Mr Gan Chin Huat, Principal, Dunman Secondary School, Distinguished Guests, Parents, Teachers and Pupils:

I am very pleased to be here this afternoon to officiate at the launch of eduPAD and to witness the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding for the eduPAD project.

The rapid advance of technology has dramatically changed our world. With Information Technology (IT), our world has shrunk and is becoming borderless. IT has made it possible for small countries like Singapore to plug into the global economy and become global players. The basis for competitiveness will be the ability to process, apply and create knowledge, finding new niches and changing the rules for competition. The key success factor will be human knowledge residing in individuals and systems.

Our schools must, therefore, prepare pupils to thrive in a world where information and knowledge will be the engines of productivity and economic growth. Fully exploiting the use of IT will be a key strategy to prepare our pupils for this knowledge-based society. To achieve this the government has invested heavily, through the Masterplan for IT in Education, to bring about an IT-enabled teaching and learning environment in our schools.

The use of IT in education is relatively new to our schools, indeed to schools all over the world. There are few established models to follow. We must therefore be prepared to break new ground, and schools must be prepared to experiment and try out new ideas. We want to encourage industry to work with us to introduce new technology and to try out innovative approaches in the use of IT in our schools. We want to see more companies come forward to support the schools in their programmes for IT in education. Schools are an ideal testing ground where new ideas can be incubated and tested in real-life settings and with real participants.

I’m very pleased to learn that Dunman Secondary School, in mounting the eduPAD project, has made the bold decision to accept the industry partners’ offer to venture into the exciting but sometimes unpredictable realm of research and development (R&D). This will help to promote a vibrant entrepreneurial culture in our society, infusing a spirit of creativity, enthusiasm for change, an appetite for risk and a tolerance for failure.

A consortium approach has been adopted for the development of eduPAD. Industry partners – CET, KRDL, and the publishers – provide the necessary technical expertise. The National Institute of Education (NIE) provides expertise in the area of educational research and evaluation. The Educational Technology Division (ETD) of the Ministry of Education provides support to the school in the area of technology integration and pedagogical matters.

This consortium approach means that the project will be able to draw upon the knowledge of the different partners who each contribute their own expertise. This has already shown one positive result: it took just under half a year to move from the drawing board to producing the first prototype device.

This project has another unique feature that will benefit the students and the school. CET and KRDL have set up their own joint mini R&D lab right here within Dunman Secondary School itself. I am told that a number of the pupils involved in the eduPAD pilot were very interested in the work of the R&D engineers. Both the Principal and the industry partners strongly encouraged the pupils to take this golden opportunity to visit the lab and to interact with the engineers.

A scheme has also been worked out for the student eduPAD leaders to work closely with the engineers. They will provide feedback about the performance of the eduPAD as well as suggest possible improvements to the prototype. The engineers, in return, teach the pupils basic troubleshooting skills. The pupils are also exposed to the work of R&D engineers and have a taste of research. I see these engineers serving as mentors to the pupils, sharing their experiences and helping to develop the pupils’ interest in developing a new product and bringing it to market. These are useful entrepreneurial skills.

With the help from NIE and MOE, this project aims to look into the possibilities of how a portable and wireless handheld device like the eduPAD can bring about innovative teaching and learning strategies. A host of interesting questions has yet to be answered. What are the value-added features that need to be included into the electronic books? How will the format of digital books differ from that of their printed counterparts? In what ways can our local publishers and multimedia companies prepare themselves for the advent of electronic books and perhaps set world trends? With wireless internet access and e-mail capabilities, how will these features affect the interaction between teachers and pupils?

These are all exciting possibilities. I am glad that our schools, and Dunman Secondary School in particular, are working with industry to explore new ways to harness IT for the benefit of our students. I wish you success as you seek to bring teaching and learning to greater heights and work towards our vision of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation.

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