FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

SULTAN IDRIS EDUCATION UNIVERSITY

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN SCIENCE

SSI 3013

TITLE: REPORT ON CHALLENGES OF SMART SCHOOL

PREPARED BY:

NAME STUDENT ID
SITI FATIMAH BINTI ZULKIFLI D20152072027
NAZIHAH BINTI RAMLI D20152072030
NURFARHANA BINTI ROSLI D20152072035

LECTURER’S NAME: ENCIK AZMI BIN IBRAHIM

LECTURE GROUP: B
 Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………. 1-2

2.0 The Challenges of Smart School
2.1 Schools………………………………………………………………………. 3
2.2 Teachers………………………………………………………………………. 4-6
2.3 Students………………………………………………………………………. 6-7
2.4 Parents………………………………………………………………………… 7-8
3.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… 8
4.0 References………………………………………………………………………… 9
1.0 Introduction

Every citizen has their own constitutional right in receiving education for themselves. In
order to achieve the goal of education mentioned in National Education Philosophy, Smart
School was launched where it become one of seven flagship applications of Multimedia
Super Corridor (MSC). The government side aims is to capitalise on the presence of
leading-edge technology and the rapid of MSC development. Smart School can be defined
as learning institution that has been systematically reinvented in terms of teaching and
learning practices and school management in order to prepare children for the Information
Age. It is concerning on technology based teaching-learning institution where involving
various techniques and encourage active thinking process for students. The implementation
of Smart School is not referring to the students whose are smart, but it concern of the smart
techniques that been used during the teaching and learning processes to encourage
students make an improvement of themselves.

In the implementation of Smart School, there are four waves involve which are:

i. Wave 1: Pilot Phase (1999-2002) - 88 school nationwide selected

ii. Wave 2: Post-Pilot (2002-2005) - Massive computerization phase was
launched to all 10, 000 school
iii. Wave 3: Making All School Smart (2005-2010) - Leveraging all ICT
initiatives
iv. Wave 4: Consolidate and Stabilize (2010-2020) - Innovative practices
using ICT encultured

There are some characteristics of Smart School in order to achieve the goals of education
according to National Education Philosophy which are:

1) Student centred teaching and learning

2) Students exhibit Higher-Order Thinking Skills, self-paced, self-accessed, self-directed
3) Teachers and administrators skilful in using ICT in daily tasks
4) Creative and innovative teachers using ICT as enabler and accelerator for better
teaching and learning
5) Smart partnerships with various agencies

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2.0 Challenges of Smart School

The smart school concept that had been introduced by the government is the one way to
achieve smart learning and teaching using with ICT technology. However, there are lot of
issues and challenges when applying the technology in the smart school. Those challenges
that occur in smart school can be divided into four factors which are school, teachers,
students and parents.

2.1 Schools

As the smart school is related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

usage, the facilities and infrastructures such as computers helps teachers a lot to
achieve the effective teaching and learning objectives because those teaching aids
can provide the new experiences for students in learning process. However, most of
the infrastructures that are used in smart school are out of date and limited. Some
schools cannot provide complete ICT equipment such as computer laboratory and
projector in their schools due to the cost and maintenance fees for those facilities are
quite high. This problem can lead to the ineffectiveness of technology supported
teaching and learning process in school.

Besides, the internet connection is also limited. SchoolNet provided by

government caused many problems especially for surfing the information in school.
With speed about 1 mbps which can be used by teachers and students, the internet
access frequently interrupted several times a day when it was exceeded the limit of
internet usage. Starting in 2012, the government has terminated SchoolNet
connection and then used 1BestariNet connection for smart school. However, the
internet connectivity started slow down after two years and cannot be used in raining
weather. This causes the effectiveness in teaching and learning using technology to
be lowered because the ICT tools and the internet connectivity cannot be used
properly.

Some schools also had the problem when there are insufficient technicians in
handling the technical problems. The facilities might be damaged when the teachers
and the students used them frequently for teaching and learning process. Due to the
technical problems, the teachers who do not have ICT skills need to repair it. This is
because the schools administration cannot afford the seminars of ICT to all of
teachers due to low school’s budget.

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2.2 Teachers
Before the implementation of smart school, teachers had been used the traditional
method during teaching and learning session where it was focusing on chalk and talk
method. Because of this situation, teachers who have been blended with these
methods will have some difficulties on their adaptation of using technologies during
the teaching process. Especially for the senior teacher, when they are not able to
use technology, they will give the negative perspective on the Smart School
implementation where they will say that technologies usage are burdening them and
make the teaching session more complex and cannot be carried out effectively.
Being a teacher is very challenging where there are a lot of things to manage,
especially to take care the knowledge that been delivered to students. As a good
teacher, for sure they want the best things for their student and must be alert of the
student acceptation on the teaching input.

