Y.A.B. Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin Haji Mohd Yassin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia today paid a visit to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Bukit Pasir (SMK Bukit Pasir), in Muar to view the ICT facilities at the school. The facilities, provisioned under SchoolNet project, were provided via fiber optic infrastructure (Fiber-to-the-School or FTTS) by Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) – the first of such deployment to SchoolNet’s school outside the Klang Valley.
Present to accompany Y.A.B. Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin during the visit were Datuk Wira Kamaruddin Siaraf, Secretary General, Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, Datuk Dr. Halim Shafie, Chairman of TM and Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM.
With the fibre optic infrastructure, it opens a ‘broadband highway’ which provides the school with a broadband connection of 10Mbps. Fibre infrastructure can accommodate higher speeds at anytime to provide fast Internet access for bandwidth-hungry applications and Data Transfer as well as Video Conferencing.
During his visit, Y.A.B. Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin was given a briefing and presentation on how the deployment of fibre infrastructure for schools under the SchoolNet project can benefit the schools as well as the surrounding community.
As the broadband infrastructure provider for the project, TM showcased teaching and learning applications riding on the 10Mbps Internet connection such as Podcasting, Video Conferencing with Sekolah Seri Puteri in Cyberjaya and SchoolZone Portal. LAN management was also displayed as it is essential in managing the ICT infrastructure and facilities at the school.
Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani said: “As the nation’s next generation communications provider, TM is glad to play its role in bringing the ICT world to the community of SMK Bukit Pasir. In addition, fully aware of the importance of education in developing a nation, TM is happy to continuously play a pivotal role in Corporate Responsibilities (CR) for the local communities. Towards this end, the provision of SchoolNet infrastructure and ICT facilities at SMK Bukit Pasir is hoped to assist the students here in equipping themselves with better IT knowledge and skills. Based on a three-pronged objective which is to introduce the use of ICT in education, to introduce schools as community centre for ICT knowledge dissemination and to bridge the digital divide, this effort is yet another testament of TM’s commitment in supporting national aspirations of producing a knowledge community.”
The fibre infrastructure deployed will enable the students and the teachers to experience a whole new digital lifestyle, allowing them to enjoy enhanced learning and teaching experience at the schools anytime in any format, interact virtually with anyone, anywhere at any time and make the most out of what the Internet can offer. The broadband connection also opens up the possibilities for the communities to connect, communicate and collaborate with the outside world.
Currently, the infrastructure has been deployed to five (5) schools in Cyberjaya, 20 schools in Putrajaya and one (1) school in Muar. SMK Bukit Pasir is the only school under SchoolNet project that has been provisioned with fibre optic infrastructure outside Klang Valley.
SchoolNet is a network infrastructure which was deployed in 2004 with the aim to equip up to 10,000 schools throughout Malaysia with broadband Internet access. SchoolNet is a virtual private network which provides broadband Internet connection to schools and it is the latest approach in Malaysia’s learning system to provide learning facilities beyond the classroom towards realizing the Government’s aspirations to develop a world class education system and produce a knowledge-based nation.
The idea of SchoolNet was mooted by the then Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications and Ministry of Education. Following this, GITN Sdn. Bhd. (GITN), a subsidiary of TM which offers a comprehensive range of infrastructure, hardware and software to various Government agencies, was mandated as the project manager to roll-out SchoolNet via its Internet Virtual Private Network (IPVPN).
SchoolNet infrastructure is delivered to the schools through three types of technology namely Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Wireless and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) technology, where applicable and provides broadband connectivity with speeds up to 4Mbps utilising SchoolNet’s network.
SchoolNet offers various applications to its users which include electronic communication applications e.g. e-mail and newsgroup, remote access application, file transfer application, information distribution application and information search application.
With SchoolNet, students nationwide, both primary and secondary schools will benefit from the broadband access and Internet applications. SchoolNet creates a more dynamic learning environment that provides quick access to online education information as well as interactive communications. Students are also able to exchange data and information with other users in the network.
In addition, the teachers in all SchoolNet schools throughout the country can leverage on the infrastructure to turn a classroom into an interesting environment for the students, hence nurturing the students’ interests towards education. It brings teaching and learning process to another level, providing a richer, more effective, more interactive and advanced experience.
To make it even more interesting, the webportal for SchoolNet, known as SchoolZone was introduced in 2008 with the aim of becoming a one-stop portal for the school community. At the webportal, students and teachers can look for information on other schools and SchoolNet, enhance the sharing of information about their schools and communicate with each other as well as optimize the role of specialized teachers in the country. Through this technology, a specialized teacher is able to teach a subject to more classes within the same school and other schools. The portal also enables the teachers to share the interactive learning and teaching modules among each other. School IT teachers are trained on how to make full use of the portal by the SchoolZone facilitators.
To ensure full utilization of SchoolNet, in January 2008, a school adoption programme called GITN TechnoGogy Learning in Schools (GTL Schools) was initiated in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. Currently, the GTL programme has been extended to 50 schools in sub-urban and rural areas nationwide. The schools are selected based on their low usage of SchoolNet. The programme was implemented to encourage the schools to fully utilize the SchoolNet facilities to improve their learning and teaching methods.
For this cause, an IT Corner or “Sudut IT” was established at the selected schools computer labs. This includes upgrading the computers as well as providing 5 new computers, Digital Camera and Web Camera/Headsets to the schools. Internet connectivity via wireless broadband utilising the existing SchoolNet’s network was also provided to enable the students and the teachers to access the Internet and reap its benefits. In addition, the schools were provided with 10 tutor.com accounts, an online learning portal for students to do online revision to prepare them for their examinations.
Besides that, these GTL schools are also provided with SchoolNet facilitators. The facilitators, supported by ICT equipment at each school, plays the role of educating the students, the teachers as well as the surrounding community on ICT applications and how ICT can be a medium for teaching and learning process and reap the full benefit from its usage.
In other words, SchoolNet introduces a new learning environment that stimulates the students to be more creative, imaginative and analytical in order to produce a skilled and highly-skilled workforce who are well-equipped to face the challenge of ICT era.
The implementation of this initiative is in line with the Government’s aspiration of bridging the digital divide and information gap between schools in urban and rural areas in the effort to produce a knowledge-based society to bring the country to the next level.
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