I.C.T. in the Land of Plenty

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ICT Article

I.C.T. IN THE LAND OF PLENTY

I was fortunate to visit three international schools in South-East Asia to observe, discuss and reflect on the development of Information and Communication Technology in those institutions, as part of the Minolta/Don Le Prou study award for 2000. Given that such schools could be expected to have the personnel, the financial support and a largely computer literate student population three focus questions were identified on which to base the study:

1. How do these schools organise and deliver I.C.T. programmes to their students?

2. What issues, problems or dilemmas are they faced with?

3. What issues are relevant to the New Zealand situation and what can we learn from them?

SCHOOL ONE

The International School Manila (I.S.M.), founded in 1920, is a private, non-profit, co-educational facility. I.S.M. is organised into three distinct schools - Elementary, Middle and High School. Each school has its own administration, teaching and support staff and its own principal directly responsible to a school superintendent who in turn is responsible to a ten member Board of Trustees. The roll of the school is just over 1800.

While, from a New Zealand perspective, this school has vast, almost extravagant resources (nearly one computer to two students), an understanding of issues confronting the school is helpful.

The school's plan for resource development illustrates that, regardless of comprehensive resourcing, there is never quite enough. In the case of I.S.M. the provision of personal laptops for all pupils and teaching staff is the next level. However, this move has not yet found universal acceptance from all school decision makers and I believe is some way off.

Curriculum integration of information technology is complicated. Progress in this area is helped by generous resourcing but also depends on staff skill and, more importantly, on the match between curriculum requirements and software applicability. If information technology is to result in improved learning outcomes for students, software needs to be provided with this in mind. Students can readily be taught how to use technology. The important question then is how this skill is harnessed to bring about improvements in mastering learning outcomes.

Staff development is recognised by I.S.M. as a major issue, as it is in all schools. However, one wonders whether their stated aim of spending at least fifty percent of their staff development budget on technology is feasible. The key question is how many 'priorities' a school can address at one time.

The use of technology to improve communication throughout the school and with parents is exciting. However, much is to be done to make this work efficiently and effectively. For example, the principal received a large number of e-mails, few of which seemed necessary. There is much work to be done in defining what information goes where and for what purpose. The use of e-mail to communicate with parents is an excellent idea. Teachers use e-mail to send home class newsletters and to follow up issues such as homework or student behaviour with particular parents. This appears to work well.

Overall International School Manila illustrates two major points. It is exciting what excellent resources and enthusiastic staff can accomplish. On the other hand it is also clear that major issues such as resourcing, staff development and communication pitfalls remain.

SCHOOL TWO

The Singapore International School changed its name to the United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA) in 1975. The United World College movement has nine schools around the world. The movement aims to promote international understanding and to make education relevant to the global needs of the modern world. UWCSEA has a roll of over 2000 students.

Once again, by New Zealand standards, this school is extremely well resourced with the emphasis now on developing effective programmes using these resources. Expansion is under way with e-mail facilities, the development of a website and classroom networking. The I.C.T. programme in this school appears to focus almost exclusively on computer technology.

Curriculum integration is seen as very important. The approach is to teach basic I.C.T. skills in lower year levels and secondly to utilise software that enhances curriculum outcomes while reinforcing and expanding on information technology skills.

Staff development is largely seen as a personal responsibility supported by school organization funding. The approach to staff in-service was summed up in the following quote from a principal:

"Teachers don't have to come (to I.T. training sessions) but they do have to know".

In other words to be a teacher in an International school one is expected to have a reasonable level of computer literacy.

SCHOOL THREE

The Singapore American School (SAS) was established to provide an "American" education for children of United States' citizens residing in Singapore. The curriculum and teaching systems are American. All administrators (principals and deputy principals) are American and the majority of teachers are also from the U.S.A. although they also employ some Australian and New Zealand teachers. SAS has a total roll of 2,700 students