Pre-session Blog Entry 2

The three MOE-developed Masterplans for ICT in education clearly reflect Singapore’s recognition of the importance of being at the forefront of the latest technological trend even in the educational sector. This is particularly so as the advance in ICT has impacted deeply on our everyday lives in a way that most people would probably not have expected less than twenty years ago. Nowadays Singaporeans are generally seen as IT-savvy and the fact that the use of ICT tools has been seamlessly integrated into the teaching process certainly highlights the far-sightedness of MOE’s Masterplans way back in 1997.    

The three Masterplans for ICT in education are especially important because the traditional classroom teaching would probably not be able to avoid the winds of change brought by technological progress in a country as IT-savvy as Singapore. I believe that with education being primarily a people-centred enterprise with teacher-student interactions as one of the key components, it is necessary for both teachers and students to be able to communicate in the same technological lingo. In that sense, the Masterplans’ consistent emphasis on training and preparing teachers for the use of ICT in education is a critical step in at least minimising the technological gap that is likely to emerge between teachers and students in this ever-changing world.    

Based on my enhanced school experience at Pioneer Junior College, the current Masterplan 3 would mean that as a beginning teacher, I would need to be prepared for a more innovative and ICT-friendly teaching environment in the near future. For instance, one of the aims of the Masterplan is that of “piloting 1-notebook-to-1-pupil ratio in more schools”, which would probably impact on how I would conduct future lecture and tutorial classes. The Masterplan may also affect me directly in terms of my professional development, especially if I am given the opportunity to be trained as an “ICT specialist teacher.” Hence it is quite clear to me that Masterplan 3 has the potential to offer an exciting array of possibilities/options that would necessitate a revision of my previous assumptions about the teaching profession and pedagogical methods. The challenge for me is to keep up with the evolving environment to ensure my relevance as well as maximise my effectiveness as a teacher.