Global Education in the 21^st Century

By Professor Teh Hoon Heng

 

Part 1 (a)

Vision of 21^st-Century Global Education

The recent advancement of information and communication technology will lead to a great reform in the global education system. The great reform will then lead to a 21^st Century Global Education Renaissance thus making the world a better place to live in. Future school children will then find studying a pleasure and not a torture. They will have more sweet dreams and less nightmare doing memory-intensive school examinations.

 

The 21^st Century Education Reform Mission Statement

Global educators will agree that the ultimate goal of education in a knowledge-based economy is to train our children with the following abilities:

1. Able to solve real world problems by making the best use of whatever frontier ICT tools.
2. Able to solve old and new problems more smartly with innovative and creative methods and approaches.
3. Able to acquire new knowledge to face new challenges in life through effective continual self-learning.

In order to achieve the above education goal, global educators will further agree that:

1. ICT-based education system should gradually replace the outdated memory-based education system. This means whatever ICT tools that will be useful for our school children in their future working life should be allowed to be used by them to do their school work as well as to solve school examination problems. This also means that teachers should be trained and encouraged to use whatever useful ICT tools to enhance their teaching.
2. Improving creative thinking skills should be one of the key objectives of this new education system so that students will be able to solve old and new problems more creatively and effectively.
3. Improving students’ ability to acquire knowledge through self-learning with appropriate guidance from teachers should be another key objective of the new education system. This means that the spoon-feeding teaching method should be replaced by a self-exploratory learning method using whatever useful ICT tools.

 

Part 1 (b)

21^st Century National Education Visions

Examples

1. USA

No Child Left Behind Program

2. CANADA

Moving Towards Home-Based Education

Through Distance Learning

3. HONG KONG

HK$ 100 billion 10-Year Budget

for ICT-Based Education Reform

4. SINGAPORE

Thinking Schools, Learning Nation

5. BRUNEI

(?)

A Regional Leader in ICT-Based Education Reform.

The world’s first Education Paradise!

 

Part 2

Frontier ICT Tools

 

1. Teaching and Learning of Languages

     1. Babylon

Other English Language Software

2. Encarta Deluxe-2002
3. Learning English (BBC World Service)
4. Little Explorer (Picture Dictionary)

 

2. Teaching and Learning of Mathematics

1. MATHEMATICA-4.10
2. WebMATHEMATICA-1.0

Other Mathematics Software

3. The Joy of Creative Mathematics
4. The Dawn of Creative Thinking (younger children)
5. CoCo Math Projects 1 and 2 (younger children)

 

3. Teaching and Learning of Art and Design

1. Bryce-5.0
2. Paintshop Pro-7.0

Other Art and Design Software

3. Poser-4.0 (young children and adults)
4. Kid Pix Studio Deluxe (young children)
5. Super Goo-2.0 (young children)

 

4. Multimedia Courseware Creation Tools

1. Director-8.5 (for CD, DVD and Internet)
2. Flash-MX(for Internet)
3. DreamWeaver-MX(for Internet)
4. Visual Basic-6.0 (for CD, DVD and Internet)
5. Ulead DVD Production Bundle (for video courseware)

 

 

5. Education Administration Tools

1. Microsoft Word-2002
2. PowerPoint-2002
3. Excel-2002
4. Access-2002
5. Microsoft Publisher-2002

 

Part 3

Brunei Education Vision

Brunei becomes a regional, or even a world leader in ICT-based Education Reform. Brunei becomes the world’s first Education Paradise!

Implementation Strategy

First and foremost, set up a high level ICT-Based Education Reform committee consisting of national, and international education experts to draw the reform master plan with a clear roadmap for actions in order to achieve the educational goal as described in the ICT-Based Global Education Reform Mission Statement. These actions should also achieve the following visible sub goals:

1. Every teacher has a personal high-end notebook PC with relevant software and training.
2. Every high school student receives an appropriate subsidy to own a good personal notebook PC with relevant software and training.
3. Every primary school student receives an appropriate subsidy to own a Microsoft Xbox game console together with a series of specially developed couseware to enrich their school learning.
4. Every school is appropriately funded to set up and maintain a good ICT lab with relevant software and courseware library.
5. MOE is appropriately funded to set up and maintain a world-class education portal for their students and international students.
6. VOCTECH or MOE is appropriately funded to launch a world-class ICT-based education courseware development enterprise partnered with relevant regional and multinational companies to produce several series of DVD courseware for national, regional and global market.

Time Frame and Costing

Achieve the above vision within 5 years with not more than B$0.5 billion, (about 10% of Singapore budget and less than 3% of Hong Kong budget). More accurate costing will be known once the master plan has been drawn up.

The Crystal Ball

Whether we like it or not, the world will change and the national-oriented education system will be greatly influenced by the global-oriented education system. What I see inside my crystal ball are the following:

1. Future Education Providers:

Global education enterprises promoted by multinational companies jointly with world-class educators will compete favourably against national government-based education programmes.

2. Future Education Trends

The education revolution will start from university level education in the form of online university consortiums and will gradually come down to high school level education. However, primary level education will continue to be controlled by individual national governments for another period of time.

3. Future Role of ICT Tools

Frontier ICT tools both in hardware and software will play an increasingly important role in all aspects of education including teaching, learning and assessment of students’ performance.

4. Future Assessments of Students’ Performance

In the new education system, students having the ability to use frontier ICT tools to solve real world problems and the ability to think creatively will score higher marks than merely those having good memory skills.

5. Future Role of Schools

More and more high school students will choose to stay at home and study. They go to schools only to attend workshops, seminars, and forums and to take individual subject examinations in order to earn credits and certificates.

6. Future Role of Teachers

Good teachers will play an even more important role and earn much higher salaries because they can teach a larger number of students by using online technology and video technology.

7. Future Role of School Principals

Good school principals will earn even much higher salaries by playing the roles of CEOs of franchises of global education enterprises.

8. Future Role of Education Officers

Government education officers will partly concentrate their efforts on the running of primary level education programmes and partly on negotiating with global education enterprises on how to effectively localise their programmes for high school level students.

9. Future Cost of Education

In the new education system, governmental education budget will be greatly reduced but achieving higher education quality for the people. However, the cost of education will be partially passed on to parents. This is the principle of "No Pain No Gain", you pay for what you get.

10. Future Quality of Education

The quality of education will be greatly increased due to the competition of the various global education enterprises. There will be much greater variety and flexibility of programmes to cater for all kinds of talent. New education will be more like food industries catering for different needs of people. You pay for what you get and the government’s job is to ensure that the " foods " are clean and good and the prices are fair.

Conclusion

The world will be a better world to live in especially for future school children because they will certainly enjoy their study much more and have more sweet dreams with less nightmare doing memory-intensive school examinations.