Making Connections between My ESE and the Masterplans for ICT in Education

  After observing classes and talking to teachers/HOD in Xinmin Secondary School, I can see that the school is embracing the masterplan 3 for ICT. As mentioned in the earlier blog, the guiding principle for Xinmin Secondary School's IT department is "24/7 identity". The aim of this vision is to allow learning for students to take place any time and any where. Not only this, the school has also provided a lot of infrastructures and tools for the "24/7 identity" to be embraced by students. They also leverage on ICT to develop students towards a self-directed learning.
  Xinmin Secondary School is very blessed to have infrastructures such as Xinnovate laboratory, Xincast and a variety of other tools to help students to learn better. As I mentioned in my first blog, the Xinnovate laboratory is a place where smart boards are placed around the room. The tables and chairs are movable so that students can arrange their seating arrangments for maximised learning. With the smart boards, teachers can easily flash the students' work onto the main screen and allow the other students read their fellow classmates work. In this way, students confidence are built when teachers commend on their good work with the class. Additionally, with the Xinnovate lab's setting, students do not only learn from their teachers but are also able to learn from their peers. Personally, I really like the setting of the Xinnovate lab. It really provides a very conducive environment for learning. It will be good for schools to have more of such labs. Eventually, I hope this is the model that the future classrooms will model after.
  Another highlight of Xinmin Secondary School is that they have a broadcasting platform known as "Xincast", which provides students a platform for practising their public speaking skills. The Xincast has equipments which allow students to record their speech like how a broadcaster does. After they record their speech, they can also upload their videos onto the Xintube, which is something similar to Youtube.  
  Not only does the school provides infrastructures to enhance students' learning, they also provide ICT classes to the lower secondary students to help them to explore the different softwares and programmes. Even though the students are only taught the fundamentals, they are allowed to take on projects where they can do more indepth study, if they are interested in a particular software. In this way, I feel that it is good because Xinmin Secondary School believes in not just training the students. They believe in providing a platform for students to produce their works. Without production, students are not able to publish their works.
  Overall, I see that Xinmin Secondary School has achieved a lot through the different ICT masterplans. Not only has their academic results improve due to the more creative and interesting lessons, the students are taking up more roles in making sure that their education is not only directed by teachers. Through the use of ICT, it is evident that students in Xinmin Secondary School have work towards a self-directed learning route.