Just a few decades ago, digital technology was an infant science with limited applications. Today it is difficult to find appliances even for use in our daily life which do not require digital technology. This exponential explosion of technological applications is changing the way we work, study, travel or stay at home.

The Masterplan for IT in Education, which was launched on 28 April 1997, has ushered in a new era in educational development in Singapore. The IT Masterplan is one of the key initiatives that will ensure our students, the future workers of Singapore, will have the necessary skills and confidence to work in a constantly changing technological environment. Extensive planning has gone into the preparation of these plans, and NIE has participated actively in all the stages of preparation.

Under the IT Masterplan, NIE is entrusted with the integration of IT into its initial teacher training programmes. The main focal areas of change expected of NIE are:

• revising the curriculum;
• upgrading of physical and technological infrastructure;
• developing human resource infrastructure; and
• strengthening R & D efforts in the use of IT in education.

 These changes will enable our trainee teachers to:

• acquire the basic skills to effectively integrate IT into teaching & learning;
• engage students in higher-order and creative thinking; and
• take on the role of facilitators of learning.

As you know, changes in software are incredibly rapid. In order to prepare the trainee teachers to effectively integrate IT into teaching and learning, the tralning must equip them with the skills to adapt to such changes, and the confidence to learn to adapt on their own.

I hope further that the graduates of NIE will be able not only to apply IT in their own teaching, but to be exemplary in their willingness to try out and explore new ways of using IT in teaching & learning. This willingness to try out and explore is important, as it will act as a catalyst for change among their own peers. For this reason, I would like to urge the principals to give support to their efforts and, in particular, to allow them adequate time to apply their skills and knowledge for maximum effectiveness.

The intention of integrating IT in education is not to replace the teacher. The role of the technology is to enhance, and hence increase, the range of educational options open to the teachers. With the appropriate use of IT-based tools, the teacher will be able to concentrate his/her efforts on developing the critical and creative skills of our students and on motivating them. The teacher will also be able to concentrate on the moral and social dimensions of the students' development. It is important to realise that however powerful digital technology may become, it will not be able to play a role in the moral and social development of our students without the direct intervention and guidance of the teacher.

Hence, the teacher's role in an IT-enriched environment does not disappear; it changes and, in fact, becomes more important. The teacher, as often said, becomes not merely a disseminator of information but a facilitator in the learning process. This role is a crucial one given the vast quantity of information available via the Internet. The students must be guided and pointed in the right direction; otherwise they will be very easily side-tracked from the task at hand.

I have mentioned the incredible rate at which technology is now advancing. Frequent users of the technology will know that the developments in hardware and software do not always keep pace with each other. How many of us have been frustrated when trying to access remarkable websites with sound and animated video, but found that the capacity of the cables was inadequate to deliver data at an optimal rate? However, such issues of infrastructure, or even the question of the cost of providing the most up-to-date hardware and software, should not be the central concern of our trainers and teachers. What is more important for educators is to fully understand the role of technology in pedagogy. How can the technology be best used to accomplish our educational objectives? How can the research findings on the use of IT in education in other countries be adapted to inform educational practices in our schools? What kind of strategic and applied research in the use of IT in education should be carried out to support our economy that will be increasingly knowIedge-driven?

In order to achieve excellence in education, these questions, and those like them, have to be properly researched and answered. It is therefore important that we now fully support research and development projects, which are likely to answer these questions. The collaboration between NIE and KRDL (Kent Ridge Digital Laboratory) in this connection is certainly a positive development. I hope that more such collaborative efforts will emerge and that administrators throughout the educational system will give their full support to researchers and teachers who are motivated to take part in addressing these key issues.

The continual economic progress and prosperity of Singapore depend on our ability to adapt and innovate in education. The IT Masterplan is one of the key initiatives to bring about adaptation and innovation in our educational system. I would like to end by emphasising that the teacher, and not the technology, is the key to the success of the IT Masterplan and that full support must be given to NIE’s staff and all the teachers in the schools as they undertake the important task of integrating IT into education.