TM CONTINUES ITS EFFORTS TO INCREASE ICT LITERACY AMONG COMMUNITIES

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today contributed additional computers to SJK (C) Serendah for its computer lab and honoured excellent students from 4 schools in Serendah and active users of the Serendah Community Broadband Centre (Serendah CBC) in a ceremony held at Serendah CBC in Taman Seri Serendah, Serendah, Hulu Selangor.

TM, mindful of its role in boosting ICT literacy among the students and the local communities, today continues to play the role by giving away 2 computers for the computer lab of SJK (C) Serendah.

The contributions were handed over by YB. Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim, Minister of Information, Communications and Culture. Also present at the event was Dato’ Kairul Annuar Mohamed Zamzam, Executive Vice President, Government, TM.

The 2 computers to SJK (C) Serendah are in addition to the 3 units of computers that were handed over to the school by YB. Senator Heng Seai Kie, Deputy Minister of Information, Communications and Cultureyesterday. Earlier last night, TM also handed over 2 computers to SJK (C) Khing Ming and 1 computer equipped with broadband Internet connection to Serendah Community Centre in a ceremony held at Sen See Yeh Temple in Serendah.

By providing the school with the computers, TM aims to encourage the younger generation to embrace ICT and be part of the information society by giving them a chance to be exposed to wider usage of the ICT facilities. It is hoped that the students of SJK (C) Serendah can acquire better computer skills while equipping themselves with better IT knowledge. With 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 initiative is yet another testament of TM’s commitment in supporting national aspirations of producing a knowledge community.

At the same event, TM also honoured 11 high-achieving students from 4 primary and secondary schools in Serendah who obtained excellent results in their respective examinations recently. The students were from the following schools:

a) SJK (C) Serendah – 3 UPSR students
b) SK Antara Gapi – 1 UPSR student
c) SK Serendah – 3 UPSR students
d) SMK Serendah – 3 PMR and 1 SPM students 

In recognition of their excellent results, each student received cash incentive of RM300 and TM school bag. The incentive is hoped to serve as an encouragement for them to continue their excellent performance in their future studies.  

In addition, TM also rewarded 6 “Most Active Users” of the Serendah CBC. The 6 individuals, with 2 individuals each under the primary school, secondary school and adults categories were recognised as the most active users of the ICT facilities available at the Serendah CBC. Each active user walked away with a brand new laptop, courtesy of TM. This recognition is hoped to drive even more active usage among the local communities in Serendah for them to fully utilise the facilities at the Serendah CBC. The initiative is also aimed at cultivating a generation of Malaysians who are ICT-literate, will assist in bridging the digital divide.

These initiatives form a part of TM’s larger Corporate Responsibilities (CR) initiative. TM champions a three-pronged CR approach, namely education, community as well as nation building and the environment.

Under the education platform, among the initiatives are the establishment of Multimedia University (MMU) as the first private university in the country. Besides that, Yayasan TM, the social arm of TM, has awarded scholarships worth RM30 million this year to 823 deserving students to pursue their studies at government schools and universities in Malaysia and abroad. Since its inception in 1994, more than 11,000 students have benefited from this scholarship programme which amounted to over RM390 million.

Under the Community and Nation-building platform, TM focuses on enriching the lives of the needy and less fortunate by bridging the digital divide between urban and rural communities and offering donations to welfare homes, charitable organizations and NGOs


ARTICLE FROM : TM

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DON'T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE

YOU MAY LOSE SOMETHING GOOD

BUT YOU MAY GAIN SOMETHING EVEN BETTER

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TEACH ME AND I WILL FORGET

SHOW ME AND I WILL LEARN

INVOLVE ME AND I WILL UNDERSTAND

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LOVE YOURSELF

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

FIND THE SPIRIT WITHIN 

MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE

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STEP BY STEP TO BE DONE....

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'SS' FAMILY

ASSALAMUALAIKUM.... :)

'SS' FAMILY...???
whats that..??
it is because my family name begin with 'S'....NICE RIGHT... :)

 

This is MY PARENTS

SALEHODDIN AND SABARIAH

 MY LOVELY SIBLINGS

SITI SOLEHA,SHARIFUDDIN,SAIFUL RIZAL,SYAFIQ, SALWA NAJJAH,SALMI HAYATI, SALMA DIYANAH, SHAHMINA KAMILAH

 HAPPY TOGETHER

We are a big family....

