BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

Information and Communication Technology in Biology

SBI3013

Semester 1 session 2016/2017

REPORT
Smart School

Name Student ID Lecture Group

1 NUR AISYAH BINTI LIAS D20162075555 B

2 NUR AMIRA BINTI AZIZOL D20162075550 B

3 NUR FASIHAH BINTI DOLLAH D20162075566 B

Lecturer
Dr. Azmi bin Ibrahim

Date
7 March 2017

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LIST OF CONTENTS:

Cover 1

List of content 2

Abstract 3

Acknowledgement 4

1.0 Introduction 5

2.0 The objectives of Smart School 6

3.0 Advantages 7

4.0 Disadvantages 9

5.0 Challenges and issues in implementation of Smart Schools 11

in Malaysia

6.0 Conclusion 15

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ABSTRACT

This report was written about the Smart School Program that has been launched by our

government to prepare the future generation to become the competitive workforce and all-round

development individuals. This reports actually is based on the presentation that we had prepared

as required by our lecturer, Dr Azmi bin Ibrahim. The presentation is about the challengers and

implementation of Smart School in Malaysia.

In this report, there are some brief introduction about the transformation bring by technology to

the globe and Smart School. In the next section of this report, the advantages and disadvantages

of Smart School Program in Malaysia.

Last but not least, the challenges that faced by the Smart School since its inception and

implementation of Smart School also listed out in this report, follows up by the conclusion part.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to thanks our beloved lecturer, Dr Azmi Ibrahim for his valuable advices that he

gave during the process of preparing the report that titled Report On Smart School and

presentation on Smart Schools. The advices truly help us a lot in the process of preparation the

report and presentation.

Besides that, we would also like to show our gratitude to our beloved classmates that always

gave support and suggestion during the process of preparing this report and presentation. Next,

we would also like to thanks our friends that kindly share their ideas, thoughts and suggestions

In conclusion, we would like to thanks everyone that directly or indirectly involve in the process

of making this report and presentation.

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INTRODUCTION

The world that we are living now is undergoing a rapid transformation due to the digital

revolution. Out of all, our education system have been greatly gains the benefits of the rapid

growth of this technology. Education is the most important key to each country as it will set the

future development and progress of a country. Through education, the youngsters of each

country will be educate to be someone who can lead and contribute for the country later when

they grew up. Malaysia also did not exclude from this issue , our government especially is also

putting a lot of efforts into this matter. On early 1996 , the Ministry of Education was involved

in intense discussion about Smart Schools ; they thought about the concept and its implications

on Malaysian education system. On 1997, the Smart School is announced as one of the seven

flagship Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia.

Smart School is a learning institution that has been systematically reinvented in terms of teaching

and learning practices and school management in order to prepare children for the information

age. It ensure that all students will have the opportunity to build self concept. A Smart School

will evolve over time, continuously developing its professional staff, its educational resources,

and its administrative capabilities. This will allow school to adapt to the changing conditions

while continuing to prepare students for life in the Information Age. In order for this Smart

School to function effectively, an appropriately skilled staff and well-designed supporting

process is needed.

Smart School is not about the technology around the school only. It is also about the technology

that interconnecting the Smart Schools and educational technology in district and national level.

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The network for the communication between schools and the national authorities is maintained

secured.

THE OBJECTIVES OF SMART SCHOOL

The Smart School was introduced to the education system in our country are also have their on

vision and mission to accomplish.

First of all, to produce individuals who are not just intellectual but also someone who is

spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious. The government believe that

everything start off by the individuals itself. If someone is posses by good attitude, they also

capable in handling the matter of a country later on.

Next, to produce a high thinking technology-literate work force. Since we are living in 21st

century world, the field of works that are on demand are the jobs that dealing with the

technology. Through Smart School, it will expose, educate and prepare the students for their real

life after their school life ended. The students will also be taught to think outside the school

syllabus.

Furthermore, help to increase the participation of stakeholders. This enables the school and the

stakeholders to have an easy and quick communication. This help to create the insight of what

had happens to their children in schools.

Last but not least, to provide an equal access on learning opportunities. Everyone will have the

chance to access to the technology or internet in Smart School. No one will be left out. Learning

also can be done at anytime and anywhere.

