Characteristics and Benefits
The Smart School Teaching-Learning Materials will be designed to fully support the new teaching-learning strategies for Smart Schools.
Characteristics
- Meets curricular and instructional needs, is cost effective, as well as cosmetically and technically adequate.
- Cognitively challenging, attractive, motivates students to learn, and encourages active participation.
- Combines the best of network-based, teacher-based and courseware materials.
Benefits
- Accommodates students’ different needs and abilities resulting in the fuller realisation of students’ capabilities and potential.
- Students take responsibility for managing and directing their own learning.
Conceptual Selection and Evaluation Guidelines
Conceptual selection and evaluation guidelines for teaching-learning materials will cover five main criteria. Meets curricular and instructional needs, is cost effective, as well as cosmetically and technically adequate.
Instruction Adequacy
- Promotes vertical and horizontal integration
- Considers different capabilities of students and teachers
- Suitable for a variety of learning environments
- Well designed interface
- Professionally done
- Adaptable to different teaching-learning styles
Curriculum Adequacy
- In-line with curriculum specifications
- Promotes values, skills (especially thinking skills), knowledge, and language across the curriculum
- Consistent with teaching-learning objectives
- Content is accurate and up-to-date
- Content is relevant to student’s environment
- Assessment is built-in
Cosmetic Adequacy
- Graphic quality
- Video quality
- Animation quality
- Voice & sound quality
- Layout quality
- Colour and fonts quality
Technical Adequacy
- User-friendly
- Clear and comprehensive manuals and guides
Cost Effectiveness
- Value for money
Individual Learning Preferences and the Need for Variety
Smart School teachers will be enabled, through the use of technology, to consider students’ individual learning preferences in designing and recommending instructional methods and materials. The teaching-learning materials shall be cognitively challenging, attractive, motivates students to learn, and encourages active participation. Furthermore, because children have different learning styles, they will need a variety of materials to maximise their learning potential.
See below for an example of a "Smart School Toolbox" that caters for a wide range of individual learning preferences, as well as an example of a variety of Teaching-Learning materials.
Conventional Media
Conventional media, commonly used in today’s educational settings, will still feature in Smart Schools. They can be divided into three main categories:
Printed (Paper-Based)
Examples:
- Books
- Encyclopaedias
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Documents
- Flat Pictures
- Drawings/Paintings
- Maps
- Graphs/Charts/Diagrams
- Posters
- Cartoons/Comics
3-D Objects
Examples:
- Globes
- Puppets
- Models
- Mock-ups
- Collections
- Specimens
Audio/Visual
Examples:
- Slide-Tapes
- Filmstrips
- Radio Programmes
- TV Programmes
- Motion-Picture Films
- Microfilms/Microfiches
- Audio Cards
- Audio Tapes
High-Technology Media
Conventional media will be used in an integrated manner with high-technology media, for example, computer-based teaching-learning materials and software that fulfil the various needs and capabilities of students. These would combine the best of network-based, teacher-based and courseware materials.
Examples of computer-based media and how they would suit individual learning styles is shown below.
Sources of Teaching-Learning Materials
Teaching-learning materials will be acquired from a wide range of sources, and will no longer be limited by resources within schools. In addition to libraries, businesses, homes, government departments, other sources include the Edunet, the Internet and classified printed directories.
