EDU 646

CURRENT ISSUES IN EDUCATION

NAME & ID : MOHD LUQMAN DINIE BIN SHAARI (2013416442)

MOHD HAFIZUDDIN BIN HASSAN (2015636524)

GROUP : ED241 8A

PREPARED FOR : DR ROHAYA

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, ICT application plays an important role in school. The school are

following the trend of technology nowadays in order for ensuring the students are not left

behind especially in education. Many schools nowadays practice to apply ICT skills in

teaching and learning process. The government also are spending quiet huge amount of

budget and allocate it to the school students in secondary and primary school. These ICT

budget are good for the development of students in term of ICT and technology advancement.

Besides that, the ICT and technology in school also are not new things in our country;

it is a thing that government want to establish in students teaching and learning. Technology

can be used to improve teaching and learning and help our students be successful.

However, technology can be a “force multiplier” for the teacher. Instead of the teacher being

the only source of help in a classroom, students can access web sites, online tutorials, and

more to assist them. Technology also has the ability to enhance relationships between

teachers and students. When teachers effectively integrate technology into subject areas,

teachers grow into roles of adviser, content expert, and coach. Technology helps make

teaching and learning more meaningful and fun.

Technology also can be used in Teaching and Learning as the power to

transform teaching by ushering in a new model of connected teaching. This model

links teachers to their students and to professional content, resources, and systems to help

them improve their own instruction and personalize learning. Actually, technology in the

classroom is nothing new. In fact, it has been around for decades. It is only over the last

couple of years, though, that technology has been making massive inroads into schools and

the education system, particularly in the international and private schools, with many
boasting 1:1 device-to-student ratios. Indeed, the role of technology in the classroom has

changed dramatically in recent years, leading to discussion and debate among educators and

parents as to whether technology is a helpful or harmful force in the learning process.

Given the increasing significance that technology plays in our lives today, it makes

sense that it should be integrated into our children’s education – and not just in a “by the

way” fashion – because education is about preparing children for the real world and

technology is a big part of that world. To better understand the impact of technology in

classrooms, we took a look at how schools have integrated technology into their curricula and

how technology has transformed the learning environment.

ABOUT FROG-VLE

Frog services schools all over the world and in 2011 secured a contract in Malaysia

which saw Frog rolled out to over 10,000 schools across the country. This contract secured

Frog as the state procured VLE used by students and teachers in Malaysia. Malaysia was the

first country in the world to roll-out a 4G network and VLE at the same time. Following the

two companies working together and integrating their products for 1, in 2012 Frog Education

acquired I-Education, owner of I Am Learning, games based revision and assessment system

designed to help students improve their results. This development also saw Steve Holt and

Michael Wilkinson, who founded I-Education join Frog's Board of Directors.

With the 2014 National Curriculum, Frog developed their product to help schools

navigate this change, particularly around the removal of national attainment levels. The

following year, Frog became a founding partner in Life after Levels along with the NAHT, a

project designed to guide schools through assessment without levels. Frog has designed

Curriculum Designer for the project which is free to all schools.

Currently Frog provides four tech solutions to schools all over the world; 'Curriculum,

Assessment & Progress' allows schools to build their curriculum from scratch or by editing

the collection of curriculums provided by Frog Partners such as the NAHT, Rising Stars, and

NAACE. This software then allows teachers and students to monitor student progress with a

range of innovative tools that simplify a sometimes complicated process.

'Home Learning' is a homework solution for schools to set and manage student’s

homework. This included 250,000 self-marking questions which have been written in line

with the national curriculum. This solution also has a formative feedback feature.
'Intervention & Catch-Up' has been designed to assist schools with children that have fallen

behind. It has been particularly popular in the secondary market to help children in year 7.

'Parental Engagement' is a tool to link home and school through a combination of apps, and a

timeline showing parents and care givers what pupils have achieved at school.

In Malaysia, the Frog VLE is available to all 10,000 schools in the country through

the 1BestariNet project. It is an award-winning, cloud-based virtual learning environment that

has been designed by Frog Education to simplify and enhance teaching and learning,

communication and administration. With experience in the market for nearly 15 years the

Frog VLE is not just used in Malaysia, but is also being used worldwide in 23 countries, in

over 12,000 schools, and more than 20 million users within a community of teachers and

learners.
PEOPLE WHO ARE INVOLVE

Teachers

Frog-VLE makes the teacher duty and work become easier in school. Teachers can

use the Frog VLE to teach their lessons, give homework, and keep track of student

performance virtually. School Administrators can manage school calendars and create school

notices via the Frog VLE. Besides that, it makes teacher easier to give homework and

monitor it. Students also may do their homework by using Frog-VLE. Teacher also can

directly monitor a task or homework that given by them. Therefore, nowadays school

technology makes the life of teacher become easier.

