1. 1.1 INTRODUCTION
In 1966, Malaysia has implemented the first computer system. So, the government
introduced to Malaysian the several of initiatives to facilitate the greater adoption and diffusion
of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the capacities in several field
such as business, industry, education and for general life. Besides, government also include the
enhancement of education and training programmes, provision of an environment conducive to
the development of ICT, provision of incentives for computerisation and automation and creation
of venture capital funds. Recently, Malaysia is in full gear to drive the economy towards a
knowledge-based one.
While, in 1996 Malaysia identified ICT as one of the key foundations for its projected
transition from a production-based economy to a knowledge-based economy by 2020. In
declaring these visions, the government also acknowledged that such a transition will require a
workforce capable of exploiting ICT to create new economic opportunities. In July 1997, the
Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Smart School Flagship Application Conceptual Blueprint was
launched by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. Besides, the
MSC Smart School Flagship Application is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of
Education (MoE) and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). The ICT expertise for
the initiative was provided by the Telekom Smart School (TSS) industry consortium. The
MDeC, which has been entrusted with the development of the MSC, plays a key role in the
implementation and ensuring that targets are achieved as planned.
The Malaysian Smart School is a learning institution that has been systematically
reinvented in terms of teaching-learning practices and school management in order to prepare
children for the Information Age. There are some qualities of Malaysian Smart School that
include a philosophy that say all students can learn if taught, a broad curriculum that considers
the different capabilities and needs of all students, a school climate that is conducive to learning
and a high level of parent and community involvement and support. In addition, the aim of the
Smart School is to change the culture and practices of Malaysia’s primary and secondary
schools, moving away from rote-memory learning toward fostering creative thinking skills.
Moreover, it is also incorporate students to be more innovative and creative teaching
while emphasizing self-paced learning. By the same method, the processes relating to
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2. curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and teaching-learning materials are reinvented to help
students learn more effectively and efficiently, increase their comfort level with technology
while enabling them to practice self-accessed and self-directed learning at their own pace.
1.2 SMART SCHOOL INITIATIVES
Based on the Smart School Initiative, there have five main goals which focus on the need
to develop a skilled work force for the Information Age and to promote the goals of the National
Philosophy of education. The goals included increase participation of stakeholders, democratise
education, produce thinking and technology-literate workforce, provide all-round development
of the individual and provide opportunities to enhance individual strengths and abilities. To
achieve those goals, an integrated set of strategies will be employed. For example, the strategies
of democratise education are to provide equal access to learning opportunities and also provide
for differing abilities, styles, and paces of learning.
Furthermore, the stakeholders of the Smart School, namely parents, the community, and
private sector, play important roles in improving the performance of the school. This can be
achieved through their constant involvement in the professional and knowledge development
relating to school management, teaching-learning, and other aspects of the Smart School.
Besides, by create the awareness of what happens in schools also can attract the stakeholders be
more concern to the students. On the other hand, provide all-round development of the individual
including intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual can be done by emphasise thinking skills,
teach values and language across the curriculum and provide the broad curriculum for all.
Moreover, provision to develop individual strengths and abilities can be applied by
provide electives in the curriculum and allow for vertical integration such as virtual express
class. While, to produce students with a thinking and technology-literate workforce, teachers
must teach them to think across the curriculum and be more creative. Besides, applying
technology in teaching and learning can help students in produce thinking and technology-
literate workforce. Among the other ICT initiatives are TV Pendidikan, Pelaksanaan Pengajaran
Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris (PPSMI); teaching of science and mathematics in
English, SchoolNet and Computer Lab. TV Pendidikan is a special television channel made
available to schools as an alternative method of learning. The objectives of the channel are to
underline the importance of technology in the development of education among teachers and
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3. students, and to enrich the teaching and learning process through creative and innovative use of
various media and technologies. There are also programs for teachers to help improve the
teaching and learning process. PPSMI is an initiative to teach science and mathematics subjects
in English rather than Bahasa Malaysia.
1.3 TEACHING LEARNING COMPONENTS
Teaching and learning components are the main features that are important in Smart
Schools. There are components used in Smart Schools which are teaching-learning process,
management and administration, human resources, skills and responsibilities, processes,
technology, and policies. The progress and development of Smart School in Malaysia are mainly
depends on the six components.
1.3.1 Teaching-Learning Process
The teaching-learning processes are the main components of the Smart School. The
processes are relating to curriculum, pedagogy, assessments, and teaching-learning materials.
They are reinvented to make the students learning more effective and interesting.
Curriculum is an important element of education. The Smart School Curriculum will be
designed according to other successful Smart School by referring to its curriculum elements. The
curriculum has to be well designed to enable the education system to achieve the goals of
National Philosophy of Education. Curriculum has to be design based on the integration of
student knowledge and skills. It is important to help students achieve overall and balanced
development in their learning.
