Information technology and its challenges<\/p>\n
Ismail S Talib examines some of the implications IT will have
\nfor university education.<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: There is a lot of talk on information technology
\n(IT) in education in Singapore nowadays. But this issue is not
\nonly discussed in Singapore. IT was one of the major themes in
\nthe 32nd Conference of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education
\nCouncil in Manila in February. In the Philippines itself, it has
\nbeen said that President Ramos is no longer interested in
\n\"technological leapfrogging\", but of \"pole-vaulting\" the country
\ninto the next century. His updated National Information
\nTechnology Plan 2000 will turn the country into a \"smart\"
\nPhilippines driven by IT at the turn of the century. Thailand has
\na similar plan.<\/p>\n
As we know, the most ambitious plan for IT among Singapore's
\nneighbors is that of Malaysia, with its Multimedia Super Corridor
\n(MSC). What is less apparent, but more important in the long run
\nto the country, is its equally ambitious plans to transform
\neducation at all levels, through a more extensive use of IT.<\/p>\n
The Malaysians are at present setting up 85 \"smart\" schools,
\nwhich will be ready by the beginning of 1999, where IT will be
\ncomprehensively utilized; by 2010, all Malaysian schools will be
\n\"smart\". There are also plans to extend the use of multimedia to
\ncover the subjects of languages, science and mathematics, and
\neventually covering all subjects from Standard One to Form Five.
\nThe Malaysian government also has proposals for university and
\ncontinuing education. In February, the Malaysian Education
\nMinister Najib Tun Razak advised the Center for Distance
\nEducation at Universiti Sains Malaysia to seriously consider the
\nuse of IT so that the center could play a more active role at
\nboth the national and regional levels.<\/p>\n
As for university education proper, not only will there be the
\nMalaysia University of Science and Technology, a premier graduate
\nresearch university with its initial batch of 50 students this
\nSeptember, but it has been reported that Renong Bhd has set aside
\nbetween M$400 million and M$500 million to build a multimedia
\nuniversity in the MSC, in addition to the government's plans for
\nother schools in the vicinity.<\/p>\n
Singapore is also making advances in IT, and should view
\ndevelopments in the region as complementing its IT industry, and
\nother industries connected to it, instead of competing with them.
\nIn Singapore, we have the Singapore One program, where, by the
\nend of 1998, 95 percent of households and most offices and
\nschools will be electronically linked. The country also wants to
\nbe described as an \"Intelligent Island\" by the year 2000.<\/p>\n
The importance of IT in education was highlighted by Prime
\nMinister Goh Chok Tong in his National Day rally speech last
\nyear. A sum of $1.5 billion has been set aside for the
\nimplementation of the IT program in Singapore's primary schools
\nand, by 1998, at least 100 new computers will be installed in
\neach school.<\/p>\n
Even before the realization of Singapore's IT plans in the
\nnext few years, it ranks second in computer literacy in the world
\ntoday, according to the Global Competitiveness Report. One reason
\nwhy Singapore has an edge in the region is that the character of
\nits IT industry is, as described by the head of Singapore's
\nNational Computer Board, \"multifaceted\".<\/p>\n
Superhighway<\/p>\n
However, because of the speed of IT's development, it is easy
\nto be complacent. The maddening pace of growth of the Information
\nSuperhighway, for example, makes it both politically and
\neducationally difficult to keep up with it. In this regard, U.S.
\nPresident Bill Clinton, during a speech last year emphasizing the
\nimportance of IT in education, joked that when he took office in
\nJanuary 1993, \"only high energy physicists had ever heard of what
\nis called the Worldwide Web\", but \"Now even my cat has its own
\nWeb page.\" But this does not mean that one can keep still (unless
\none wants to end up trying to catch Bill Clinton's cat's tail!).<\/p>\n
One way Singapore can continue to have its \"multifaceted\" edge
\nis through the more extensive use of IT, even among citizens who
\nare not IT professionals. This is where, from the perspective of
\na university teacher, a more extensive use of IT in the
\nuniversities has to be undertaken, so that it will cover all
\ndisciplines.<\/p>\n
Indeed, given the extensive development of IT both in
\nSingapore and the region in the next few years, it is something
\nuniversity teachers cannot do without, unless they want to be
\npedagogical dinosaurs in the 21st century, which, given IT's
\ncrackling pace of development, may happen sooner rather than
\nlater. For this reason, there is currently a strong interest at
\nthe National University of Singapore to put course information on
\nthe Web, a development which would have been unanticipated only a
\nfew years ago. A similar interest is also found at the Nanyang
\nTechnological University.<\/p>\n
Until the past few months, however, much of the news in
\nSingapore on IT and education was on primary and secondary
\neducation, and less on university education. One reason for this
\nmay be because what was happening at the universities until
\nrecent months might have been less newsworthy: for some years,
\nthe universities had a head start with computers and had more
\ncomputers in relation to the number of students when compared
\nwith most schools, and were introduced to the Internet before the
\ngeneral public. At any rate, the introduction of interconnected
\ncomputers in schools will mean that most students entering
\nuniversities will be conversant with the use of IT for learning,
\nand this is a factor which all university teachers cannot ignore.<\/p>\n
Another tendency on news reporting on IT and education in
\nSingapore is that much of it has to do with the equipment and
\nfacilities to be provided: more computers in schools, more
\nschools with Internet access, and so forth. This may be a
\nreflection of what is easier to report in the newspapers.
\nHowever, we are merely dealing with the externalities, and not
\nreally with the profound effect that IT may have on education and
\nsociety. Having more computers in schools may very well mean that
\nmore students will be given the training to access them for study
\nfrom their homes, even during what we now call \"school hours.\"<\/p>\n
One of the effects of the revolution in IT is, if you would
\npermit me to use two phrases which have become cliches in recent
\nyears, that we are moving not only towards a world without
\nborders but to classrooms without walls as well. The Principal of
\nthe premier girls' secondary school in Singapore, Raffles Girls'
\nSchool, is already talking about letting her students study from
\nhome, even during school hours.<\/p>\n
As for distance education at the university, the use of the
\nInternet has been discussed in Singapore by the Department of
\nContinuing Education at the NUS. However, distance education will
\nnot be totally distinct from mainstream university education in
\nthe future. It is only a matter of time before the line between
\ndistance and face-to-face education becomes blurred. In this
\nregard, students will have to learn to be truly independent
\nlearners, not only in the sense of being able to learn by
\nthemselves, without the direct guidance of teachers, but also to
\nbe able to conduct academic research with first-order materials
\neven while they are effectively away from concrete libraries and
\nthe physical university.<\/p>\n
In such a world, students will be able to \"go\" to the best
\nuniversities anywhere in the world, even while staying at home,
\nand the best universities will be able to \"grow\" beyond the
\nphysical constraints of their concrete buildings. This is where
\nthe real future challenge to universities in Singapore and in the
\nregion may come from.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ismail S. Talib is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
\nEnglish Language and Literature, National University of
\nSingapore.<\/p>",
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