We are belong together....

We are so lucky...

To have each other...

You could never be replaced...

By another...

When we come together....

We’re more than just friends....

We are family... :)

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ARTICLE IT NEWS

'USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY'

INFORMATION and technology are life-changing

I would like to thank The Star and its talented, creative and insightful columnists for highlighting, enlightening and showcasing very intriguing, touching and relevant articles of happenings in society.

I remember reading about technology and the 555 small notebook some time ago.

It was written in an easy, simple and very understandable manner.

Information and technology are great, powerful and life-changing only if you know how to utilise it wisely.

Look around you. Some are so hooked up with their gadgets and updating themselves with the latest information.

The information may be necessary, it may be good. But too much of something is not good.

One may end up suffering from Information Overload Syndrome. It’s a form of craving. We get bogged down by a kind of bumper-to-bumper crawl to our senses.

Information and technology are supposed to simplify our lives. What if simplicity becomes simplexity ? It’s simpleness becoming complex.

We can get confused with too much information particularly those that are not relevant. Let’s look from context of a simple decision making. Too much information may not lead to better decision making. It only reinforces our judgment.

We only need to ‘thin-slice’ of information for simple decision making.

Information addiction affects us physically and also mentally.

Choose only beneficial, empowering and the be-inspired information. One may consider applying 80/20 Pareto information management principle. Schedule our priorities, not prioritise our schedule. Apply flexibility. Don’t get carried away.

Learn to manage information efficiently and effectively. If not, it can affect us in many ways.

Let me cite an example here. What if you receive fiery, rude and disparaging information in the form of destructive criticism ? Pause. Take a few deep breaths. Think zen-ly, ‘Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form’.

EDWARD WONG,Ipoh

ARTICLE FROM : HERE

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ARTICLE IT NEWS

PAINLESS TECHNOLOGY

An innovative young man and his friends have created a device that tests blood without the use of needles.


THE things that Myshkin Ingawale has worked on are as diverse as night and day. He was on the MIT team that worked to build the Copenhagen Wheel, a device that transforms ordinary bicycles into hybrid e-bikes. At the same time, he was also trying to finish his PhD, researching how people interact, and how articles are formed, on Wikipedia.

It was also at this time in 2009 that he took a break and returned home to Mumbai, India, for a vacation. He decided to take a road trip to Parol, which is about 60km from Mumbai. A friend of his, Dr Abishek Sen, was interning there, and was delivering a baby when Myshkin arrived.

Later, Dr Abishek emerged looking pale. When asked why, the doctor told his friend that the baby and its mother had both died due to post-partum haemorrhage. The severe bleeding was caused by undiagnosed anaemia. Even though there are cheap and affordable cures for anaemia, and the Indian government even subsidises iron tablets, cases like this still happen because anaemia is not diagnosed at point-of-care.

Myshkin, who has a penchant for fixing things, thought that it was time someone invented a device that was portable and easy to use, for carrying out blood tests at point-of-care in villages and such.

ARTICLES FROM : HERE

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Globalisation and the Australian ICT industry

BY : Merri Mack

Will globalisation erode Australia's information and communication technology (ICT) capability?

The operative word here is 'will'. Yes, Australia is holding its own now according to one of the debaters from Gartner's round table on globalisation but will it continue to do so? The pros and cons of the issue were argued in a debate held at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Sydney this week.

With the end of the federal election campaign in sight, and ICT issues such as Australia's broadband infrastructure, industry development and the skills shortage on the political agenda, the impact of globalisation on Australia's ICT capability is increasingly under scrutiny, according to Gartner.

In election campaign style, an electronic 'worm' tracked the views of the audience during the debate and an interactive polling system polled the audience before and after the debate.

Gartner's definition of globalisation is: Unhindered trade in goods and services among countries. And its definition of ICT is: all information and communication technology products and services that enable customers to access and use ICT.

