The education sub-sector is a key focus area for the IDM R&D programme. The Ministry of Education (MOE) sees great potential in harnessing IDM for teaching, learning, and inculcating values in a fun and engaging manner. MOE has established an R&D programme to fund projects that will harness the full potential of IDM to develop innovative educational programmes that bring about engaged learning for our students. It aims for the widespread adoption of successful IDM-based teaching approaches, tools and media.

MOE is pursuing R&D under 5 key research themes. The first R&D theme is on Learning of the Future. One of the key projects under the latter theme is the setting up of FutureSchools@Singapore to develop innovative school-wide educational programmes for engaged learning that fully leverage on IDM. The knowledge gained from these frontrunner schools can then be cascaded to other schools. There are currently 5 FutureSchools projects:

1. Beacon Primary: Exploring the impact of an IDM-enriched curriculum in a technology-enhanced learning environment for the holistic development of primary level pupils.
2. Canberra Primary: Empowering the future today — creators in the 21st centrury and beyond.
3. Crescent Girls’ Secondary:Empowerig the learners, connecting with the future
4. Jurong Secondary: Designing innovative learning environments and new educational technologies for constructivist learning.
5. Hwa Chong Institution: A collection of technological-based initiative to facilitate global learning opportunitites and create diverse learning environments for multidimensional learning.
6. School of Science and Technology: Adopt innovative teaching approaches and the use of learning spaces that fully leverage on ICT to bring about engaged learning for the students.

The second theme is the design and development of Educational Games for developing students’ creativity and problem-solving skills as well as to make learning more fun and engaging. The third theme on Digital Literacies seeks to understand issues arising from the use of different forms of electronic media such as interactive art and digital textbooks in teaching and learning. The fourth theme on Immersive Virtual Environments will focus on the application and development of online social avatar-based environments such as Second Life for learning. The final theme relates to developing a deep understanding of the impact of IDM use on our students’ social and psychological development. In particular, we will look into how we can inculcate in our students the values and responsibilities for meaningful interactions in the IDM environment.

MOE and its schools are working with the National Institute of Education, our universities, polytechnics, arts institutions, industry, as well as overseas institutions with the best capabilities in this area, to push the R&D frontiers to better facilitate engaged learning for our students.