Students

Students also are important parties that involve in the successful of the uses for Frog-

VLE. Students can access the Frog VLE to obtain learning and revision material anytime,

anywhere. They may finish their homework easily in their home and if they do not know how

to answer the question, they will ask their friends and teacher in their school by using online

forum or as known as “The Pond” in Frog-VLE. Therefore, students nowadays cannot make

an excuse if they do not complete the homework, task or assignment that being given by a

teachers. Besides that, they can also complete and submit homework assigned by their

teachers as well as collaborate with each other.

Parents

As we know, nowadays parents are almost of them are a busy parents. Most of parents

nowadays work on 9 hour to 10 hour a day. They work at about 8.00 am until 5.00 pm in a

day for normal hour. Therefore they do not have a time win weekdays for their kids and

children. They only have a time for their kids and children only in weekends. Therefore,
through the Frog VLE, busy parents can find out what's happening in their children's school

through the school noticeboard. What's more, they can also be updated with their children's

academic progress. Parents also do not have to come to school in order to know their children

performance and result.

A variety of useful widgets

Teachers create lesson "Sites" in the Frog VLE and fill it with selection of widgets

that perform a variety of functions. Over 29 widgets are available in the Frog VLE, with

functions like video playing, file downloading, student discussions and more. Besides that,

the video playing a good teaching aids for school students. It can attract students to be more

focus and not boring. Students who have an ability such as visualize students are more

understand in learning by using a visual aids approach. Shepard and Cooper (1982) and

Mayer and Gallini (1990) made the connection between visual clues, the memory process,

and the recall of new knowledge. Allam (2006) observes that the creative challenge of using

moving images and sound to communicate a topic indeed engaging and insightful, but adds

that it also enables students to acquire a range of transferable skills in addition to filmmaking

itself.

Drag and drop lesson site builder

Building a lesson site with the Frog VLE is like playing with Lego blocks. Using drag

and drop actions and a variety of available widgets, teachers can quickly build attractive sites

that are rich with content and easy for students as well as other teachers to use. There are

some advantages in using websites in school teaching and learning. The first is improving

communication. The students can easily improve communication by using a websites as a

medium of interactive in learning. The teacher also may contact with their students after class

by using “the pond” which is stated in Frog-VLE. It helps students and teacher virtually in

their teaching and learning. Therefore, students, teacher and parents will get a lots of benefit

by using this kind of tools.

Because the Frog VLE is integrated into a cloud-based network, you can access it at

any location with Internet. Students can collaborate with teachers in their school and outside

of school easily. As long as the internet still there, the teaching and learning may take place.

Besides, students may use a smart phone in order to ensure the teaching and learning will

take place. Teaching and learning can be take place at any place even in shopping mall, in a

public transport or even in restaurant. Students may having a forum and online discussion

with their teacher everywhere and anytime. The things that students need just a gadget and

internet in order for them to ensure the teaching and learning will be take place.

Beyond just delivering lessons

Schools can use administrative tools in the Frog VLE to better manage administration,

extra co-curricular bodies or clubs can create Sites that their members can contribute too and

teachers can use Sites for school competitions. The possibilities are endless. Furthermore, the

teacher and school administrative also will be saving in term of their budget because every

marketing on school programme will only post in Frog-VLE. Teacher and school will not

spend their money in order for them to print out the marketing event. They just posting in

Frog-VLE as a medium of online or cloud network and every people can access and see it.

Besides that, if the booking of event dates and event place like a hall can be book by using

Frog-VLE. Teacher can easily book it by open the laptop in classroom. This may easily for

them and make a time to be very consuming. Teacher, students and school administrative

may just focusing on delivering the teaching and knowledge and give the best to each other.

By this, everyone will feel the work are not too burden and everyone will enjoying using a

Frog-VLE in their working place especially in school.

The issue that are much related with Frog-VLE is being a sensation issue in education

world nowadays. There are some parties that really support and there also people or parties

that does not support this kind of tools in education. Many education and non-education

parties being play an important role in order to ensure this kind of issue does not being a

negative issue. There are a lot of sources of issue in implementation of Frog-VLE and it is

include in the social media, in newspaper and also in the research article.

The first issue that had been discussing is from the “News Straight Times” which is

“Ambitious 1BestariNet flawed from the start” that had been written by Hazlina Aziz in

November 9, 2016. The issue is about the implementation of Frog-VLE in school has flawed

from the start. It has been shows that many parties are find it hard to establish in school

because there students and teacher are not being exposed and updates with this kind of tools

and software. Besides that, the newspaper also has been mentioned that teacher and students

need to have own gadget and they need to bring it to school. Many parties are said that if

students bring the gadget to school, then they will do other things with the gadget and they

will not use it for learning in the classroom. Besides that, there is some issue which is if the

gadget has been stolen, therefore who should be blame? This is the issue that need to be

address for many parties if want to implementing the Frog-VLE in school nowadays.