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 Advantages

Some advantages of smart school is equipped with new and latest technology that can enhanced

teaching and learning experience. For example, SMART interactive whiteboard. There are

several benefit of this modern board such as allow many different forms of media to be

displayed including photos, maps, graphs and video. Then, these tools provide various style of

learning especially for visual learners that can watch a lot of illustrations from the board as their

tutors use the whiteboards to project visual elements. Then, the audio learners can listen and

have discussions. While for tactile learners, the smart boards come with touchscreen capabilities

that allow the students to touch and interact with the board.

Apart from that, smart school can help to broaden the mind and improve students

academic result. Just clicks of the keys on the computer or smart phone and any answer to any

question can be found. Then, the uses of technology in classroom give the better understanding

for students. The students will have a strong basic knowledge that will help them to study more

details about the topic. For lab report, assignments and projects, students use a search engines

that allow them to find an information or answer. Having access to the technology will expose

students to new things and help them to form their own opinions based on their finding.

In addition, smart school can increase student safety. For example, student attendance is

automatically tracked. While buses are tracked on Google Maps and school parking lots are

managed with smartphone apps. This new approach can improve the safety around the school.

Next, smart school causes the curriculum to be more open and flexible. It promotes self-learning

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for students and they learn in a variety way as they prefer. This can be done with both the teacher

and the students' efforts.

The technology of smart school also makes learning more enjoyable. In smart school, the

technology is applied in teaching and learning process that makes learning a fun process and

students can increases their skills using new technology. The use of smart technology attracts

students and they will not feel boring. The interactive learning was improved and students gain a

better understanding of the lesson.

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 Disadvantages

Besides many advantages of smart school, there are also a few disadvantages which make the use

of smart technology quite limited. For example, lack of technological infrastructure especially in

school in rural area. It is because the area has a limited internet connectivity and the school do

not be expose to technology. Since they do not has a lot of electronic facilities and new book, the

students unable to learn about new technology to improve their learning skills. Besides that, the

technology used in smart school is very expensive and costly. Government have to spend a lot

for new book and equipment for students. Its effect the students since the fees of the school are

increased for support the cost of facilities.

The other disadvantages of new technology in smart school are technical fault and

problem for maintenance. The electronic devices are prone to faults and it require a lot of time to

come back to their proper functioning state. The teachers have to be ready for an alternative

methodology for teaching. Next, the gadgets used in smart classrooms need a proper

maintenance. The room for gadgets has to be free from dust particles and not face directly to

sunlight if not, the gadgets will become faulty. The devices need to be updated regularly which is

a very time consuming process.

In addition, social issues become a concern in smart school because of easy access to

inappropriate content. The material like pornographic and violent story is shared with other

students while in the classroom. It actually can affects and damage the students attitude if the

problem not curbed. They are too attached to their phone almost all time and experiencing social

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anxieties when it comes to face to face interactions, but are fine socializing online.

Cyberbullying is one of the disadvantages that take place using electronic technology devices

such as cell phones and computer including tools social media sites, chat, and websites. It can

cause psychological, emotional and physical stress. Students who are bullied have a higher risk

of depression and anxiety.

Although there are a lot of disadvantages of smart school, the education field needs a new

technology for learners and educators especially to continue to grow in their field.

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 CHALLENGES AND ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF SMART SCHOOLS IN

MALAYSIA.

There are some challenges and issues faced in implementation of smart school in

Malaysia. The challenges can be divide in a few categories which is principals, teachers, students

and the school itself. As a principal of smart school, it was a big responsibilities to conduct a

smart school because it was not an easy task to conduct a new environment of study. The

principal itself must change and renew almost the entire of administration and management of

school system in order to ensure the implementation of smart school is successful. Excellent and

success of a school is heavily depend on the effectiveness of principal so the principal must plan

the strategy wisely.

As the smart school is related to computing system, so the principal has to emphasis and

gives more commitment on provide technology infrastructure such as laboratory, smart

whiteboard and media mass material. The challenged that were faced by principal is they must

provide high quality and relevan of teaching and learning material for student. The packages that

were provided only suitable for Form 1 student only and it was not suitable for student Form 4 as

the materials that were provided by government were not enough. In order to solve this problem,

the school administration have to find the software by searching from the other resources. The

problem in obtain an original software also exist as there were many plagrism software.