Arguing the affirmative position that globalisation is eroding Australia's ICT capability, Gartner research vice president and distinguished analyst Partha Iyengar highlighted Australia's struggle to compete with its neighbours. With fewer science and technology graduates emerging from universities, Australia risks becoming

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Fujitsu's ICT Helps to Solve Environmental Issues in Thailand

Fujitsu Ltd., an information and communications technology giant, announced on February 7, 2012, that it will use Information-Communication Technology (ICT) to find solutions to environmental issues in the Map Ta Phut industrial zone in the eastern part of Thailand.

In the project, Fujitsu will construct an environmental monitoring system that will gather, monitor, and analyze data on environmental pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), noxious odors and ozone gases, in the industrial zone, which has a petrochemical, steel and refinery complex. By using various measurement data collected by the system, Fujitsu will support Chulalongkorn University to advance research on its VOC diffusion prediction model.

Making use of its experience in Japan with environmental solutions, Fujitsu will also support the transfer of environmental technology to Thailand and to help raise the skill level of Thailand's environmental engineers through operational training programs and by formulating standardized procedures for the measurement work.

Adopted in December 2011 as a government-subsidized collaborative research effort in environmental technologies of NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), the project will be conducted with the support of NEDO based on a request from the government of Thailand.

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JAPAN REVISES GREEN PURCHASING POLICIES FOR ICT

By Johanna Morden

Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has announced that it is collecting proposals for designated procurement items falling under the law on Promoting Green Purchasing

This initiative follows a move by the Ministry to partly revise this fiscal year its procurement items and evaluation criteria, defined in “the Basic Policy on Promoting Green Purchasing” based on “the law concerning the promotion of Procurement of Eco-friendly Goods and Services by the State and Other entities” (the law on Promoting Green Purchasing).

For reference to the revision, proposals regarding the procurement items regarding public works projects are to be accepted at the MOE.

“Current concerns for global warming and waste management, among other environmental issues, are rooted in the system of production and consumption, which has promoted mass production, mass consumption, and mass waste,” said the Ministry in a report.

“We must immediately reduce the environmental impact of the goods and services that support our lifestyles and economic activities, and promote a shift in demand toward eco-friendly goods,” it added.

The Ministry hopes that boosting the government’s green procurement initiatives will have a priming effect, extending the commitment to local governments and the private sector in fostering the shift in demand towards eco-friendly products in Japan as a whole.

These are the Ministry’s current Evaluation Criteria for procurement of electronic goods:

They (1) shall meet the following standards: a. For server-type computers, energy consumption efficiency does not exceed the number for standard energy consumption efficiency listed. b. For client-type computers, energy consumption efficiency does not exceed the number for standard energy consumption efficiency listed.

(2) Specified chemical substances (lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium (VI) compound,PBB, PBDE) do not exceed the content standard. Content information of relevant chemicals must be easily available on its website, etc.

(3) Equipment and function are simplified for notebook computers used for ordinary administrative tasks.

The following factors are also to be considered:

(1) Design consideration takes into account product life, efficient use of material, reuse of parts, or recycling of raw material, in compliance with evaluation criteria for Standards for the Promotion of Efficient Use of Material.

(2) The operation time of secondary power (battery) is not longer than necessary for notebook computers used for ordinary administrative tasks.

(3) The product makes the maximum use of recycled material taken from a previously used product.

(4) If plastic components are used for either the body or the parts, the item uses as large amount of recycled plastic as possible, or uses vegetable based plastics whose reductive effect of environmental load has been confirmed.

(5) If magnesium alloy is used for either the body or the parts, the item uses as large amount of recycled magnesium alloy as possible.

(6) Packaging is to be as simple as possible and take into account ease of recycling and reduced environmental impact upon disposal. A system for collection and reuse/recycling of packaging is considered.

(7) Accessories including manuals, recovery CD’s etc. is eliminated as much as possible

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ICT Within Business

Written by Keith Sherringham

 From market cannibalisation of old media by new media through to the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFI) tagging in aircraft maintenance, businesses know that Information Communication Technology (ICT) can transform operations or make them obsolete. 

The challenge of adapting ICT include sustaining current operations, overcoming incumbency, market dynamics, risk management and funding transition. This article looks at some business trends as a result of changes in ICT.  In a future edition we will look at how business realises the opportunities that ICT brings.

