Digital contents in Education

Yesterday,the shop manager of Macasia pulled me into his shop to show me what Apple has in store for education.He showed me the iLife and a few websites.Wow,they have great stuff there. Personally, I have been a macuser for a few years but I have not explored that area.

We have the technology, but where are the contents that are suitable for our schools and children? He admitted that that we don't have much( or rather very little local contents) that can ride on the sophisticated technology.

Just imagine how interesting learning would be to our children if all the digital components (images,videos, sounds,animation,text etc) of computers could be harnessed to create interesting lessons?The Internet also can help us to share contents and resources. Upon checking with my youngest son who is now in Form 3,most of the lessons used very little digital technology.As usual, technology precedes contents;and also the wide gap between form and substance.

It is not the MOE is not doing anything, but albeit slowly.May be they got pressing bigger tasks to handle.I was made to understand that Apple Malaysia had supplied a few thousand iBooks to our local teachers. I hope this is a good beginning to improve our education.

A few months ago, our new Prime Minister said that our education system needed nothing less than a revolution. May be , digital content is one of the tools can be the catalysts for change?

Disclaimer: I personally donot own shares in Apple shops or Apple.Inc., but I love using mac machines.

Comments

[md]

We have the technology but lack of interest to develop the content. Why? did everybody loves to hunt only for "lucrative" projects. I think our universities educators can play their role in this too. School teachers can supply the contents, but the universities (students, lecturers, researchers) should help them to build the content (application & platform). I believe the initiative is already laid out, but lack of momentum to sustain the spirit (hangat-hangat tahi ayam).

wallahu'alam.

[Adib]

MD,
We need leaders to lead the change.To maintain the momentum,they must be well motivated.

I observe that even the school fences are too good.It is better to spend money on contents than on forms.Leaders and decision makers must set the priorities right.

[nona]

hi uncle,
lama tak tinggalkan message kat sini. anyways, i was just thinking about zakat. can you write something abt it...i'm a bit lost in that area.

thank you!!

[Adib]

Nona,
Pls visit this website.It is very informative.It even has a 'zakat calculator' to assist you. Here is the URL:

http://www.zakat.com.my/

[haxa]

lack of interest to develop content? yes, especially those concerning indigenous knowledge. while MOE is extensively digitizing english, science, and mathhematics in phase, the problem lies in the arts and humanities subjects for which there are humungous opportunities for development and creation of more dynamic content in the electronic form.

credits should be given to MoE on creating a boom in a new e-learning industry where the last tendering process have some big names like SIEMENS getting into this market. for start-ups who have been in this line, this project opens up to more creativity, new job opportunities (new skill sets: instructional designer, graphics designer, and multimedia developer)

however, the momentum at MoE thus far restricted to few divisions. things could be better there.

with all due respect to the arts and humanities subjects, it is hoped that there are exciting things will happen soon. subjects such as Bahasa Melayu and Sejarah will open up to LOTS of preservation of local culture. with the integration of local studies into the curriculum in the last decade, i do hope that local agencies will play an active role to promote such content to the masses.

in a nutshell, i do agree on the lack of interest. but if you are an opportunist, go tap on the DAGS grant which have so far I think funded some crappy projects that failed to churn ourquality local indigenous content. at the end, the vendors got rich as project got into the direction where it has become system-centric. pushing out unncessary features of technology and at the same time, doing less on content.

despite that, there are some good projects that you might want to check out for references.

in the university arena, content are mostly deemed intellectual property of the respective institution. it probably takes us more years for our universities to establish on its teaching and research quality before they will be able to open up content like what MIT OpenCourseWare is providing.

[Adib]

Haxa,

Recently,I was invited to lecture at one IPTA.I was made to understand that it is having shortage of lecturers in certain professional subjects. When I asked how much I will be for one hour of lecture,he said RM 100.

Now, I know why they cannot get experienced professionals.