When the Smart School system had been implemented, skills in ICT
automatically become the most important things for teachers. Skills will not grow
naturally, but I need to be learnt and practice. It might be a problem for the teachers
to manage the computer system if they do not have any skills on ICT. Teachers
must know how to use technology in order to attract students in learning process so
that the learning outcome will be able to achieve. Smart School was provided by
technology tools such as computer, projector, CD and other. For example, for the
CD usage, it was used to gain attraction to students so that they will more eager to
go through the learning process. CD is one of the effective tools that can be used by
teachers during the teaching process as it provides simulations and animation where
it can gain the understanding level of the students. CD must be run by the computer
and so that, teachers must have ICT skills in this situation. It will be such a waste
when teachers had been provided by the CD but then they do not know how to use it
wisely because they do not have any skills in ICT.

The problem of having lack skills in ICT will affect the teaching process where
teachers will face another problem on finishing the syllabus. The lack of skills makes
them to need more time in managing the technology tools or in accessing the internet
before starting the class. When teachers are not ready in using all those technology,
they will waste more time on that things and teaching period will become more
shorter and they might constraint to finish the syllabus that have been plan for the
certain period. As the result of this challenge, teacher are prefer to used chalk and

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talk method as they think that this method are effective on saving time and students
no need to wait for a long time to start their learning session.

Everything that gives advantage to people will not remain good. Same as
technology, sometimes it needs to be repaired and service when it cannot function
properly. For this reason, when teacher used technology in teaching process, they
should make a plan B when technology that been used during teaching are having
problem and cannot functioning properly. This is one the challenges that should be
face by the teachers when Smart School programme is being implement. Teachers
must have their own initiative and mastered in different types of teaching strategies
so that, it will not affect the teaching and learning process when there are problem on
ICT in class.

Relating to the previous point where technology will not remain in good
condition, the other challenges that must be face by the teachers is when that
technology is having any problem, they will play role as a technician. In each school,
there are not provided by their own technician that will manage and handle the entire
ICT problem in school. In some situation, schools that located at the same area will
share only one person as ICT expert that will handle ICT problem in more than one
school. It will be the a problem when more than one school are having ICT problem
at the same time, and teachers should be proceed their teaching process without the
usage of technology as they had planned earlier. Some teachers especially for the
men teacher, they might have talented on repairing ICT tools. However, they should
do that after the school session and this force them to do over-time job. In some
condition, when there are problem on technology devices, the school principal will
push teachers for repairing them as this initiative will save the school budget rather
than hiring technician to do the repairing job. This problem can be overcome when
teachers are being expert and professional in various types of skills and one of them
are ICT skills.

As we know, nowadays technology developments are rising drastically and

some students especially for the student at the school in rural area might have
problem on using technology during the teaching and learning process. Teachers
must be ready to help students adapting in this new learning environment when the
transformation of school in rural area to Smart School is being implement. Students
might be having a culture shock when the method of teaching was being change on
the spot, so that teachers must play an important role in introducing them towards

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this new culture of learning to ensure that they will feel comfortable enough in gaining
knowledge. Other than that, teachers must know how to ensure the students use the
technology smartly. As we know, technologies that present nowadays also have
their own disadvantages although they give a lot of benefits. This situation can be
occurred when students do misuse the technology then will harm them in the future.
Besides teaching them how to use technology, teachers also should remind them
about the ethics of ICT. This awareness is so important to be developed in each of
the students because when they know about the ethics, they will not doing something
that give the negative impact to them. For example, in doing a task when students
need to surfing the information from the internet, they must know what are type of
websites that are reliable to be referred and what steps they should do to ensure that
they are collecting information in a legal way without any plagiarism. This can be
overcome when teachers always monitoring their students during the classes and
advised them on the effect of neglecting ethics in ICT.

2.3 Students

The challenges of smart school arise regarding the role of students in the
development process. It has been neglected despite the fact that much research has
stressed the importance of taking into consideration on student’s views in any
educational development and change intended to meet their needs. The students
also the end-users of the implementation in ICT in the first place.

Although ICTs have knocked down the classroom wall barriers and replaced
them with opportunities for applied learning about the world around us. It is observed
that traditional teaching methods continue to be employed, indicating the
fundamental flaws in the program. Similar to traditional learning, a gap exists in digital
learning based on how advantaged and disadvantaged students perform. Some
students who do not have computers at home may also feel confused and frustrated
when they are offered new educational methods. Most of the time, students have
their own views and their own needs on particular issues in education and at the end
of the day, it is the students’ own interest and attitudes that will really count to them in
their learning.

