Compex powers e-learning @ Crescent Girls’ School 

Background 

Crescent Girls’ School is a 1400-student secondary school that has been recognized by Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) as a Fast-Track School. Says Mrs Lee Bee Yann, the School Principal, “Crescent has a rich culture of using IT for teaching and learning [...]. Our long-term goal is to enable anywhere, anytime, personalized teaching.”  

The Challenge 

While most schools appreciate the benefits of digital learning, many lack the right infrastructure to fully take advantage of the current technologies available. From the onset, Crescent felt the need for a mobile computing platform that would not be limited by issues such as short battery life and lack of integration into school networks, and looked into the use of Tablet PCs as a more effective complement to school environments.  The swift acceptance of the Tablet PCs into the school grounds led many to reason that only a school-wide wireless network would give Tablet PC users true mobility to access learning content anytime anywhere on campus, providing the crucial last link in Crescent’s e-learning transformation.

Under the BackPack.net pilot programme launched by Singapore’s IDA to harness technology for making learning fun and easy through a virtually text-free environment, COMPEX has worked closely with other local industry partners to provide seamless wireless coverage for all 7 buildings within Crescent’s school grounds. To achieve this end, the project implementers chose COMPEX’s wireless-AG NetPassage18, a flexible WPA-secured Internet gateway with integrated 4-port switch, supporting both Web administration and remote SNMP management.

The entire cohort of Secondary One students is using individual tablet PCs, paperless lessons and interactive learning are part of the daily classroom activities. They are now able to communicate with one another or with their teacher through e-mails or instant messaging, submit their homework online, participate in group discussions or group projects, anytime anywhere within the school grounds. They can also access online lesson materials and even search for information from the World Wide Web while their teachers monitor the class activities from their own Tablet PCs.  In this wireless school, outdoors horticulture lessons are even conducted in the field, with real-time consultation with orchid specialists, on how best to graft the school’s hybrid turquoise and yellow orchid.

Currently, more than 300 students and teachers on-the-go are enjoying the school-wide wireless connectivity deployed with COMPEX technology but this number is soon expected to grow to 1800, to enclose the whole campus population, an indication of Crescent’s commitment to the M-learning initiative for mobile digital learning.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Minister of Education concluded “BackPack.NET is a fine example of an initiative of an initiative that brings together researchers, industry developers and schools to throw open new possibilities in learning, in and out of the classroom. All it takes is imagination and boldness.”

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