UNIVERSITI PENDIDIKAN SULTAN IDRIS

ICT IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

(TSP 6033)

Assignment 1:

Smart School from Outskirt School

GROUP MEMBERS:

NURWAHIDAH BINTI MOHD SAAD M20091000465

HURUL-AIN MOHAMAD ROSLY M20091000566

MARIYA BINTI MOHD TAHIR M20091000570

NUR JIHAN BINTI DAUD M20091000582

SITI FATIMAH MOHD ZAHID M20091000681

NORSEYRIHAN BINTI MOHD SOHAIMI M20092000967

LECTURER: DR SADIAH BINTI BAHAROM

1. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SMART SCHOOL IN MALAYSIA

The first Smart School proposal was discussion by Ministry of Education (MoE) Datuk Seri
Najib Tun Razak in early 1996. By late 1996, the Smart School had become one of the seven
flagship application of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). Then in January 1997, the MoE
conceptualized the vision of the Malaysian Smart School in the document Smart School in
Malaysia. The implementation plan of smart school was goes through four waves of plan. Pilot
plan was started on 87 schools around the Malaysia from year 1999 – 2002. On 2002 – 2005,
MSC starts the post-pilot plan where they repair the first trial. In 2005 – 2010, all schools was
transferred to digital transformation. After 2010 – 2020, Malaysia hope the technology becomes
an integral part of the nation’s learning process.

The Malaysian Smart School is a learning institution that has been systemically
reinvented in terms of teaching-learning practices and school management in order to prepare
children for the Information Age. A Smart School will evolve over time, continuously
developing its professional staff, its educational resources, and its administrative capabilities.
This will allow the school to adapt to changing conditions, while continuing to prepare students
for life in the Information Age. To function effectively, the Smart School will require
appropriately skilled staff, and well-designed supporting processes. The most distinctive feature
of the Smart School will be a teaching-learning environment built on international best practices
in primary and secondary education.

The Smart School process will change the way children are taught, their diversity is
regarded as strength rather than a barrier to teaching. Children’s individual differences, needs,
capabilities and learning styles are diagnosed early to enable teachers to plan the children’s
learning experiences more effectively. Learning is then optimised to each child. Individual
minds, spirits and physical selves are catered to rather than the treatment of the class as a
homogeneous collective whole.

Smart Schools will provide a golden opportunity for the MoE to implement innovations
to achieve the highest standards in education and become a global leader in the field.

1.1 Smart School Conceptual Blueprint

To produce this Blueprint, the team drew on various kinds of resources. Team members made
study visits to Smart Schools in various parts of the world and reported on their findings. The
combined resources of the team produced an extensive bibliography of publications on the
philosophy, concepts and planning of Smart School. Blueprint like Smart School concept is a
work in progress and remain open to evolutionary refinement, including advances in pedagogy
and improvement in information technology.

The Smart School initiation has five main goals which focus on the need to develop a
skilled work force for the Information Age and to promote the goal of national philosophy of
educational:

1. Produce a thinking and technology, literate workforce

2. Democratize education
3. Increase participant of stakeholders
4. Provide opportunities to enhance individual strengths and active
5. Provide all round development of the individual (intellectual, physical, emotional, and
spiritual)

The Smart School teaching-learning environment will be shaped in four main areas. Once
of which will be a critical element in defining the overall teaching-learning experience for Smart
School children.

1. Curriculum: designed to help students achieve overall and balanced development

2. Pedagogy: allows for appropriate mix of learning strategies to ensure mastery of basic
competencies and promotion of holistic development
3. Assessment: designed to give accurate feedback of students’ readiness, progress,
achievement and aptitude
4. Teaching-Learning Materials (TLM): cognitively challenging and motivating by
combining the best of network-based, teacher-based, and courseware materials

In the Smart School program major inputs are the resources is students, teacher,
technology and tool, MoE and community.