In addition, curriculum must have intended learning outcomes explicitly stated for
different levels of abilities. Every studenthas different levels of abilities and different thinking
level. So the intended learning outcomes can ensure all the students with different levels of
abilities to gain equal knowledge among them. The Malaysia Smart School has its own vision of
curriculum. The curriculum should be meaningful, socially responsible, multicultural, reflective,
holistic, global, open-ended, goal-based, and technological.
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4. The Smart School pedagogy is used to make learning more interesting, motivating and
involving the student’s minds in the learning process. The pedagogy used an appropriate mix of
learning strategies to ensure the meaningful learning process.The classroom atmosphere is
compatible with the different teaching-learning strategies to allow the students with different in
learning styles to boost their performance in class.
In Smart School, there are many types of learning strategies such as teacher-centered,
teacher as mentor and model, teacher as coach or facilitator and student-centered. In teacher-
centered, the learning objectives, instructional tasks and resources for tasks are determined and
selected by teachers while those tasks are determined and selected by students in student-
centered strategies. In teacher as mentor and model, learning objectives are established by
teachers but for instructional tasks and resources for tasks, teachers will suggest the suitable
tasks from appropriate resources and students have right to give their own opinions. In pedagogy,
there are also discussed about how teachers have to create suitable atmosphere for students by
managing student’s behavior and organizing physical space.
Teachers also have to make assessments on their student’s performance to get the clear
vision on the student’s achievement, readiness, progress, learning styles and abilities. Besides
that, teaching-learning materials also important in Smart School. The materials can be acquired
from many sources such as education network (Edunet), internet and classified printed
directories.
1.3.2 Management and Administration
The management and administration of the Smart School helps the principals and
headmasters to manage resources and processes required for teaching-learningin school more
efficiently. There are nine primary functions of Smart School management that are school
governance, student affairs, educational resources, external resources, finance, facilities, human
resources, security and technology. School governance and student affairs involves
communications, school policy, making curriculum, management, student profiles, student’s
performance and evaluation that empower information to and from all the stakeholders. It also
manages curriculum so that it is suitable and appropriate to be use in teaching and learning
process in Malaysia Smart Schools. Resource database management and input to curriculum
development are under educational resources which makes schools easier to have resources. It
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5. also enable the school to access the national and international research database. The external
resources deal with management of resources outside the school that helps teachers and
principals to utilize external resources effectively. The financial and maintaining and managing
the utilization of school facilities are under financial and facilities management while the human
resources department responsible in handles teachers, schools staff and school administrators.
Smart School security also responsible in management because it monitor the physical and
student safety in school while technology is important to implements and managing the
technology components in schools to prevent problems in teaching-learning process.
1.3.3 Human Resources, Skills and Responsibilities
The Smart School has a commitment to provide equal opportunities for all students with
different needs and capabilities which it involves the development of the main stakeholders. The
main stakeholders will include teachers, principals, staff, parents and the community. All
stakeholders must have specific skills and right attitude to develop the school. Teacher is the
most important person to be developed with many specific skills because they are the one that
will teach and giving learning in school. The teachers have to undergo intensive training on
Information Technology (IT) skills because technology is the main component used in Smart
Schools. The intensive training will enhance their thinking and creativity. Principal also have to
attend intensive management training course to help them manage new facilities and
technologies develop in Smart Schools.
1.3.4 Processes
The Smart School processes are viewed as a system. These processes will continuously
be monitor to ensure that the system provides accurate and functional input to produce the
desired output. For the Smart School system, the major inputs are the resources which are
students, teachers, technology and tools, and the Ministry of Education in the form of curriculum
specification, financing, management and control functions. As the system proceeds, it has to
undergo through a series of sub processes. The sub processes are play roles for identifying and
localizing teaching plans, selecting and organizing teaching-learning materials, determining a
student’s entry level, holding classroom sessions and providing feedback for the student
assessment. The sub processes normally is done by teachers who are in charge for the teaching
deliveries to the students.
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6. 1.3.5 Technology
Technology is an element that cannot be separated in Smart School because the concept
of Smart Schools is depending on the development of technology as their teaching and learning
are delivered to students via technology. Technology is used as an enabler for Smart
Schoolpractices in teaching-learning, management, and communicationswith external
constituencies.
1.3.6 Policies
Smart Schools are same with the other institutions and schools which they have policies
that have to be followed by all the stakeholders. The policies are important to ensure the
successful implementation of the SmartSchool, changes in existing policies and regulations, as
well asthe formulation of new policies and regulations, have to beconducted. Technology that are
be used in Smart Schools are have their own policies.