In line with the smart school mission n vision, the principal must complete himself or

herself with technology knowledges and skills to show a good appearance in the both physical

and mental, honesty, selflessness, self-confidence and ability to communicate with others.

Principals can use collaborative management with the others smart school for the success of the

smart school project. They will provide support in terms of money and also be a model and made

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transformation in administration. In efforts to cultivate ICT system in a smart school, a written

policy document should be drawn up. This policy will helps to design and manage the ICT

program which enable teachers and students become master in ICT systematically and

progressive.

The challenges that were faced by the teachers is the teachers lack of ICT skills so they

were not ready to change their mindset and they were prefer the traditional way of teaching.

Before to teach and deliver knowledges to student, teachers must complete himself or herself

with ICT knowledges and skills. The teachers must be able to think creatively and critically. The

teachers need to use computer intensively in their study, presentations, teaching process and

communication to diversify the use and application of ICT. Sometimes when using technology

equipment and the insfrastructure intensively in teaching process, there must be a problem when

the computers or equipment are damage or unable to use. This problem may cause teaching

process distrupted. So the best solution is always keep the maintenance in good condition so that

the teaching and learning process progress smoothly. However, the cost of maintenance is very

high and this may cause the repairment and maintenance process delayed or take long time. The

teachers have an important role which is educate their students to master in using ICT.

Another challenges for smart school teachers is they are not ready to change their

mindset. They are also not ready to achieve the objectives of smart school concept and learn

new ICT programmes. Besides, they are lack of exposure in how to use the technology. Thus, the

government have to overcome this problem by train the teachers to make sure that teaching and

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learning process progress smoothly and effectively. The teachers themselves have to adapt with

the new concept of teaching and learning.

There is no exception for smart school students to face the challenges in implementation

of their smart school. For the some of smart school students, they are not well informed about the

unique features of smart school. They also unfamiliar with technology and tools. This because

they come from non-academic family background. They preferred to learn in traditional method.

So, to overcome those students problems, the number of students in smart school has should be

limited. Only among the excellent students can attend to smart school because the learning style

need a students who can explore by themselves to gain knowledge.

Actually, the smart school students should be ready to accept and adapt with the new

transformation of teaching and learning process. They should be prepared mentally and

physically so that they can accept the changes and make as initiative to improve their skills. It is

good if the exposure given by the teachers can help and increase the students interest in learning

process. In Smart School, most of students assessments are using a computer supported by an

internet. They have to learn how to gather information from the internet. Unfortunately some

student do not have an access to internet at home. The smart school students should ensure all

taught that given by the teachers is a useful knowledge. They need to give efforts to master at all.

For the sake of realize that, the smart school students should ready and understand what teachers

have taught. They must always practice and do revision continuously in order to become expert

in ICT.

The smart school itself have to face the challenges in implementation of smart school.

The smart shool also lack of facilities. The computer labs not in adequate number. There are

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also hardware problems related to LANs, PCs and servers. Furthermore, the breakdown of

electricity supply also one of the challenges. This is due to inability of the existing system in

school to cope with the increase usage of electricity. Thus, the authorities should play their roles

in improving the management of smart school. Moreover, the smart school software was not

compatible with the national textbook. Thus, the school has to uprade the software in line with

national text book. Each school need to have a system integration engineer who has a broad

range of skills including software and hardware engineering and interface protocols.

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CONCLUSION

In a conclusion, the integration of ICT in teaching and learning at school present the

opportunities for the teacher-student especially the students to learn more effectively and

efficiently. The successful example is the Malaysian Smart School that enable students to

practice self-accessed and self-directed learning at their own learning pace. It is envisaged that

the period between 2010 and 2020 will present opportunities for the advancement of the Smart

School applications implemented in all schools.

The implementation of smart school in Malaysia is a big leap in our local education to

achieve our nation Vision 2020. The continuous effort towards making it, was a big success

requires fully involvement of all the stakeholders. There still have some challenges and obstacle

need to face and overcome by all the stakeholder. However, cooperation and ownership of Smart

School from the stakeholder can overcome the challenges effectively.

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