1.2 The Smart School Roadmap 2005 – 2020

The Smart School roadmap 2005 – 2020 is a consultative paper on the expansion of the Smart
School initiative to all schools in Malaysia which means the overall report of implementation of
Smart School from wave 1 to wave 2. The pilot project was evaluated by different groups which
are technology evaluation by the MoE/Telekom Smart School (TSS) team, evaluation by a group
of local universities, and benchmarking study by independent consultants. From the pilot project
(wave 1), they found some difficulties in implementing the Smart School:-

• At the end of Pilot, the MoE Help Desk was facing problems in addressing queries within
a stipulated time-frame;
• Infrastructure and technology problems could not be addressed effectively as there was
no dedicated manpower to assist in such tasks;
• The smart school courseware was not used because it was in Malay language while the
Science and Mathematics was teaches in English (PPSMI);
• Teachers found that, using materials directly related to exam preparation is much time
saving. There are also lacks of monitoring and support made teachers less tendency to be
rigorous in implementing TLM in the Smart School Integrated Solution (SSIS) way.
Furthermore, teachers needed more training to use the SSIS courseware, and be
comfortable with using information and communication technology (ICT) in general;
• Schools found that the systems need to install and use was overwhelming.
• The teaching-learning materials had some limited as it could not adequately cater to
students’ need and did not reflect the complete curriculum. It also cost teachers use the
computer labs only for teaching-learning in average four times per month;
• The training was not sufficient enough in helping teachers apply the SSIS principles.
Furthermore, the new teachers were not training on how to teach ‘smart’ way;
• Most schools did not have enough facilities which are lack of computer lab, lack of
computer and hardware problems which related to the LAN, PCs and servers;
• Most principles and heads of schools were beliefs that Smart School Management
Systems (SSMS) had problems in three components – financial management, personnel
management, and premises and facilities management. They also rated the success of
SSMS was moderate because SSMS was less stable and not utilized to the fullest;
• Study on students and their parents found that, they did not aware about Smart School
had been implemented in their school and parents not well informed.
 Those challenges were found in early 2003, and were summarised as follows:

•
• Infrastructure readiness
• Connectivity
• Change management
• Parallel ICT initiatives
• Training
• Technology obsolescence
• Policies.
 In the second wave (2002 – 2005), they do some enhancement efforts in reflect of all the
challenges:-

• The government’s school computerisation project aimed at equipping all school with PCs
and computer lab, and SchoolNet project which provides connectivity to all schools; and
• Combination among PPSMI and SSIS will strengthen teaching-learning in the classroom.

Thus starting 2005 until now (2010), the roadmap has been developed in order to put in
perspectives the objectives, the time-frame, the stakeholders and their key responsibilities. The
roadmap comprises five key components:-

• Identify the stakeholders as customers

• Identify the roles of different stakeholders and customers
• Performance-based management for the implementation of the roadmap
• Set clear attainment targets and fixed timelines from 2005 to 2020
• Concretise a Malaysia Smart School scenario in 2020

The Malaysia’s government hope that, with roadmap Smart School project will be go
smoothly as planned.

2 THE PROJECT: SMART SCHOOL FROM OUTSKIRT SCHOOL

Sekolah Menengah Tengku Menteri at Changkat Jering, Perak had chosen as our target school.

2.1 School History

Sekolah Menengah Rendah Changkat Jering was established on the 11th January 1965 and
known and used Malay and English language as the medium of instructions. The first batch of
219 students was placed at Sekolah Kebangsaan Changkat Jering and later they were transferred
to SRJK(C) Sin Min, Simpang. The construction of the main school building which is located on
a 5.41 hectors piece of land lord is completed in year 1967. This land was denoted by YAB
Encik Wan Mohamed Noor bin Wan Nasir. The school has 3 blocks of 2 stories, a badminton
and takraw court.

In 1968, the school name was changed to Sekolah Menengah Tengku Menteri. This
school located at Changkat Jering, Perak. The new name given is based on the title used by Ngah
Ibrahim bin Long Jaafar. Ngah Ibrahim bin Long Jaafar was a prominent historical figure. A
three stories building was constructed in year 1975 and follow by surau in 1980. The surau built
for Muslim teachers and students. In 1983, the school hall and a basketball court were added.
Besides that, in 1984, a block contained six classrooms under a school upgrade project was
constructed. Since 1995, school just has six blocks of school building.

