Ministry of Education

Loan 1756-SRI(SF):  Secondary Education Modernization Project

Software Development for Computer Assisted Learning

Background :

ICT literacy has become just as important as numeracy and basic literacy.  The main objective of introducing ICT to School is to improve the quality of overall education through the use of it as a tool for learning and teaching  the prescribed subjects of the school curriculum.

With the establishment of the Computer Learning Centres and the ICT Centres in the schools e-learning is used as a learning tool for the students and a teaching tool for teachers in the attempt of the Project to modernize education.  This opportunity is available globally to students in some developing countries.  Sri Lankan students are now been exposed to this sophisticated, modern learning process in urban as well as rural areas of the country. It has been introduced in about 1400 schools managed by the government to make the teaching learning process more interesting and meaningful to the students while providing computer skills to the students so that quality is achieved in the system. 

The concept of interactive teaching learning material proposed to be prepared will promote self learning and also will provide higher level learning opportunities by providing material that will enhance the deductive, visualizing, applying, synthesizing and analyzing abilities of the students while promoting improvement of English, independent learning and reflection

The government on its own as well as through donor agencies has invested heavily in the ICT infrastructure of the school system.  In addition to the ICT facilities at schools, a School Computer Network (SchoolNet) is to be setup soon linking all schools with Computer Learning Centres (CLCs), School ICT Centres, Computer Resource Centres (CRCs) Provincial ICT Centres, National Colleges of Education (NCOE), National Institute of Education (NIE) and Ministry of Education (MOE)   The real benefits of this total investment will depend on how innovative we are in using these ICT facilities and also the quantum of input that could be given to the students of the school system through these teaching and learning material that is proposed to be prepared and given to schools.

The following are few ways of using these:

• Use of ICT to teach subjects in the school curriculum through proper mix of multimedia (images, video clips, audio clips).  Such prepared material to be used for subjects of the school curriculum e.g. English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies for Grades upto OL and for Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Combined Mathematics, Agriculture, History, Geography, Economics, Accountancy, Languages, Commerce for AL. With the use of such material Computer Learning Centres (CLCs) can be turned into lively Centres with extremely high productivity.  The end result would be students who are not only well versed in the subject but who are in possession of computer skills which are a prerequisite for present day employment. 

• Recently MOE has started promoting English Medium instruction and ICT as a national ptogramme.  It is expected to use Computer Learning Centres (CLCs) to teach the subjects in the English Medium using the latest technologies to fulfill the dearth of teachers who are proficient to teach in English.  Since most of the Centres are equipped with Computers having multimedia facilities, (speakers & headphones), these can be easily turned into language laboratories too.

• With the SchoolNet providing dedicated Internet access, MOE will be opening the entire world to our students, in a controlled way, through these centres.

There are approximately 1400 Computer Learning Centres and ICT Centres in the schools which are in operation.  ADB-SEMP II will be providing further 350 centres to senior secondary schools within next two year.  Also MOE is planning to provide Computers to junior secondary as well as primary classes in all schools.

At present, in most of these Computer Learning Centres, teaching of commercial applications like office productivity suite has been the key focus area along with few teacher made teachning learning material which are very basic.  In addition to these, programming is also taught in some Centres at very small scale.  However, Ministry of Education strongly believes, as mentioned at the beginning, the usage of ICT for learning and teaching subjects of the school curriculum with well professionally prepared material, which is the most important aspect that is expected from this huge investment in ICT. 

Objectives of providing teaching learning material:

• To enhance the teaching/ learning process in schools from Grades 1 ? 13.

• To provide basic computer skills to students
  
   
• To be used for self-learning which promotes higher levels of learning.

• To expose students and teachers to language skills i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing-using a different approach.

• To be used as a material related to the achievement levels provided to government schools.

• Material that is supported by text books, work books or exercise CDs.

• To introduce the concept of e-learning in schools.

• For teachers to improve their methods in teaching.

• For students to learn in ? the fun way ?.

• To provide Games that teach Languages and other subjects.

This is typically referred to as ?Computer Assisted Learning? (CAL) and the final outcome expected is the overall improvement of general quality of education.

Proposed task:

The interested institutions should indicate the capability of preparation of Computer Assisted Learning material on selected subjects based on the school curriculum and the Grades for which they could prepare teaching learning material. The software teaching learning material should posses interactivity with sound, animations and graphics for the content of the subject and should  finally lead to assignments for assessment of students on that particular content area. The material should be in all three languages, Sinhala, Tamil and English.

The desired duration of the lesson will be about 30 - 35 mins. Each CD so prepared should contain material pertaining to one grade and covering the content of one subject.