Each student is required to purchase an Apple MacBook when he enters Maris Stella High School. He will use the laptop to complete his assignments and projects during lessons and while at home.
Imagine a classroom where keyboards, laptops and touchscreen monitors have replaced traditional pen, paper and chalkboard.
At Maris Stella High School, this is no dream. Sitting on a quiet hill along Mount Vernon Road, the school is unlike any other in Singapore.
For one, it makes it compulsory for all 1,500 of its students — all the way from Sec. One to Sec. Four from next year onwards – to purchase an Apple MacBook, which will be used for school assignments and projects.
That’s not all. The school’s ground-breaking ”1:1 Learning Programme” requires all teachers to conduct multi-touch interactive lessons using Nintendo’s Wii Remote and Samsung’s flatscreen TVs.
The school embraces technology on all fronts.
Fewer worksheets are given out to students. Instead, teachers post classwork and homework assignments on the Studywiz e-learning portal, and students access them via their MacBook while in school or at home.
Assignments are done in various forms of software — Microsoft Office for Mac (for creating documents) or GarageBand (for making podcasts) — depending on the teacher’s requirement.
Teachers actively use Google Docs to create forms for taking attendance during CCA meetings. Each student and teacher has their individual Maris Stella Google Mail address, and teachers can send e-mails to a specific group of students — class, level, CCA or the entire school.
Launched in September 2009, the school’s ”21st century classroom” is equipped with infrared LED light pens, remote controls of the popular Nintendo Wii gaming console, and Samsung’s flatscreen TVs, which act as a multi-touch whiteboard. The classroom can house two classes at one time.
Students from disadvantaged families who cannot afford the MacBook will be rendered financial assistance and provisions will be made for by the school (an entry level MacBook on the Apple online store costs $1,488 while the higher-end MacBook Pro costs anywhere between S$1,788 to $3,398).
The school even has its own Apple Service Centre situated within its grounds in case students encounter any hardware or software issues with their MacBook.
To discourage the unrestricted use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter during school time, every student has a unique username and password to the school’s wireless network. As such, the school authorities can track down which websites have been visited.
Random checks are also conducted and teachers often use Apple Remote Desktop to monitor student internet activity.
In an interview with Yahoo! Singapore, Principal Mr Joseph Lim said that the institution places a lot of emphasis on technology in education, and has an excellent Information and Communication Technology-orientated culture to inculcate a sense of responsibility regarding the use of technology in students.
When asked about the impact of the 1:1 Learning Programme on students’ academic results, Mr Lim said, “While we place a lot of emphasis on technology, there’s always a balance, and I don’t think it has affected much on our students’ academic results.”
Darrell Tan, a Secondary One Maris Stella High School student, supports the school’s whole-hearted embrace of technology.
“The 1:1 Learning Programme gives me an entirely different learning environment and I’ve learned a lot from it — responsible use of technology, how to record podcasts and short clips, and tricks to better find information on the internet for my projects,” said the 13-year-old teen.
Maris Stella’s ground-breaking new program is also making waves among the student community far and wide.
17-year-old South Korean high school student Nigel Kaian Luke Lee from Daegu, Republic of Korea, told Yahoo! Singapore in an e-mail reply that he is “envious of the level of technology integrated into Maris Stella’s educational system”.
“I’m jealous. Republic of Korea can’t do it. Most teachers have negative thoughts about modern technology. They think it’s not efficient at all and creates unnecessary distractions for students,” he said.
Stefan Etienne, a 14-year-old technology US blogger for LaptopMemo, feels that tablets will play a significant role in the future educational system.
“I see education moving to technolgy in all sorts of ways — the tablet may just be the ideal answer, especially for young ones. And the iPad may be a perfect learning tool. But I also believe books will remain, at least for a while,” the Florida-based Gulliver High School student told Yahoo! via Skype.
But what of teachers – will they eventually be replaced by technology too?
Ng Zhan Ming, a 16-year-old ASEAN scholar at Maris Stella High thinks that teachers will not be out of job even though it is a general thinking that technology reduces the need for manual labour.
“Learning does not equal education. Technology can aid learning, but can’t educate. Education is about personal development and social skills, not just knowledge. Learning is only knowledge, so there must still be a human element in education,” he explained.
The writer is a 16-year-old technology blogger who loves social media and gadgets. He is also Singapore’s No. 1 Twitter user, with 190,000 followers. He also writes a column for www.happymarketer.com. He also recently graduated from Maris Stella High.