1.4 TECHNOLOGY AS AN ENABLER
Technology is required as an enabler for running the Smart Schools. Technology is used
in three ways at Smart Schools which are Smart School practices, technical requirements and
Smart School technology solutions.
Smart Schools practices are including teaching and learning, management system and
external constituencies. As we know, there are many teaching and learning practices that are
being used by teachers to help their students in Smart Schools. Some of the practices are self-
exploratory learning which means every computer shall have access to the latesteducational
materials available locally, as well asto external resources. In this learning, students are let go by
teachers to discover the technology by their own.
The other example of practices is collaborative learning thatfacilitates group work within
the classand across classes. This type of practices is suitable to be used by teachers when they are
planning to make assessment of each student by grouping. This learning can help students to
share their opinions and thought with their peer. Distance learning and experiential learning is
the creative way of learning that maybe interest students to learn more. Distance learning
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7. focusing on the communication with outside constituencies using technology such video
conferencing, email and broadcast while experiential learning are using simulation software to
stimulate learning. By using experiential learning, students will be more creative and understand
to use the technology very well.
Besides that, technology also used in Smart School management system. School
governance use technology as computer for communication such as video conferencing to
connect the school to the Ministry of Education for administration and policy implementation
purposes. Technology also used in student’s affair department to maintain student’s profiles and
backgrounds. For educational resources and external resources, the computer communication is
used to link the schools databases to central resource databases to regulate and organize
educational resources and also to link the schools to external constituencies. External resources
such as internet help students to access information for their studies.
Smart School technology solutions are implemented to support, fulfill and integrate
theSmart School. In school level, the requirements are varied and easy access to teaching-
learning resources. The physical facilities such as classroom must be completed with equipment
including hardware and software. If students need to find resources from network-based
materials, the library should have provided them for the materials. The database center of
multimedia courseware must be functional to help them finish their research and findings.
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8. 1.5 OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SMART SCHOOL
The smart school exists in Malaysia at 1999 as the initiative to implant the ICT skill
among the Malaysian student. There are four wave of smart school from 1999 until now.
The first wave is Pilot wave. At this wave, there are only 87 schools taken to be smart
school as the trial of the project. This program gets many feedbacks from the Ministry of
Education and local academics. The feedbacks from Ministry of Education are under-utilization
of software application and courseware, not effective technology/infrastructure/helps desk,
complicated smart school management system, and some recommendation from them such as
they provide the technical support. In March to April 2003, the local academics give their
overviews about the smart school. The overviews are limited teaching-learning materials,
insufficient well-trained teacher, inadequate of the technology infrastructure, know how to utilize
some of the smart school management system component and complain from the parent that they
not aware that the pilot wave have been implanted in their school.
The second wave of the smart school is the Post-Pilot wave from 2002 until 2005. This
wave is the subsequent of the first wave, Pilot wave. In this phase, the ICT must become a key
enabler for learning. The monitoring and corrective measures are so critical that negligence in
addressing constraints highlighted in the various studies will jeopardize the successful
implementation of the Smart School. There is an urgent need for supervision and support. Hence,
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9. the Roadmap will need to incorporate this as an integral part of the expansion plan for Smart
Schools.
Wave three of the smart school is to make all schools become smart school (2005-2010)
and the final wave is consolidated and stabilizes (2010-2020).The Roadmap begins with the
setting of targets to realize an advanced Smart School scenario by 2020. These targets will
clarify the deliverables expected of the main players and stakeholders consisting of
representatives from the Ministry of Education and its industry partners, parents, teachers and
students. The deliverables are in the form of services to be delivered such as materials, training,
etc. It also means delivering on quality, such as quality of materials and quality of training. The
Smart School expansion process adopts a performance-based approach where progress is
evaluated and reported and feedback gathered for immediate corrective action. The Roadmap
will eventually lead to the realization of an advanced Smart School scenario by 2020.
1.6 CHALLENGES
There are many challenges in applying the smart school in Malaysia. First challenge is
information skill. Information skills are those needed to define the information task, locate
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10. sources and select data, process and present information and evaluate the task. Most of the
students and teachers can be seen never have enough skill to get information. The information
skills are print, interpretive, visual and aural, expressive and technological skills. Print skill is the
ability to locate and read, critically and analytically, any form of print in any format, from book
to computer screen. The interpretive skills are the ability to analyze, collate, assess and interpret
information in print, person, AV or electronic purpose in relation to information purpose.
Visual and aural skills are the ability to analyze information in visual and aural forms.
The expressive skills are the ability to communicate through oral or writing research results,
finding, opinions, and to use technology as a communication device with confidence. The
technological skills are the ability to use hardware and software, when appropriate, to retrieve,
process and present information. The information skills training must be delivered in a variety
ways or employing flexible delivery to meet the varied needs of the client that are the student.
