NEWS: The online revolution

THERE was a mini crisis for some parents and students last month when certain schools were asked to close down for a week due to the A(H1N1) flu cases.

With SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in the past, the current pandemic and the unknown future, schools are left to wonder what else might befall them.

The swine flu, however, had sped up the discovery of a feasible answer: the Internet.

Some schools, such as Seri Cempaka International School, were lucky enough to have a well-developed online learning system where every child could attend ‘classes’ in the form of chatrooms. Not far behind are schools like SJK (C) Jalan Davidson, whose pupils could access the school webpage
www.davidson.edu.my to get important information during a week in June when the school closed down.
Students of SJK (C) Jalan Davidson accessing the school’s web portal while their teacher looks on.

Senior manager of Dynabook Computer Centre Sdn Bhd, S.C. Ling said his company had worked with the school to create the website and a “digital school” environment over a few years.

“Currently, the school has their own server and own web portal, and they’ve recently incorporated a platform called Learning Management System (LMS),” said Ling.

When the school closed down, pupils were directed from the web portal to the LMS, where some syllabus from Singapore were uploaded.

“When we decided to close the school, I took two steps. Firstly, I asked the company to give us 2,000 login accounts as we have 1,907 pupils and then I told parents that we had linked our website to the learning platform, which is already in operation in Singapore,” said the school headmaster, Pang Chong Leong.

The pupils and parents could also check the homework assigned by teachers and follow the instructions given. He added that these measures were important to “keep the momentum” going.

Pang added that it was during a situation like the A (H1N1) scare that people would consider developing a self-learning habit.

“We (Malaysia) have been talking about e-learning for so long, but have done nothing because we are in a comfort zone unlike Singapore and Hong Kong, which because of the SARS outbreak (in 2003), had to resort to other methods of teaching and learning,” Ling said.

“These countries are way ahead of us,” he revealed adding that some of the schools in Singapore actually request that their students stay home a few days so that they can get into the habit of online learning.

He said that for SJK (C) Jalan Davidson — and the schools that his company had been working with such as SJK (C) Chong Wen, SJK (C) Damansara, SJK (C) Chong Hwa, Kluang and SJK (C) Lai Meng, – the hardware and software were already in place and would benefit the students.

He added that it was a lengthy process that required years of ICT usage, teacher training and a big budget. It would also help, Ling added, if schools had a suitable “networking” environment and infrastructure — a problem that Malaysia was still struggling with.

He said it was time Malaysia jumped onto the bandwagon as the opportunities for learning on the online medium were endless.

“Many things can be done on the LMS platform. It can be opened up to parents and the public for forums, surveys, question banks, virtual classrooms and workspace collaboration,’’ said Ling.

Pang agreed, saying that in the future, teachers would be able to key in examination marks and prepare lessons from home.