Crescent Academy for Digital Age Learning

Crescent Academy for Digital-Age Learning

Crescent Academy for Digital-age Learning (CrADLe) is an initiative spearheaded by Crescent Girls' School (Crescent).

Vision

A leading academy in empowering schools to transform learning in the digital age

Mission

• Guide and provide support for schools that are keen to embrace digital age learning

• Facilitate the professional development of teachers in the meaningful infusion of technology to develop 21st century competencies, including self-directed and collaborative learning

• Transfer the learning of Crescent Girls' School's ICT journey to other schools

• Help develop Singapore as a worldwide showcase of digital-age learning

Background

Education literature in recent years has highlighted the need for learning in schools to be transformed to be more relevant for the 21st century. Many have advocated harnessing technology to better engage digital natives through student-centred approaches to learning. There has been heightened awareness that the digital age has changed the way learning can and does happen.

Since the Ministry of Education (MOE) implemented its first ICT Masterplan in 1997, ICT has been identified as a tool that can be used to enhance educational processes and structures.

One of the breakthroughs in Research & Development under the second ICT Masterplan was the BackPack.NET project that was aimed at experimenting with innovative use of ICT for teaching and learning to promote student-centred learning through 1-to-1 use of Tablet PCs, digital inking applications and other innovative infocomm technologies. Selected as a BackPack.NET School in 2004, Crescent Girls' School (Crescent) partnered Microsoft in its m-learning project and became known as the first in Asia in terms of the scale of use of Tablet PCs.

Since the introduction of m-Learning@Crescent in 2004, Crescent has established a sustainable model of enhancing teaching and learning through 1-to-1 computing. The school has garnered positive feedback from educators, both locally and globally. The structured programme and pedagogically strong use of ICT for teaching and learning led to the conferment of FutureSchools@Singapore and South Zone Centre of Excellence for ICT by MOE and Mentor School in Microsoft's Innovative Schools Programme.

With a rich culture of being at the forefront of harnessing ICT to bring about learning approaches and outcomes for students that are relevant to the digital age, and the collective positive experiences and feedback gathered from numerous stakeholders, Crescent is taking the lead in establishing CrADLe, implementing programmes that will help like-minded schools in their journeys towards digital age learning.