However, it is clearly the outmost importance that the training be seen to be and be relevant and
timely. This can be done by integrating information skills training into curriculum. Through that
strategic approach, students will value the training and benefit from its immediate application.
The second challenge is pedagogical change. Pedagogy is the method and practice of
teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept. Pedagogical developments
demands continuing dialogue between teachers and librarians with emphases on client autonomy,
information skills and the attributes of students through continual innovation. Through such
conversations, librarians are engaging with the core of education and the necessary emphasis on
quality.
The other challenge that can be in integrating smart school in Malaysia is the way to have
affective e-learning in classroom. Some teacher may use the same method of e-learning to teach
the student. For example, the teacher always show video about the topic that he what to teach to
the student. At the first learning, the class was fun but the student will get bored to the method
and the learning will be ineffective. To overcome this problem, the teacher must vary the
techniques in applying the materials and technology that can be used in the classroom. For
example, the teacher can use smart board, Educational TV (ETV), and use hardware or
courseware to increase the understanding level of the student. Most of the new courseware
developed will be web-enable, so it will always be updated to the current level of study.
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11. Other than that, the awareness of the society about smart school also can be a challenge
to the smart school. The society can be parents, employer, NGO’s or religious group that always
observes the development of the smart school. For them, the smart school is same as the other
normal school. In other hand, some will think that the smart school is for smart student only. So,
their interest about smart school will decrease and have no interest to support the development of
the smart school. The program of smart school is not under the ministry of education, but under
the principle of the school. This situation will give less info about smart school to the society. To
overcome this problem, a program to introduce and give info about the smart school should be
held. By held this program, the society can see the right perspective of the existence of smart
school. So, their awareness will increase and support the smart school program.
In Malaysia, the schools are everywhere nowadays. To integrate the smart school, the
connection to internet coverage is very important. The issue here is the internet coverage is
limited and some of the rural school does not get the connection to the internet. In other hand, the
problem faced in integrating the smart school is heavy investment of facilities. In the Pilot wave,
the Smart School Integrated Solution (SSIS) was rolled out to 87 schools in the country at the
cost of about USD78 million (RM300 million).
The next issue is the lack of the well-trained teacher in ICT at the smart school. They lack
ICT knowledge and not comfortable with the use of hardware and courseware. Most of them
prefer traditional way of teaching which is teaching by using text book or whiteboard. Some of
them think that using courseware is a waste of time so they rather pay more attention on parts
that are related to exams. A teacher that knows the skill of ICT is the main element to produce e-
learning classroom. At the academy, most of the teacher not taught to handle the ICT application.
So, the issue nowadays is the effort to prepare teachers as catalyst for student to master the ICT
skills. The intern must go through rigorous training course and undergoing retraining in five skill
that are learning skill, creative and critical thinking, facilitating, assessment and evaluation and
technologically competent. Some teachers are not keen on using the courseware.
The next problem is the lack of back up technician. Some school does not have enough
technicians because to hire the technician, a lot of cost must be spending. In applying the ICT in
the classroom of the smart school, some technical problem may occur. If the technical problems
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12. occur during class, teacher and the student have to wait until for the technician to continuing the
lesson. So, this situation will affect the teaching and learning process.
1.7 CONCLUSION
The Smart School initiative, as envisaged in the Conceptual Blueprint, can revolutionize
learning in ways that are beyond our grasp today. The Pilot and the Post-Pilot phases have
helped in identifying weaknesses and corrective steps have been identified to rectify these and
enhance the strengths. Ensuring the successful implementation of the nationwide expansion of
the Smart School will require certain moves as summarized below. From the essay, we know the
smart school has many pro and contra. Other than that, we know about the overview of the wave
of smart school that are consist of four wave, Pilot, Post-Pilot, Make All School Smart by 2010
and Consolidate and Stabilize.
1.8 REFERENCES
http://www.moe.edu.my/btp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/CRF_00041.pdf
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan011288.pdf
http://www.msc.com.my/topic/About+Smart+School
http://www.ue.edu.pk/jrre/articles/52002.pdf
http://www.mscmalaysia.my/sites/default/files/pdf/publications_references/SMART_SCHOOL_
ROADMAP_020506.pdf
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/thang.html
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan011288.pdf
http://www.mscmalaysia.my/sites/default/files/pdf/publications_references/SMART_SCHO
OL_ROADMAP_020506.pdf
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13. http://www.mscmalaysia.my/sites/default/files/pdf/publications_references/ImpactStudy.pd
f
http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/linkages/IntegratedUnits/TeacherLibrarians/librarian
s_skills.html
http://www.slideshare.net/xiaojing8328002/problems-faced-by-smart-school-5330795
www.mscmalaysia.my
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