KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese-language primary school teachers from 10 selected schools will be able to share their teaching resources via the Internet next year.
Redtone International Bhd is implementing a central server for the schools for a pilot project, called the Redtone Chinese Education Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Fund, by April next year. The 10 schools will be selected by then.
The broadband, data and voice service provider hopes to eventually take the initiative nationwide but declined to specify when. There are about 1,000 Chinese primary schools in the country.
Wei Chuan Beng, group managing director of Redtone said some Chinese schools lack teaching resources and this will be good news to them.
“With the server, Chinese schools from various states will also be able to have unlimited communication with each other,” he said.
He said the server would also enable parents of children in those schools to have access to the teaching materials from their homes, so that they can assist their children in their studies.
Ricky Lim, a spokesman for Redtone, said that whatever lessons the teachers prepare would be uploaded to the server and other teachers would be able to use them, or even improve on these exercises or lectures.
This will work much the same way as Wikipedia.org (an online collection of knowledge from millions of contributors worldwide on a multitude of topics), Lim said. “We need more than one brain (behind the lessons) and this is a good way to achieve that.”
Chia Wang Hing, headmaster of SJK (C) Chee Wen liked the idea. “The trend is going towards paperless classes and this is also a good way for teachers to collaborate,” he said.
Loo Miaw Ling, an English and Bahasa Malaysia teacher at the same school, agreed. “It is a good move but older teachers, like myself, may find the going difficult,” she said.
Loo, who is in her 40s, said she grew up with the typewriter. “But fortunately, most of the teachers now are young and computer-savvy,” she smiled.
Teacher Lok Yim Pheng, secretary general of the National Union of the Teaching Profession, does not share their enthusiasm. She is concerned that there won’t be any quality control on the teaching materials posted on the server.
“It should be monitored by the Education Ministry. Otherwise, it may become like YouTube,” Lok said.
She also believes that teachers are already burdened with enough work as it is.
“Let the teachers concentrate on teaching. We are getting complaints that they already have more work than they can handle,” she said.
Redtone’s Lim doesn’t see a problem. “It will take a few keen individuals to kickstart it. We will be providing prizes as incentives to the teachers who contribute online,” he said.
However Lim emphasises that the teachers should look at the big picture. He said that if they are interested in becoming even better teachers, they should embrace this opportunity.
“When they see the advantages, the initiative will take off,” he added.
The Redtone Chinese Education ICT Fund aims to increase awareness among the Chinese community on the importance of ICT in education. The company has contributed RM1.25mil to the fund so far. It also intends to organise a series of charity concerts in the first half of next year to raise money for the pilot project.
Some of the schools will need to buy computers and the funds that we raise will go towards that, Lim said.
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