Chandra Devi

The Alice Smith School has all the elements we envisioned our smart schools to be.  It has the technology and infrastructure to facilitate the learning, teaching and management of the school.  There are also computer labs and classrooms equipped with technology to enhance the learning process.

There is an integrated system that overlooks and correlates the learning environment, allowing teachers, students and parents to be involved.  And above all, the teachers and staff have the right mindset and attitude to bring out the best of technology usage.

The international school';s success at integrating technology at all levels of educational management and learning can be used as a model for our public schools.

Its best practices and paths it trods to achieve a wholesome learning environment can set us in the right direction.  Its experience and perspective will be helpful to guide us.

The school began its system integration plan in August last year when Michael Welland, Vice Principal of Alice Smith Secondary School, took charge of the school’s technology development plans.  Prior to that, it had its fair share of technological hiccups such as standalone solutions that did not speak to each other, data stored all over the place, and learning, teaching and management functions that did not co-ordinate.

Welland, an experienced academic in using technology in the learning environment, decided to integrate the functions of the school to create a managed learning environment.

He decided with the school authorities on School Information and Management System (SIMS), a management information system for schools and SIMS.net Learning Platform, an Internet-based learning environment for developing, managing and delivering learning activities and online communities.

He says the school opted for SIMS for several reasons.  One key reason was that the company that developed SIMS, Capita Education Services, had a proven track record in supplying a range of software and services to over 26,000 schools in the United Kingdom to meet their information management and administrative needs.

The school invested RM140,000 covering installation and staff training, and today it has in place a complete system that, among others, covers academic management, financial management, lesson monitoring, curriculum planning, examinations planning, assessments, student attendance and registration and admission.  In order to have better access to the stored data, Welland says the school also moved onto the SQL platform.

The main database module in the SIMS system is the Student Tracking and Academic Record (STAR) which holds a wide range of personal information about each pupil.  What’s unique about this module, he says, is that it integrates with other modules throughout the SIMS system.

“It records core pupil data once and uses the same data multiple times within all SIMS modules.  This means that no repetitive re-entry of personal data is required to produce outputs,” he highlights.

Besides managing basic pupil information, organising student curriculum by automatically allocating students to classes, conducting sophisticated analysis and reporting routines, the SIMS also has special needs management modules.

Welland explains that the module is in place to help identify and monitor pupils who require additional support and full access to individual education plans.

“Today, we have a complete integrated database of students and staff.  The system is comprehensive, user-friendly, easy to use and dynamic in the sense that it grows with our needs,” he adds.

To support independent learning, the school has also developed its intranet.  Aside from that, it has set up four dedicated ICT labs equipped with 25 Pentium 4 PCs, digital scanners, networked laser printers, colour inkjet printers and overhead liquid crystal display (LCD) projectors.

In addition, every classroom is equipped with a computer and a ceiling-mounted LCD projector while clusters of computers with Internet connections are installed in the library.

Welland says each faculty and department in the school contributes in developing the intranet for resources for students and staff use.  Teachers and students use it as an integral part of the teaching-learning process.

By next April, he says, all resources on the intranet will be moved into the SIMS platform to enhance curriculum and lesson planning, and also help teachers tailor lessons according to students’ needs.

Another area the school is working on is the integration of Microsoft Learning Gateway, an Internet-based information and communications tool that gives parent secure access to individual student data directly from SIMS. Parents can review everything from their child’s daily attendance and homework assignments to assessment grades, timetable information and school activities from anywhere in the world.