In 1991, this school achieved its glory when it was selected as state level “Sekolah
Harapan Negara”. In 1993; Sekolah Menengah Tengku Menteri was selected as a winner for
national level “Kebersihan, Keceriaan dan Keindahan (3K)” competition. The school was
winner for the rural secondary school category. Apart from that, the school create its own history
when it won the “Juara-Juara 3K” category in 2002 and third place for National level “Sekolah
Harapan Negara” program in 2004.

In 1995, this school was provided with a lot of facility by MoE under the Munsyi
Network Program which comprised a total number of 14 schools national wide. The facilities
provided were such as the computers which are complete with internet and multimedia. The
MoE also provided LCD projectors and others maintenance for active teaching and learning
process. In 1997, the school was selected to run the Smart School Pilot project. This Pilot project
was introduced by Malaysia’s MoE. The purpose of this project was to develop and encourage
the school staff using technology and ICT in the classrooms. The school curriculum increased
with addition of vocational subjects such as Seni Reka Tanda and Tanaman Makanan in 2002.
Both subjects were offered as elective subject for form six students.

Now, the school has 37 computers and 18 LCD projectors. The MoE only provided 15
new LCD projectors and the others 3 were the old LCD. The school took their own initiative to
repair the old LCD projectors base on teacher’s request. The science teachers used the LCD
projector in the lab for teaching lesson and demonstration. Every science lab provided with one
LCD projector. The school has 3 science labs such as Biology lab, Chemistry lab and Physics
lab. Besides, the school also has 2 computer labs. Bestari Lab still in construction process and
the other one is called as Access Centre. The access centre completed with 10 computers and 1
printer. Teachers and students are allowed to use this lab if they going to search for information
from the internet’s. This computer lab opens every day during the office hour. The school
buildings completed with Wifi system. So, teachers and students can access an internet anywhere
and anytime around the school area. The main target is to encourage teachers and students to
improve their computer and ICT skill.

2.2 Effectiveness of ICT Implementation in Teaching and Learning Session

According to the school's "guru penyelaras Bestari", this school had been provided with
computer facilities since end of year 1999 but only around year 2006 the utilization of these
equipments have improved where almost all the teachers use computer in their teaching and
learning activities. The teachers that have been interviewed agreed that ICT facilities help to
improve their teaching and learning activities where they can varies their teaching methods and
the students' attention seems to increase in the class. Video, simulation and animation are very
useful to be used as methods of teaching where the students find very enjoyable and easy to
understand their lessons. The use of internet is very beneficial besides providing extra notes and
information to help learning easier, online communication enable teacher-student interaction to
discuss any problems even outside school hours.

2.2.1 Interview with Biology Teacher

In a Biology class that had been observed, the teacher was awarded as ‘Best ICT Teacher’ in the
school during Anugerah Tokoh Guru TMK. He creatively using the facilities provided in his class
and the students seem enjoying the class. At the beginning of the class, he had showing an
interesting simulation of topic of the day which was the lymphocyte and discuss about it during
the show. The simulation helps the students to see the mechanism of the lymphocytes and made
them easier to understand the topic. After that he printed out some questions for students as their
exercises on that topic. This makes job more easier and time saving because students do not need
to write down the whole questions. After giving students time to answer the given questions, the
teacher use the projector for selected students present and discuss their answer with the rest of
the students. It was very handy and time saving to use the projector to display the answers
instead of writing on the board.

At the end of the lesson, he had showed another creative simulation to conclude the topic
that had been discussed which very enjoyable and the students were able to relate the topic to the
everyday life. According to that teacher who had been teaching for 19 years, the utilization of
ICT in teaching and learning sessions gave very good impact to his class. He claimed that his
students gave positive feedback and enjoyed his class since the teaching methods varied by using
the ICT equipments. Furthermore, his students' achievement had improved due to their undivided
attention during lessons.

2.2.2 Interview with Physic Teacher

As for Physic subject, the teacher also actively utilized the facilities in class. She had using
Microsoft power point program to present guided notes to the students. Besides that, she had
using the modules and CD provided by the KPM as her teaching tools. She also had using video
to demonstrate certain procedures and simulation on certain topic to ensure her students can cope
easily and understand correctly her lessons.