From the implementation of mainframes and desktops, through to cloud computing and smart phones, business has adapted to changes in Information Communication Technology (ICT).  Whilst what a business needs to do change slowly (the need to be customer centric and make a profit), how a business operates (the use of ICT to better service customers) has brought significant rapid change to a business.  It is the change in how a business operates, including ICT that, allows a business to remain competitive.

Although ICT has significantly impacted businesses to lower costs, improve service, and standardise processes and operations, the adoption of ICT and resulting business changes has not always been smooth.  Some businesses have failed to make changes, others have missed opportunities, and others are reluctant to change due to risk and/or the need to overcome incumbency.  The business change around the adoption of ICT starts with an appreciation of the business impacts of changes in ICT.

ICT is business

Irrespective of an individual technology or changes in a technology, common requirements for ICT within the business environment include:

• ICT is not an adjunct to business: ICT is business;
• ICT present at the business table;
• ICT managed and operated as a utility infrastructure to service needs;
• ICT being the assembly line for knowledge workers;
• ICT showing the business the opportunities, markets and transformation that ICT brings;
• ICT providing the knowledge utility for real time decision making to support business.

Command & Control

Changes in ICT, the availability of information and the speed with which decisions need to be made is changing the command and control structure within businesses.  Even if the decision makers had all of the information needed at the right time to make a decision, decision makers struggle to find the time to make all of the decisions.  The emerging trend is to use ICT to allow for decentralised decision making within frameworks for delivery.  The changes in ICT are driving empowerment and problem solving at source.  Such changes place a premium on strategy and planning, with a culture of empowerment to manage outcomes and behaviours.  Underpinning such a structure are distributed operations with the ability to adapt to changes, to self-heal and create an emergent behaviour.  Changes include:

• People – Leaders with visions and strategy and the ability to implement and manage such environments.  The assurance to support empowered operations is required, together with decision making at source.  The required strategies, communication and skilling of staff to work within such structures are necessary.
• Process – Adoption of distributed operation business models and the use of frameworks and tools such as enterprise risk management to ensure delivery.
• Information – Access to information is key to success, with knowledge being a utility that underpins business.
• Transaction Processing

As more transactions are processed by ICT without intervention, the skill set required is changing.  Proactive problem solvers are required when things go wrong and to manage exceptions, and to engage with customers to manage expectations.  With routine transactions processed by ICT, more skilled resources with excellent communication skills and increasing specialisation are required to address complicated and high worth transactions.  A veneer of generalists to work across the resulting silos is also required.  Changes include:

• People – More skilled resources with critical thinking and proactive problem solving are required.  A premium is placed on the professional or soft skills.
• Process – Successful processes are engineered from the custom view to deliver outcomes and work across the silos of a business.
• Information – Access to information in context integrated with work-flow is required.

Collaboration

Meeting customer needs and delivery of outcomes increasingly requires collaboration across interacting dependencies.  Permanent staff, casuals, contractors, out-sourcers, and off-shore resources are increasingly coming together to work across the globe in collaborative teams to address issues as they arrive.  The freeing up of staff from routine transaction processing further reinforces the project nature of roles.  Changes include:

• People – Such environments place a premium on effective communication, coordination and organisational skills and the ability to operate to strategy.
• Process – Such environments require management that allow for agility and adaption and the use of process to deliver outcome without process been an end itself.
• Information – Integrated communication and knowledge sharing is required in such environments.

Changing Markets

The increasing use of ICT means that products come to market faster, with a decreasing time in the market with offerings being more easily copied and innovated.  Changes to the business model like the use of the “value of free” or the use of “how to” are being accommodated.  Revision of the sales process to include webinars and podcasts, the need for sticky messages, and the role of the sales to be the trusted adviser in an ocean of choice (solution selling) are all impacting businesses.  Changes include:

• People – Ability to respond to change and challenges is required, together with the ability to listen and problem solve.  The empowerment of an educated and skilled workforce that is trusted to deliver in such an environment is required.
• Process – Within dynamic markets, processes need to respond and accommodate change whilst assuring delivery.
• Information – The cross-silo management of knowledge is required.

