1. Connecting schools with the rest of the world
2. Generate innovative processes
3. Encouraging creative thinking, life long learning and social responsibility
4. Promote administrative and management excellence in the education system.

(ii) Masterplan 2 ( 2003-2008)

Now that schools in Singapore had a firm ICT foundation, it was time to strengthen it by enhancing integration of ICT into the curriculum, establishing the the baseline ICT skills for students and encouraging schools to use ICT innovatively. The 4 main goals achieved for mp2 were:

1. Building school's capacity for ICT implementation
2. Encouraging the higher level of ICT use through experimentation
3. Ensuring baseline level skills of ICT use for all
4. Strengthening the intergration of ICT into schools curriculum and assessment

(iii) Masterplan 3 (2009 -2014)

With the 2 Masterplans achieving its desired outcomes, the 3rd masterplan was implemented to sustain the use of ICT in schools. Schools will have to tap on this rich ICT resources and harness it effectively, to transform pupils and teachers into self-directed learners. There are 3 goals in mp3 and they are:

1. Having school leaders to provide the direction and conditions to harness teaching and learning with the use of ICT.
2. Teachers, to have the capacity to plan and deliver ICT enriched learning experiences for students to be self-directed and collaborative learners, as well as nurturing them to become responsible users.
3. To have an ICT infrastructure that supports learning anytime, anywhere.

Why is it important for MOE to develop this ?

I feel that, with technology such as the Internet, the world wide web, the world has indeed shrunk in terms of information dissemination. Pupils and teachers alike, are able to access world wide information and in the process, learn and gain knowledge.

Since we are technologically advancing all the time, what better way to engage pupils in learning, using the interactive ICT tools, web platforms and even educational games that are readily available in schools.

So it is important that MOE develops and sustain this masterplan, to encourage a colourful world of self-directed learning amongst pupils by engaging them and which can happen anytime, anywhere.

Oh wow, a very long answer for a blog post!

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Now for the 2nd question!

Has any of the Masterplans impacted you as a student? Share your experience on how ICT had been used in the classes that you've attended as a student.

Wow, lets see. When the first masterplan was implemented in 1997, i was in Primary 2. Im the geeky girl on the left. My school was a rather new school, but i did not remember having computers or anything "IT" that wow-ed my classmates and me. The most high-tech thing at that point in time for us was the OHP machine that projected images that was written or printed on transparencies.

Do you remember the OHP machine? Yep, its the contraption, on the left hand corner of the classroom with a plastic covering over it. Not much of an ICT huh.

But in 1999, when i was in primary 4, we noticed a new addition to all our classrooms! There was a PC installed at the corner of our rooms and our teacher told us that we were allowed to use them, when we were done with our classwork. I don't really remember using them though, but i remember seeing some of my classmates trying to figure out how to switch on the computers and how to use the mouse and all. For them, it was really new as, computers were really pricey then, and not many pupils had the opportunity to use them. If i did not remember wrongly, i attended a computer class on how to use Microsoft office word documents and Power Points in primary 6.

So apart from having infrastructure added to our classrooms, i guess it was not being utilized, as it was just a single PC with no Internet connection.

When mp2 was rolled out in 2003, i was already in secondary school. It was during this period that the use of ICT was prominent, My school, Jurong west secondary school had shifted to its new site and it had an impressive ICT structure (to me). It had an Internet cafe, where a part of the school was wireless, and we could loan laptops to go online or complete projects. We also had to attend ICT training on Word doc, PowerPoint's and even some movie making class. We were given opportunities to use ICT, in classroom presentations, projects and once, even had online homework. i think it was a year or 2 after the 2003 SARS period and we did not attend school for a long period of time.

I had a history teacher when i was in Secondary 2, using a laptop in class, hooked to the projector, to show us videos of wartime. We even had a modified bingo sort of game, when a selected student will go up to the teachers laptop and select an option on the PowerPoint and had to answer a question. So it was rather fun, as it kept us on our toes and we had to pay attention so that we could answer the questions.

When mp3 was implemented, i was completing my Polytechnic education, thus it did not apply to me. However, when i was in polytechnic, the use of ICT was prevalent in all our modules. From communicating to our lecturers to submitting our assignments and even checking of our work. Everything was done online. So it was really a first hand learning experience for me.

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3rd Question!

How do you think the Masterplan in ICT in education may affect you in your role as a beginning teacher.

Well, after doing contract teaching in my contract school, it has already affected me as a teacher, as we were required to integrate ICT in our weekly lesson plans.

As a beginning teacher, i would think that the practice of integrating ICT in our weekly lesson plans would remain, as the management would be able to monitor the use of ICT amongst teachers. Thus, teachers would have constantly come up with creative and innovative ideas to incorporate into their teaching and engage the students.We would be utilizing online learning platforms, such as mconline,NLB site, to get pupils to do self- directed learning and even submit reflections through the online forums. With learning, comes feedback. With these platforms, it will enable us as teachers to monitor our pupils learning through the platform and give immediate feedback on the student's progress.

In short, as a beginning teacher, i feel that it would affect us in terms of the habit of integrating ICT into our lesson plans, the need to be creative and innovative when doing so and last but not least, the use of online platforms to encourage students to be self-directed learners, while being able to gather immediate feedback for improvement