2.2.3 Interview with Malay Language Teacher

When we observed in a Malay Language class, the teacher and the students were actively use the
PowerPoint program as a presentation tool for their notes and assignments besides using the
module and CD from the KPM. According to the teacher, he also utilized email and Facebook as
the platform for teacher-student interaction outside school hour. He claimed that this online
communication attracts their students to interact and discuss about school and lessons even at
home. The Malay Language teachers also used video show on their literature component during
class so that the students can easily understand the implied meaning of the literature.

2.2.4 Interview with Additional Mathematics Teacher

According to Additional Mathematics teacher, she agreed that ICT facilities can help her to give
lessons during the class but not really convenient for explaining the mathematical equations and
calculations. When explaining the mathematical equation and calculation, she was more
comfortable by using traditional technique (chalk and talk) where her students can see and
understand the calculation more clearly. She added that she would use the ICT facilities
whenever possible and suitable depending on the topic of the lesson.

2.2.5 Interview with Geography Teacher

A Geography teacher that was interviewed said that he love to use Google Earth and Google
Map when showing the geographical places during his lessons. Those applications are very
useful to enable students virtually see and learn about places that they might not see in real life.
Thus, he encourages the students to use those applications. He claimed that the students enjoy
utilizing the existing facilities and they seem to learn well by using them.

2.3 Constraints in ICT Implementation

Teaching methods can be varying using ICT. The usage of ICT can help teachers to improve
their teaching and also increase students’ interest during class time. 10 years ago, when ICT
introduce to school, teachers have problems on how to use computer and others ICT equipment.
Since that time still new for teachers, they did not have enthusiasm in using ICT. However after
10 years, there are several problems still faced until today which are:

1. Server problems

This school have their own server which called as SchoolNet. However, server was very slow
and always disrupted, thus, bother teachers to access the internet in school.

2. Support system

The teaching-learning time always bothered because of damaged ICT equipment. The school’s
vendor or ICT teachers sometimes cannot help to solve this problem because lack of knowledge
and budget from government.

From ‘The Smart School Roadmap 2005 – 2020’ document, those problems already had
listed since early 2003. The problems still arisen might because of lack of better equipment was
obtain for this school. Today, we got a lot of better broadband such as CelcomBroadband, Jaring,
TelekomStremix and so on.

2.4 Initiative

The school members especially teachers were trying their best to ensure that ICT can be used in
teaching. They try to solve the problems raised through several initiatives. First, the school
together with Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru (PIBG) collect fund to buy LCD and from vendor to
get more printer. Besides to avoid overused of paper, the teachers was encouraged by using
paper at both sides. The school adding 10 more computers and making the access centre become
20 computers.

2.5 Attitudes and Perception towards ICT Implementation

'It is all too easy for computers to be seen as a learning resource in the classroom, or solution
for children with problems, without clear objectives being planned as to precisely how they will
facilitate the children's learning' (Clark, 1994). This can be shown from our study that teachers
opine that ICT can make teaching-learning more effective even they do not have enough
materials before teaching. A part from that, teachers' perception on usage of ICT in education
can be assumed as positive feedback. There is a great deal of interest and motivation to learn
more about potential of ICT. Indeed, the vast majority of teachers belief that ICT give many
benefits to themselves by making their work easier, saving time, improving communication with
colleagues, finding more information or managing information more effectively.

When we compare the usage of ICT in 10 years ago, it is also increases when we found
about 85% of teachers in that school owning a laptop for learning convenience. About 10% of
teachers use the blog to share their opinion, problems and also learning materials.

According to the pupils the usage of ICT will increasing their desire to take part in
learning, enhanced their achievement and the important ICT help them to avoid boredom in
class.
 So, we can conclude that effective use of ICT in classroom not only impact on learning
but also can form students social processes. Students will more socially interactive and
communicate with teachers and also peer.

3 REFERENCES

Clark, M., 1994. Young literacy learners. Leamington Spa: Scholastic.

Government of Malaysia. 1997. The Malaysian Smart School: A Conceptual Blueprint.

Multimedia Super Corridor. 2005. The Smart School Roadmap 2005-2020: An Educational
Odyssey.