Creativeness, Conversations & Confidence

Changes in ICT create a business environment about global reach with local service.  Access to information across devices and channels is required and customer service is about having conversations with customers to solve problems.  The fostering and nurturing of analytical thinking and creativity and innovation is required, with a willingness to respond quickly to mistakes and failures.  Changes include:

• People – Ability to work across channels where and when the opportunity presents is required.  Flexibility and professionalism of skilled resources allowing for critical thinking and innovation ensures delivery.
• Process – The ability to deliver across channels and devices is necessary, with a tight integration of information to process.
• Information – Access to information to facilitate conversation and interaction is required.

Conclusion

This article has looked at some key trends within business as a result of the adoption of ICT.  What a business does changes slowly, but the adoption of ICT by business changes rapidly how a business operates.  Common impacts from changes in ICT include:

• A change from centralised decision making and command and control to decentralised operations forming a customer centric emergent behaviour;
• The need for skilled workforce that is empowered to problem solve at source;
• Access to the knowledge utility to ensure real time decision making across platforms and channels;
• A premium on the professional skills;
• The necessary strategy and management frameworks for decentralised decision making and problem resolution at source.

The response of business to these trends is the focus for a follow-up article to be published on the Alinement Network in the near future.

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MALAYSIA: ICT EDUCATION FOR A “CREATIVE SOCIETY”

By Alice Kok

Malaysia Higher Education Ministry is studying how to develop a creative and innovative Malaysian society through human capital development

The ministry is planning to work with Microsoft in unearthing creative and innovative students of tertiary institutions in the area of ICT and with Shell Malaysia in energy saving.

Its minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the study to produce creative, innovative human capital was started last year by the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS), Universiti Teknologi Mara and Malaysian Design Council. This study will be looking at programmes by government agencies that could contribute to the creation of “innovative human capital”.

“We hope when the study is completed, expected this year, we will be able to draw up a national blueprint in this context,” he said. “Malaysia wants to move away from a resource-based economy to one generated by innovations with the existence of an innovative society, which will indicate that the country has reached developed-nation status,” he said.

Nordin said creativity and innovations were vital for a country and studies had shown that technological innovations contributed to higher productivity, Gross Domestic Product, economic growth and improved standard of living

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Huawei set to help enhance Malaysia’s ICT training

By ZUHRIN AZAM AHMAD

CYBERJAYA: Huawei, a global leading ICT solution provider, expects to invest another RM90mil in the next few years to consolidate Malaysia's position as a world-class ICT training hub.

The investment would be mainly for equipment and facilities of new technologies at its Malaysia Global Training Centre (MGTC) located here.

Huawei Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd deputy managing director Foo Fang Yong said ICT sector needed a continuous investment as the sector developed rapidly.

“It is a non-stop developing sector where we see new inventions or improved-version technologies almost on a daily basis.

“We invested RM90mil in 2010 when we started the MGTC and we could expect a similar amount to be invested as we must keep abreast with current technologies,” he said after the launching of the centre by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday.

The MGTC is Huawei's third in the world and first outside its homebased China.

In conjunction with the launch, Huawei also signed an agreement with 10 local universities that would initiate the setting up of 10 Huawei University Training Labs under MSC Malaysia MyUniAlliance (Huawei) programme in each of the universities.

The initiative is to further cultivate the interest of students in the field of next generation ICT technologies such as cloud Computing and Fixed Broadband.

Huawei senior vice-president Victor Wang said the key objective of the initiatives was to train and develop 10,000 ICT local professionals by 2016.

He sai d the initiatives would be further supported by the introduction of MSC Malaysia-Huawei Scholastic Awards, aimed to help cultivate interest among graduates to acquire the necessary skills to enter the ICT sector.

Last year, Huawei which has a work force of 150,000 people worldwide earned US$35bil. Its clientele includes 45 of the world's top 50 telecommunication operators.

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Malaysian ICT to grow as economy recovers, says minister

Malaysia’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector could grow by 7% if economic recovery and business confidence continues, says Malaysia’s Science, Technology and Information Minister Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili. ICT contributed as much as RM48 billion (US$15.8 billion) or 10% of Malaysia’s GDP in 2007, but only RM40 billion ($13.2 billion) last year.