The second issue that has been found in this report is an issue from a social media,

which is from a Facebook Group “Kelab Intelek dan Pendidikan Malaysia”. The issue is

about the Key Performance Index that had been establish by the government in order to

ensure the teacher has been use a Frog-VLE in teaching and learning in School. The social

media user especially the Facebook user are not very happy with this situation because they

feel that it will be burden for them in term of the facility itself. It is because the facilities are
not too complete and the key performance index needs to be achieved. The reality situation is

students in school can’t completely use the Frog-VLE in teaching and learning because of the

computer and internet access is not good in some of the rural area. The rural area such as

Sabah and Sarawak do not have an access for internet thus the Frog-VLE cannot be

implementing in that particular school.

Besides that, there are also some sort of issue that had been address in the article

which is the research from UKM, Bangi by Shahfiezul Shahaimi and Fariza Khalid. The tittle

of this article are “Persekitaran Pembelajaran Maya Frog (VLE-Frog) Di Sekolah-Sekolah Di

Malaysia: Pelaksanaan Dan Cabaran. Both researchers are from Faculty of Education, UKM.

The issue that related to Frog-VLE in this research are about the quality of students work by

using a Frog-VLE to complete their homework. From this research, it has been found that the

students are easily to copy from internet if they get the homework that need to be complete.

They just copy it from internet and send it to their teacher and students revealed it as their

own work. This is plagiarism and it happens when this kind of tool or software has been

established in school nowadays. Furthermore, the second issue that had been stress out by the

researcher is a low involvement among VLE FROG community members. This issue happen

when there are some students who have a gadget and may use Frog-VLE instantly and

rapidly. For the student who does not have a gadget, therefore they will not easily to use very

wisely. This situation will lead towards the low involvement of the students in using Frog-

VLE.

Besides that, the third issue that had been address is about the limited of internet

access and gadget for a students and teacher in order to use Frog-VLE in school. The teacher

and students can’t or have a limited space for using Frog-VLE because of they do not have

enough budget buy a gadget for the students. The government and school try to solve the

problem and allocate a some budget for Frog-VLE but yet, still it can’t be solve.
 Besides that, there are some issue that had been get from another articles which is

from Norazilawati Abdullah, Noraini Mohamed Noh, Nik Azmah Nik Yussoff and Rosnidar

Mansor from Fakulti Pendidikan dan Pembangunan Manusia, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan

Idris. The tittles of the research are “Aplikasi Persekitaran Pengajaran Maya (Frog-VLE)

Dalam Kalangan Guru Sains”. The objective of this research is to investigate the strength and

weakness of the application of Frog-VLE among science teacher. From this research, it has

been found that the issue is about the teacher are lack of information and skills in using Frog-

VLE although there is a lot of course that conduct by Ministry of Education in order to ensure

the teacher become “master” in using Frog-VLE.

Furthermore, the real issue that many parties are afraid are students will have a

tendency to do another work for example they may open another social media in classroom

when the Frog-VLE session. Students will do another work in classroom and they will lose

some sort of focus. Therefore this situation will lead to the drop of student’s performance in

learning and examination. This is why this kind of situation has been keep discussing because

many parties are afraid if this situation of Frog-VLE will happen in school nowadays.
OPINION

From my opinion, it can be seen that this application or as we known as Frog-VLE will

give a lots of benefit to students, parents and teacher because as we know that, it will make

students can easily get information from many sources. The teacher may not be burdened

with lots of work because Frog-VLE not only promotes teaching and learning, but also

promotes some sort of management work in school. Teacher just needs a laptop and internet

access then all the long day work will be settling. For parents, how busy they are, they still

can monitor and being update with their kids’ activities and performance in school. Parents

can monitor directly their kid’s engagement in school activities, besides they also may

contact directly and chat with the school teacher. Furthermore, as we know the other country

already implement Frog-VLE in their school when teaching and learning session. The

country such as United Kindom and USA has established as a compulsory teaching and

learning tools for teacher and students. For me, if our students have already use it in teaching

and learning, in the future, our students will be at the same level with other well developing

country students. This is the benefit of Frog-VLE in my side of opinion.

Although there are some sorts of issue of the allocation of the budget, therefore my

suggestion is the school need to collaborate with another High-Technology Company in order

to ensure the quality of the usage of Frog-VLE in school. The High-Technology company

itself might be funded for the Frog-VLE in order to benefit the students.

Lastly, my recommendation is teachers need to be well train and “master” the usage of

Frog-VLE in order to ensure the students know how to use it. Teachers need to fully utilise

the Frog-VLE component in order to ensure students get the benefit of this application. This

is my recommendation about how to overcome the problem of Frog-VLE in teaching and

learning in school nowadays.

Shahfiezul & Fariza (2016). Persekitaran Pembelajaran Maya (Frog VLE) di sekolah-
sekolah di Malaysia: Perlaksanaan dan Cabaran. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi.

Norazilawati, Noraini, Nik Azmah, Rosnidar (2016). Aplikasi Persekitaran Pengajaran Maya
(Frog VLE) Dalam Kalangan Guru Sains. Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjug Malim.

Hazlina (2016). Ambitious 1BestariNet flawed from the start. Noveber 9, News Strats Times.