Tuesday 9 August 2011

NIE Pre-Session 1 Blogging Activity

1. What are the main goals of each Masterplan for ICT in Education and why do you think it is important for MOE to develop them?


The main goals of Masterplan 1 are enhancing the linkages between the school and the world around it, to generate innovative processes in education, enhancing creative thinking, lifelong and social responsibility and lastly to promote administrative and management excellence in the education system.


The main goals of Masterplan 2 are to enhance educational processes and structures, to customise education to meet the needs and abilities of our pupils and finally, to support and develop lifelong learners.


The main goals of Masterplan 3 are to enrich and transform the learning environments of our students and equip them with the critical competencies and disposition to succeed in a knowledge economy. Also, to have self-directed and collaborative learning.


2. Has any of the Masterplans impacted you as a student? Share your experience on how ICT had been used in the classes you attended as a student (if applicable).


In Primary 6 when Masterplan 1 was first introduced, my classmates and I were first introduced to having computers in our enrichment classes. We were taught the basics of the computer on the first day so that we know how to operate it. During this period, computers were quite uncommon in households, so many of my classmates had trouble during the first day. Thankfully, I have a computer at home so I was able to adapt to the lessons and quite keen in learning more. 


Later on, if I am not mistaken, we were told to do Mathematics equations or problem sums from a particular software. It was not new to me as my mother had bought me a few softwares for me to practice my Math and English. I enjoyed it compared to the lessons I had in a traditional classroom. It was fun, comprehensive and it made me develop an interest in Mathematics even more. My Math was very weak during my time in primary school, it is either a just pass or a fail. Therefore, having this computer enrichment classes sparked my interest in Math and when I went on to Secondary school, my Mathematics tremendously improved from then on. Not only did I gained interest in Mathematics, I was able to study the subject independently without having a tutor or my mother by my side.


In Secondary school, I do not remember much about the ICT sessions I had as there weren't as many. I remembered having a computer enrichment class which taught me about creating java scripts. I did not pay much attention to it as it was dry and I thought that it would be pointless to learn. It was probably due to the person teaching us, he just wanted to get the class over with so he went on without explaining in detail the steps involved. Another ICT class I remembered was my teachers bringing us to the computer labs to teach us how to do independent research through the World Wide Web. From then on, besides studying from my textbooks and notes, I went on to research further on the internet for those topics that I am most interested in understanding more, especially History. Due to this, my History improved a lot as I saw an improvement from Secondary 1 till Secondary 5. 


In Secondary 1, I remembered that my teachers would always recommended us do project presentations through powerpoint as powerpoint was quite new to most students and they wanted us to cultivate the habit of doing powerpoint as it is useful for future presentations.


Overall, I am thankful that the MOE has implemented ICT into our school's system as it had taught me useful life skills for the future.


3. How do you think the Masterplan 3 for ICT in Education may affect your role(s) as a beginning teacher?


As a beginning teacher,the use of ICT will be of great help I am able to teach my students' different styles of exploring and creating art through Adobe Photoshop, SketchUp, Illustrator, Processing and so on. Besides that, I am able to bring about a greater understanding of Art through ICT by bringing them through the different sites on cool and interesting artworks. Furthermore, with blogger.com or other blog sites, they are able to create their own creative process journal. This would be of great help as I would need to teach them the importance of the creative process of an artwork. 


In conclusion, ICT would make my role easier and better to showcase and comprehend the wonderful world of Art and the creative process to the students even though more things are needed to be done. In the long run, it is a win-win situation for both me and the students. 

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