Before the financial crisis ICT in Malaysia had been projected to grow 10% per year, one of Asia’s fastest, he said.

Ongkili made his comments at Mimos, a major R&D center for ‘frontier technologies’ and advisor to the Malaysian government, which focuses on technology that can be commercialized for growth. Mimos yesterday held a ceremony to transfer technology platforms to three local companies to be developed for market by the private sector: Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd, Mutiara.com and Smart Computing Sdn Bhd.

Six other Malaysian companies also signed deals to licence and develop Mimos’ technology: Disability Solutions Sdn Bhd, Alam Teknokrat Sdn Bhd, Innovision Business Solutions Sdn Bhd, Phytofolia Sdn Bhd, Quantum Beez Sdn Bhd and Fabtronic Sdn Bhd.

131 ‘WiFi Villages’ for Sandakan

Meanwhile, in Malaysia’s far eastern city of Sandakan, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it was halfway through a project to provide minimal-charge wireless internet access to 131 area villages, enabling urban and rural populations equal access to online services. MCMC has also distributed 49,800 netbooks to students in Sabah province on Borneo under the 1Malaysia project.

source & articles: The Star online, Mimos

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How global downturn affects local ICT industry

The economic downturn has affected many major sectors of the economy. Tech&U talks to IDC Asean research manager Jubert Daniel Alberto on its impact on the ICT industry.

Alberto feels there will be cautious spending as uncertainty continues.

Q: How do you see the impact of the economic slowdown on the local tech industry? What influences the performance?

A: While the manufacturing sector continued to drop because of the slowdown in export, and retrenchment continue to rise, the market is putting hopes on the RM60 billion stimulus package to “kick in” by second quarter of the year. For instance, the PC market is coming off a 20 per cent sequential drop in the fourth quarter of 2008, while the hardcopy peripherals market also saw 44 per cent drop.

Decline in performance was a direct offshoot of the global economic slowdown, which pulled down market sentiment especially for corporate end-users. Enterprises are cutting down on spending to stay afloat while consumers hold back unwarranted spending as issues of retrenchment and pay cuts became apparent at the start of this year.

Q: Which segments contributed significantly to the industry growth?

A: As the commercial market is cautious of spending, IDC expects consumer spending to cushion the overall drop in the market. Most companies, particularly banking and manufacturing, are spending wisely based on long-term strategies.

Q: Based on the result, what can you comment on consumer tech spending?

A: Given the right price and product specifications, consumers will buy. Vendors need to focus on striking a good balance between pricing and product positioning. Although consumers are likely to reduce spending on “luxury” products first, (as IT products such as PCs or printers have become a necessity), the full impact will only be felt if unemployment rate continues to rise and household savings fall below a comfortable level.

Q: How did Malaysia fare, compared to Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines?

A: Bleak market performance is hovering in these countries. Based on IDC’s Worldwide IT Spending Black Book, Feb 2009, hardware spending is set to decline in 2009 in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, driven by cautious spending. Thailand, for instance, is seen to achieve flat growth in 2009, with PC shipments expected to drop by less than five per cent the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of last year.

Q: Based on the first quarter performance, what is in store for the local ICT industry this year?

A: There will be cautious spending as further uncertainty continues. Prolonged usage of existing IT infrastructure will be another effect of the low market sentiment, while spending from public sector will remain weak, as the budget has shifted to economic stimuli rather than direct spending on IT infrastructure.

But lower spending on hardware also opens up opportunities for IT services, as companies try to mitigate absence of large projects through alternative solutions. Overall, prudent investments will be evident, but ICT players should still seek to maintain an aggressive stance through targeted focus and effective channel management. The government needs to come up with a stimulus package that would directly impact the local IT investment.

During this downturn, investment on IT infrastructure, such as broadband, are likely to stimulate employment and job opportunities while building up the country’s infrastructure in the next five years, which is a key factor in luring foreign direct investments.

Most governments in this region such as Thailand and the Philippines have continued to invest in ICT-related areas such as business process outsourcing, broadband and software development despite anticipating a slowdown in their economies.

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ICT uptake still not enough

THE local small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) industry has about 100,000 players, and growing.

Their combined business contributes about 32 per cent to the gross domestic product, and the industry itself employs some 56 per cent of the total workforce in the country.

