Izah Azahari
Data from the Smart Classroom project that was launched in January still needs to be reviewed and studied, said Minister of Education Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sulaiman in response to an inquiry by Legislative Council (LegCo) member Yang Berhormat Siti Rozaimeriyanty binti Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Abdul Rahman during the 17th Legislative Council session yesterday.
The Smart Classroom project was aimed at helping students and teachers become more proficient in using existing and newer education technology. The project hoped that participants will be able to leverage these technologies to create a higher impact in their teaching and learning.
“Assessments have yet to be made on its status, but research will be made on it and hopefully, the programme will produce the best results in terms of pedagogy and provide data for the ministry’s study on how students learn by using gadgets,” said the minister.
“All data will be studied and it is hoped that the output provided from the Smart Classroom programme will provide good guidelines to teachers on how to use technology in teaching and will also provide important data to the Ministry of Education on how our students learn.”
The minister said that individual students have different ways of learning, and with data it would be possible to tailor lessons to best suit their learning style.
Meanwhile, LegCo member Yang Berhormat Awang Haji Tahamit bin Haji Nudin suggested recording lessons for each subject so teachers are able to review and enhance the quality of their teaching methods, to which the Minister said the programme of making recordings on school subjects has begun.
He said that the Ministry of Education’s goal is to be able to record lessons from Year 1 to Year 13, thus having provided recording facilities to nine different schools. The minister said at present it isn’t possible to calculate how long of a period the project can be implemented, taking into account that recordings on certain subjects may need to be re-taken if the underlying subject matter changes.
The minister said that teachers who received awards during Teacher’s Day are the ones given priority at this stage, so that their teaching skills can be shown as an example to both students and other teachers.
