The KPerak ELearning

Following the successful ICTPD pilot project in Perak, Malaysia, earlier this year, a delegation of Principals and ICT facilitators from the 5 Malaysian schools, along with two Ministry officials, visited New Zealand at the end of October. The group visited a selection of primary and secondary schools in Auckland, including a number of schools currently in ICTPD contracts. The visiting educators were particularly keen to observe the way NZ schools facilitate change across a cluster of schools, and the role of the ICTPD facilitators in this process. Their next step will be planning school-wide professional learning in their own schools for next year.

The delegates’ notes are in a wiki and a selection of photographs are available on flickr.

August 31st marked the 50th anniversary of the Malaysian Independence, and naturally there were celebrations all over the country. On Friday schools throughout Malaysia had their own celebrations, and KPEC facilitators have sent me photos of the events in the KPEC schools. The photos here are from SK Seri Ampang in Ipoh, and there are more on the SK Seri Bayu blog.

A small group of KPEC facilitators and students spent three days at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris this week. They were invited to participate in the ICT week at UPSI, and to demonstrate some of the ICT activities that are taking place in the KPEC schools.

On Wednesday 8th, the Perak Queen, Tuanku Raja Permaisuri Bainun, visited the KPEC booth, and watched as students from SK Seri Ampang took part in a video conference with students from Outram Primary School in Dunedin, New Zealand.

In NZ Murdoch watches the action as he talks to the Perak students

The Right Honourable Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, visited SMK Raja Perempuan Kelsom on Tuesday July 17th along with many senior officials from the Ministry of Education, to learn about the achievements of the KPEC teachers.

The Prime Minister moved around the KPEC school displays, talking to the students about their work. She then joined the video conference, answering questions from local students, and from students at Beckenham School in Christchurch.

NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark, with Malaysian Minister of Education Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and students of SMK Raja Perempuan Kelsom, answering questions about her experience in Antarctica.

On Monday July 16th The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuf Muhibuddin Shahof, visited the teachers and students of the KPEC#1 project, as they were setting up their exhibition for the visit of the NZ Prime Minister, due to take place the next day. The Sultan moved around the displays, and sat with a student from each of the 5 schools and asked them to explain what they had been working on. The Sultan also sat in on the video conference rehearsal that was taking place, talking with Audrie of LEARNZ in Christchurch about the Andrill project in Antarctic.

The visit was an incredibly important event for the Perak teachers and students, and there were many opportunities for photos with the Sultan.

The Sutan with students from SMK Raja Perempuan Kelsom.

The Sultan with staff of SMK Raja Perempuan Kelsom.

All of the KPEC cluster schools have recently been involved in a second virtual field trip, with LEARNZ teachers Audrie and Mike at Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. The students prepared a set of questions and used the audio conference to talk to the teachers. The recorded discussions have been used in the classrooms in follow up activities.

This is the 5th week of the Malaysian school term, and with our celebration planned for the 9th week, we are at the midway point in the project, and it sure feels busy. At every school teachers are involved in ICT challenges, with students out collecting information, taking photographs, searching the web, creating presentations, and sharing their findings.

A focus this week for me will be doing my best to collect images, examples of work, video and feedback from students as they are working on the ICT challenges. I will have to rely on school facilitators doing this too, when they know some activity is planned. These records are an important part of the story we will tell about the learning journey that is taking place in the cluster schools.

A focus for the facilitators is to support teachers in getting online to record their impressions, reflections, and day-to-day experiences, because these too will form part of the story.

A common topic for discussion in our meetings with mentor teachers is the concept of an ICT challenge as a topic based series of activities over several weeks, rather than the more common format - a series of separate lessons, covered one period at a time. Science text books are written in this way - they are very closely tied to curriculum documents, encouraging teachers to move in a step by step fashion through a series of disparate lessons under a common broad theme.

When planning an ICT challenge that involves students setting questions, searching for and collecting information, and working collaboratively to present their findings, it is clear that weeks rather than a one hour lesson will be required. This can be challenge for teachers in itself, given the large class sizes and the fact that students are used to a step by step approach. Part of the solution is to encourage teachers to take the larger concepts of the curriculum, and plan to them.

This is a critical aspect of the KPEC PD programme and one that will be unfolding in teachers’ reflective blogs over the next few weeks.

Jenny and Zalila planning

In the visit to SMK Matang today, and in the visits last week, the importance of the team approach, and the need to allow time to build relationships has become very clear. The facilitation team of 4 today worked in pairs as we discussed teachers??? plans in a meeting that last 4 hours. The discussions flowed around issues associated with ICT in secondary schools, teaching and learning approaches, ways to increase student access to ICT, and our own experiences and anecdotes. The Facilitation team brings a great combination of expertise in the areas of pedagogy, local learning and teaching strategies, and ICT activities that enhance learning and increase student engagement. The success of the lengthy session is apparent in reading today???s blog entries by Norlizah and Jenny.

A challenge for us will be finding ways to maintain the momentum we have gained today, and I think that the ???Mentor teachers discussing the ICT challenges??? forum can play an important role in doing this, but we need teacher participation. As Norlizah pointed out today, the most effective way of getting teachers writing online is to sit beside them and assist them with their early efforts, so we will need to split into 2 groups and increase the number of times we visit each school I think.

Derek and I drove to to town of Gerik today - 140 kms north of Ipoh, and just 45 km south of the Thailand border. We stopped to take photos of the river that runs the length of this area.

The cluster school in Gerik is SK Sri Adika Raja; a primary with over 1100 students and 65 teachers. The school facilitator is Hafizh, the teacher of English and enthusiastic ICT user. We spent several hours with him discussing the school ICT facilities and possible ICT activities for the 5 teachers who will be on the ICTPD project in term 2.

TAGS: jedd edublog ictpd gerik perak