So, it is important that SMEs continue to maintain a high productivity level to ensure that their contributions continue, lest it will impact the country’s economic growth.

In this regard, it is encouraging to know that members in the local SME community have been increasingly looking at ICT to beef up their operational efficiency and explore new forms of channels to market their products. This certainly augurs well as ICT can play an important role to help SMEs create business opportunities and combat pressures from competition.

Appropriate ICT use can help cut costs by improving internal processes, developing better products through faster communication with their customers, and better promotion and distribution of products through an online presence.

Nevertheless, observers reckon that while most SMEs are aware of the potential benefits of ICT, they are unsure of how to select the right solution. This, in a way, has slowed down ICT uptake within a larger section of the SME community.

Based on a recent study of SMEs in manufacturing, only about 10 per cent have used enterprise resource planning software, 10 per cent have used customer relationship management software, 13 per cent have used computeraided manufacturing, and about 25 per cent have used computer-aided design.

And only 30 per cent have a Web presence and use ICT extensively in their daily operations.

The challenge now is to ensure that ICT usage is widespread, not only within a small group but also throughout the SME community. This is important as SMEs not only face competition from peers, but also international outfits seeking to expand their presence here.

So, local SMEs have to be well-prepared, and this includes leveraging on technology to remain competitive.

While the Government can play a part by providing financial aid in the form of grants and other incentives, SMEs themselves need to be a believer of ICT as an enabler towards a better business future.

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Integration or Transformation?

 A cross-national study of Information and Communication Technology in School Education

by Andrew E. Fluck

The advent of relatively cheap micro-computers in the 1980s has led to major investment in information and communication technology (ICT) for schools. The technology has been developed continually, creating a situation where practice and policy can have significant differences. The literature relating to innovation diffusion and the rationale for ICT in school education has concentrated upon effectiveness and teacher professional development. Existing models of development in the area are limited in scope or make ill-founded assumptions. Little work has been done on the question of alignment between policy and practice.

This study used a grounded theory approach to examine the relationship between policy, implementation and underlying models of development. This was done through a process of policy comparison, consultation with experts in the field and case study observations. The methodology used a comparative case study approach at national, school and classroom levels and examined issues such as the nature and development processes for policy in the area, implementation and practice in the use of computers in classrooms, teacher professional development and stages of development as perceived by practitioners. Data were gathered from the United States of America, England, Estonia and Australia in November 1999 to September 2002.

The study found ICT curriculum approaches for students were strongly aligned with a stage of development which emphasised the integration of ICT into existing curricula and current classroom practice. There was poor alignment between overlapping policies for teacher training and student learning outcomes and also between policy and classroom practice. It was confirmed that students generally have better access to computers outside school than within it, a situation largely ignored by policy. It was also found that experts in the field perceived increasing reliance upon generic office software as an outmoded ‘tool’ approach, and saw ICT as a ‘driver’ for transformative change in school education. School and classroom observations confirmed that local practice included transformative uses of ICT.

From these findings a possible general model of stages of development was derived. The model consisted of an introductory phase 1, where students in school first use computers and information technology becomes a subject choice; an integrative phase 2, where information and communication technologies are used to enhance learning opportunities in all traditional curriculum subject areas; and a transformative phase 3, where the curriculum clearly includes topics of study that would not exist without information and communication technologies and schooling for most students no longer fits the traditional group-instruction model.

The model has implications for alignment in policy development based upon a national cross-curriculum framework. It raises the importance for teacher professional development to include training in virtual teaching and the evaluation of digital materials. In particular there is a need to examine the alignment between conventional learning outcomes, policy and practice when ICT is much more available to students outside school than within.

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SALWA NAJJAH

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ONLY ME SALWA NAJJAH

ASSALAMUALAIKUM.....

HELLO guys...:)
it is my pleasure to tell you about myself....
i'm SALWA NAJJAH BT MOHD SALEHODDIN....
i,m study diploma in BANKING at UiTM Kampus Bandaraya Johor Bahru...
for this sem i will take subject MGT 300 that teach by Tn Syed Mazlan...
hopefully i will do the best for this subject...:)

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SALWA NAJJAH

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