K-Perak E-learning Cluster (KPEC) Project

This initiative draws on both face-to-face capacity building and specialist online support in an effort to bridge the digital divide, build online communities, foster intercultural understanding, and improve capacity in the use of ICT for educational purposes. International cooperation is key in making this communication as effective as possible, in that it draws on CORE's experience with designing and delivering a national-level (New Zealand) programme of professional development in ICT using a cluster-based model. Having designed a programme for Malaysia that is informed by the principles that have underpinned the New Zealand experience, CORE's in-school facilitators worked to support teachers at the 5 Malaysian schools through ICT training, and also provided professional development for identified teachers from the selected schools ("mentor teachers"). Teaching and learning content is made available to teachers through the project website, which features an interactive forum.

Through this capacity building process, teachers are guided in creating "virtual field trips", which emphasise student participation and collaboration both between the cluster schools and with schools in New Zealand. Specifically, LEARNZ is an online education programme for students in New Zealand's state, private, and integrated schools which offers students the chance to stay at school while "virtually visiting" places they might have otherwise never seen, and to interact with people whom they might have otherwise never met. Students' participation is supported by online background materials and activities, and is enabled using live audioconferencing, web board and diaries, and images and videos uploaded daily.

Drawing on this concept, the KPEC Project has centred around audio conferences that involve students preparing a set of questions and talking them through with teachers; the recorded discussions have been used in the classrooms in follow-up activities. These types of virtual field trips were undertaken by the form 5 English class at SMK Raja Perempuan Kelsom, who were studying People and the Environment with an emphasis on using English for informational use. To cite another example, a team of 10 students from SK Seri Bayu visited the Seri Manjung Weather Station as one of the first steps in their wind study. The student reporters took photos and made notes, which they will share first with the rest of their class and then with the students at Korokoro Primary, a New Zealand school.

As a culmination of this experience, a celebration event was held that featured prominent personnel visiting the schools' displays and talking to the students about their activities. This event used webcameras and the KPEC chatroom to foster communication with teachers and students in Perak and New Zealand.

An assessment rubric has been developed that will be used to measure achievement in the KPEC programme.

Education.