BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Ministry of Education’s Media and In-Service Centre (MiSC) are looking at developing student inclined programmes and applications for 21st century learning.

The centre is also looking to partner with international companies towards becoming a profit-oriented organisation.

MiSC’s Centre Manager Suffian Said told The Brunei Times that they have been coming up with initiatives such as Game-Based Learning to make education more interactive and engaging.

He explained that education institutions will soon incorporate the concept in the curriculum.

Teachers are encouraged to use digital games as an education tool to get students more interested and enthusiastic about learning.

Suffian said they are also currently collaborating with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to design five e-books.

“This is where we are putting practices we learnt from our consultants into place. Basically, the content is from the ACB and the Curriculum Department... MiSC develops them here,” he said.

The centre – launched late 2013 – has been fully managed and operated by the Ministry of Education since last April. Previously, they had support from consultants to propel and guide the start-up process, such as human capacity building.

The most important role MiSC plays is to narrow the gap in classrooms, said the centre manager.

“For example in 21st century learning, the expected methods are using digital resources. However, we still have teachers using the traditional way of teaching. This could be because of the shortage of resources at schools,” he said.

Suffian added that before the existence of MiSC, several app developers had presented apps for learning to the ministry.

However, teachers pointed out that many of the apps could not be used because their content and language were not aligned to the curriculum.

“What we do not want are for the app developers to assume the problems in the classroom. It is better for them to learn our process... and align their apps with the needs of teachers and students,” he said.

“We hope that more teachers will realise that when they want to develop something, they must use the proper processes by engaging us for the benefit of the students,” he said.

This way, the digital content and product will not only be aligned to the curriculum, but will be appealing to students for the purpose of their learning, he added.

Suffian went on to say that students also provided feedback which was used to improve the apps.

Currently, all apps that have been introduced are developed within the MiSC. However, the ministry is looking to outsource the process in the future.

With this in mind Suffian said the only way forward for MiSC is to transform into a profit-oriented organisation.

“We are looking to get our local talents involved in the production process by working with international companies and potential investors. That way, we will be able to bring our Bruneians to another level. This platform for them to be able to be engaged in real projects will open up another economic dimension,” he said.

“We need to move forward and penetrate into the international market and we need to work with established institutions in the digital media industry,” he added.

The centre’s manager said eventhough their focus is on education, they cannot deny the opportunity to partner with international companies on projects related to digital media.

“If you are talking about the country’s diversification, there is a potential here and we have to seize it,” he said.

The MiSC currently boasts 10 local staff with backgrounds ranging from teaching and graphic design, among others.

The vision of MiSC is to be a world-class digital learning hub for the Ministry of Education.

It looks to bring together the wonders of digital technology with the values of MIB-centric education to develop high quality interactive learning media, empower teacher capacity development and assist in the catalysing of national economic development in digital media.

The Brunei Times