The group of students that will face difficulties in the implementation of ICT in
schools is the students with learning difficulty. According to Wettasinghe & Hasan
(2007), the term ’learning difficulties’ is used in reference to a heterogeneous group

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of students who are seen to have significant difficulties in the acquisition of literacy
and numeracy skills. Other terms sometimes used in this context are ’learning
disabilities’ and ’special needs’. For a slow learner which they have been face with
challenges to adapt with new technique in learning process using ICT in classroom.
They have been struggling to understand, to learn and to discover the new technique
to study through ICT. As they have to be in rough place, they choose to just ignore
the learning process. So that in the end, it can be the reason students get bored and
having less fun. Large amounts of financial and human resources are spent each
year to provide computers, network technology and internet access to schools. All of
these expenditures must be well planned to maximize benefits to student
achievement.

2.4 Parents

In general, there was a lack of parent’s participation in the planning of the initiative.
Most of ICT implementation in schools does not involved the parents. However, a
website has been set up lately by the Ministry of Education Malaysia known as KPM
Online Registration System (SPATKPM) that can be achieved by using this link -
https://public.moe.gov.my/. The website is a gateway to conduct transactions related
to admission to schools and currently is opened for Year 1 student registration.
According to Fullan (2007), he stated that when change occurs, there will be
disturbances, and this means that there will be differences of opinion that must be
reconciled. For some parents, this new approach is unfamiliar to them. Therefore,
implementation of ICT in education that related to the parents has to be supervised
properly in order to get the holistic effect of the improvement.

Parents tend to be quite uncertain about the part that new technologies play
in children' lives. The internet especially is an extraordinary resource for learning, but
for many parents it offers too much distraction and unpleasantness. That does not
stop parents providing their children with the best technology they can afford.
Therefore, parents will spend their money to fulfil their children needs for education.
The economic condition of many families, particularly those living in rural areas are
unaffordable to provide technology and internet access for their children. They had to
make risky investment for their children’s future. According to Chris Davies (2013),
he emphasized that ICT in education may be a mixed blessing for those who can use
it when they like at home, but for those who cannot, the lack of it seems like an

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 intolerable exclusion from their social world, and from the world of educational
success.

3.0 Conclusion

As the conclusion, the teaching and learning process of Smart School were included the
process of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and teaching- learning materials. Technology
is used as an information processing and productivity tool in the Smart School system
because technology has diverse roles in smart schools to ensure the teaching and learning
process run smoothly and to help manage the schools for better future. Due to the high cost
maintenances, some schools cannot provide complete ICT equipment such as computer
laboratory and projector and technical support in their schools. Thus, the principal should be
able to overcome this problem for better teaching and learning process.

Teachers are the key to the successful integration of ICT into education. They
manage the processes of teaching and learning. Without the skilled participation of teachers,
innovations to enrich education with the advantages offered by technology are doomed to
fail. The full participation of teachers in adopting new technologies to enhance education
requires a commitment to ongoing professional development of teachers. All teachers who
use ICT to enrich their teaching and their students’ learning need to develop specific
educational competencies to do so effectively. Besides, teachers should be volunteer
learners and motivated to learn to use ICT and not only depend on traditional teaching
methods.

For students, not all of the students were able to own computers at homes. The
lacking of technology may cause some of the students feel burdened and frustrated in
learning. If this continues, gap exists in digital learning based on how advantaged and
disadvantaged students perform. For students who are slow learners, the learning process
using ICT would be hard for them as they need to adapt with new technique in learning
process using ICT in classroom. They tend to just ignore the learning process and lastly
could not understand at all.

Besides, a website has been set up lately by the Ministry of Education Malaysia
known as KPM Online Registration System (SPATKPM). For some parents, this new
approach is unfamiliar to them and not all of parents could afford the internet usages at
homes to fulfil their children needs for education. Therefore, the concept of smart school
need further study in order to overcome all this issues and challenges for better future of
smart school in Malaysia.

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4.0 References

Davies, C. (2013). Pupils are disadvantaged if they don't have internet access at home.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-
blog/2013/jan/11/school-technology-learning-young-people on 9 March 2018

Fullan, M. (2007). The New Meaning of Educational Change. Fourth Edition. New York:
Teachers College Press.

Nazura Yusof. (2013). Challenges of smart school. Retrieved from

https://www.scribd.com/document/136158167/CHALLENGES-OF-SMART-SCHOOL
on 10 March 2018

Reynolds, N., Turcs nyi-Szab , M. (2014). Key Competencies in the Knowledge Society
IFIP TC 3 International Conference, KCKS 2010, Held as Part of WCC 2010,
Brisbane, Australia, September 20-23, 2010, Proceedings. Berlin: Springer Berlin.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-15378-5_1

Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. The Malaysian smart

school: Developing 21st century skills. Retrieved from
http://www.jaet.jp/katudou/seminar_ict/Malaysia.pdf on 11 March 2018

Wettasinghe, C. M., & Hasan, M. (2007). Investigating the efficacy of the use of ICT for slow
learners . Case studies in Singapore Primary Schools, 1-11. Retrieved from
https://telearn.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00197252/document