge, though, will be to introduce a curriculum that makes use of the Internet. The deadline for that is 2002, by which time it is hoped a teacher-teach-teacher program will have helped ensure all educators are Internet literate.

Across Asia, as elsewhere, the degree of IT penetration of the classroom is a relatively accurate reflection of computer use in general. In the US, which official figures suggest has the highest number of computers per capita, 99 percent of schools are connected to the Internet, though not always in the classroom. Singapore (11th in the per-capita table) tops this, but has the advantage of being exclusively urban. Perhaps significantly, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and India are among the countries with few computers.

Coming soon in Hong Kong: the SAR's first cyberschool. The unsnappily named Pegasus Philip Wong Kin Hang Christian Primary School will be offering primary pupils a totally interactive schooling environment, with multi-media teaching rooms and all computers connected through an internal network. The school says the use of IT will help reduce rote learning, allowing more focus on moral and civic education. In Taiwan, Chen Lih-shyang, director of the Ministry of Education's computer center, paints a similar picture. Information technology, he says, will make education "more liberal, global and humanistic, allowing instructional resources to leap out of the restraints of text books and national boundaries." Maybe.

Some critics say the dangers of the wired classroom are almost as great as the advantages. For a start, nobody fact-checks the Net. Apart from the obvious perils of porn and hate websites, students who use the Internet for research are likely to run up against vast amounts of misinformation, disinformation and downright lies. There is also a tendency to copy and paste, rather than rephrase. When this happens, little information is absorbed. Teachers who received their training through a relatively limited library of books have no way of knowing what sources have been used. Not only that, most are less tech-savvy than their pupils. And how many of those who do have computer skills have managed to make the all-important leap to knowing how to teach with them?

For primary-school children, learning computer skills uses up time that should be spent on more important tasks - such as reading and writing. Barely formed handwriting can turn to mush if not practiced enough. Computers also limit interaction with classmates, lowering social skills. For this reason, experts say it is important that parents spend more quality time with their children - away from a computer - in the evenings and at weekends.

Not only that, but . . . well, the pitfalls go on and on. Luckily for Asia, some Western countries have gone ahead and identified the problems. What seems clear is that when these challenges are squarely faced, the wired classroom can change the nature of learning for the better. Students are often described as more enthusiastic - not just about the subjects they are being taught, but about other activities. For today's wired kids, knowing how to program your own computer game doesn't mean you can't also be captain of the school soccer team or a virtuoso on the cello. Read on to see how some Asian schools and children are making that point.

Singapore Raffles Secondary School:
NO starchy uniforms. Just T-shirts, shorts, perhaps flip-flops and maybe 'N Sync playing in the background. Over one laid-back week last June, this was the style when all 1700 students at Singapore's Raffles Institution stayed home for an experiment in online learning. Teachers put five days' worth of lessons on the Web, and the boys browsed through the material in their own time.

Many staff members had been apprehensive about the iLearning project, says Raffles' head of information technology, Fong Lay Lean. The pace of innovation can be quite daunting, she agrees, and some teachers struggle to keep up. "But the onus is on teachers to come up with effective Web lessons. That requires a lot of planning, thinking - and rethinking," she says. Fong acknowledges most IT initiatives in schools are novel. "It's still a new field, and we don't have all the answers."

As it turned out, the iLearning week was "surprisingly enjoyable" for Derrik Ho and many other students. Because there was enough flexibility for him to set his own pace, the 16-year-old says he was able to tackle the schoolwork without sacrificing favorite activities such as playing with his pets, experimenting with robotics and reading. Like being on holiday, almost. The boys stayed in touch with each other and with teachers through e-mail and chat rooms. To some students, such communication was perfectly adequate. But Ho and others missed the human interaction. "It's a little lonely without friends to talk to and laugh with," he says. And, gratifyingly for the school, staff were missed too. "Nothing beats a teacher talking to you personally," says Ho.

The elite school (Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Premier Goh Chok Tong are among the alumni) has more ambitious plans to keep its students plugged in. Eventually, the boys should be able to use the Web to review lessons or access those that they have missed. Headmaster Wong Siew Hoong sees all this as part of Raffles' effort to prepare its students for the digital world. "Teaching pupils to think, and equipping them with the ability to search for information, is more critical than the data itself," he says.

As for the more dubious material available online, Fong asserts:"The only way we can protect our students is to make them discerning. Net nannies only slow things down. What's important are the controls that are built into the boys' psyche."

Radin Mas Primary School:
DON'T expect to find Radin Mas in any guide to Singapore's leading academic institutions. The government school is nestled in the corner of one of the city's many housing estates, with little about it at first sight to indicate it is in the forefront of Singapore's IT revolution. But that's where it is - thanks, initially, to having been selected five years ago as one of six primary schools in a Ministry of Education pilot scheme to accelerate computer literacy in the classroom. Two years later, Radin Mas was one of a first wave of 10 primary schools to benefit when the government rolled out its Masterplan for IT in Education, designed to create East Asia's most computer-competent workforce.

The school's 2000 students, split into two sessions, share 200 Macs and PCs, with up to five computers in each classroom. Some 30 percent of the syllabus is IT integrated. Last year, 11-year-olds were assessed on two CD-ROM projects - one on math and the other on English - plus on their Power Point skills.

One of Radin Mas's most popular projects is a virtual zoo that the students created jointly with children in Hawaii. They designed their own website with pictures and notes on the resident animals. Extra fun came in the form of a digitally drawn hot-dog stand and a virtual toilet with flushing actions and sounds. On a more regular basis, the students do digital art involving traditional Batik and Chinese brushstrokes.

Radin Mas teachers were coached by trainers from the Education Ministry. For the older teachers, learning the new techniques was a daunting challenge. Cynthia Somasundaram, 51, says: "I had been teaching English using the chalk-and-talk method. If I hadn't learned [about computers], I would have been left on the shelf." She says she now finds it much easier to teach and to hold her class's attention. "The children like it. Even teaching composition is easy now. We click and get into similes, click and get into proverbs or idioms. The children are happier as they don't want to hear the teacher talking all the time."

The power of the Net to kindle curiosity beyond curriculums is illustrated in the case of Kavita Rajendren, 13. She says she was so inspired by websites on the human anatomy and other aspects of biology that she wants to become a doctor. A classmate Lee Jun Yi, 12, says he already has his heart set on science, involving "high energy physics, nuclear physics or chemistry."

For all the obvious benefits, parents often need calming about the perils of bad influences on the Internet. "We try to be as transparent as possible," says Eli Chong, 29, who heads the IT department. "We impress on parents that technology can never go away, that their kids are acquiring life skills." Chong happily acknowledges that, despite his credentials, some of his students tease him for not knowing as much as they do. "This generation of children are so IT-savvy, they'll be able to go anywhere and do anything," he says.

• Published in ASIAWEEK May 12, 2000.
   
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