A CHILD'S early years, especially from two to six, are extremely crucial to building a solid foundation for the future. Children learn to speak, write, and develop social skills, among many others. It is then important that every child receives a well-rounded education that encompasses both knowledge-learning and character-building.
Character Montessori Asia (CM Asia) aims to do just that by employing the Montessori method while infusing into the curriculum the centre's proprietary 'character-morphosis' process, which focuses on inculcating key character traits often found in successful people. The childcare centre's approach has been so well received that within just three years, it has opened three more centres in Singapore and one in Xian, China.
Technology plays an important role in the centres' operations, especially for communicating with parents. They are constantly updated on the centres' activities and programmes via monthly e-newsletters. However, more needs to be done to keep parents in the loop on what their kids are learning and participating in school. Director of CM Asia, Ng Kok Keong, is so passionate about the ways IT can benefit his centres that he participated, presented and won the HP Total Care Challenge in 2007.
Enriched learning experience
Before winning the HP Total Care Challenge 2007, CM Asia was already making full use of technology to enrich the children's learning experience. Computers were provided for the older kids, as they are usually more IT-savvy. However, desktop computers often come with peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, headphones and web cameras, and these gadgets were frequently damaged by the young users. CM Asia then had to source for replacements which took time and money.
Moreover, CM Asia has been expanding rapidly in and out of Singapore. This has led to high network traffic and no central location to store all the users' data.
In addition, the childcare centre places a lot of emphasis on staying connected with the parents. 'Many of them want to know what their children are up to in school so we try our best to update them whenever possible. IT is the most convenient way to do so in this day and age,' said Mr Ng.
Apart from preparing monthly newsletters, teachers also have to take photos of classes, activities and excursions regularly and transfer the pictures to the centres' computers. The centres will then e-mail them to parents, which was a time-consuming task for staff since they had to juggle this with administrative work. 'Some of them are not proficient in technology so they require an even longer time to perform these assignments. We did not want to inconvenience them or increase their workload, so we began to look for alternatives,' said Mr Ng.
The HP Total Care Challenge 2007 proved to be an appropriate platform for CM Asia.
It was a contest opened to all growing enterprises that wished to use and leverage on HP technology to realise their business goals. Whether the need was to expand business potential, improve customer service or raise profits, HP would provide the winners with the most suitable products and solutions to fulfil their vision. Therefore, when the centre was informed that it had won the HP Total Care Challenge 2007, the management team was surprised and elated at the same time.
Winning vision
It was CM Asia's vision of using IT to benefit not just the children but the parents too that was the deciding factor for HP to award $40,000 worth of Total Care package to the centre. The package includes a host of the latest HP products - HP TouchSmart Desktop PCs, HP Compaq 6510b Business Notebooks, HP Colour LaserJet 3600n, HP OfficeJet Pro L7580 AIO, HP ProLiant DL360 G5 Server - and staff were so excited that they could not wait to start using them.
'These products fit our needs like a glove, as they were all aligned with the centre's vision. The HP team worked very closely with us after we won to make sure that we had the most suitable products for the business,' said Mr Ng. For example, the HP TouchSmart PCs have delivered great benefits to the centre, from the children, teachers to the parents.
The HP TouchSmart Desktop PCs are currently placed in Kindergarten One and Two classes, and are being used for a wide range of activities. The built-in web camera provides parents with the opportunity to make virtual visits and gain insights into the lessons conducted. This video conferencing capability also allows children from different centres and classes to interact with one another.
Furthermore, since the computer has a touch screen function, the children treat it as an outlet for creativity by using it as a drawing board. Their masterpieces can then be saved in their own folders in the computer and e-mailed to their respective parents at any time. 'Parents get to receive more frequent updates on their kids, and hence, they obtain a more in-depth look at their childrens' progress,' Mr Ng said.
Having a touch screen monitor also eliminates use of peripherals. Most tasks, if not all, can be performed by children using the attached stylus, thus reducing the cost of replacing the gadgets.
At present, a selected group of parents is involved during this testing phase. Once all the processes are developed and finalised, a full-scale programme developed jointly with HP will be implemented for all the CM Asia centres in the future. However, parents have already started giving the childcare centre positive feedback on the innovative ways that IT is currently being used to connect them to their children.
Other HP products that have also been useful to CM Asia include the HP ProLiant server and HP business notebooks. The former is now used as a central location to store all data. And teachers who shuttle between centres are also pleased to be working on the highly portable and reliable laptops.
Most importantly, having these new HP products, services and support has opened a whole new window of opportunity for CM Asia to fully use IT to achieve more streamlined operations.
Wi-Fi connection
The centre intends to maximise the HP TouchSmart Desktop PCs' features such as Wi-Fi. Mr Ng has recently purchased cameras with Wi-Fi capabilities, so that photos can be transferred to the computers seamlessly and wirelessly. 'Staff productivity will increase and parents will receive more regular updates on their children. That is the ideal environment we want to operate in,' he said.
Eventually, the centres in Singapore hope to extend video conferencing sessions to the China centre. Mr Ng said: 'This will be a great learning platform for children from both countries. It is beneficial for them to be exposed to different cultures from a young age.' He also intends to purchase more HP TouchSmart Desktop PCs for all the centres.
This is, however, not the end to what CM Asia wants to achieve with IT. The HP team has been working closely with the centre to plan and propose new ideas to further improve the centre's infrastructure. A project that is underway is developing CM Asia blogs for each child. Maintained by teachers and staff, the blogs will not only house each individual's text-based progress report, a public section with photos and multimedia can also be accessed by family and friends. This digital diary can be taken over by the child when he/she graduates from the centre, so he/she has free rein personalising his/her own website.
CM Asia believes that all these breakthroughs in the childcare centre would not have happened without HP's help and support. 'HP is in the forefront of addressing and meeting clients' needs. They have an edge over their competitors not just in terms of technology, but also in their unsurpassed service to ensure that we become the best that we can be,' said Mr Ng.
Meanwhile, HP has announced its second Total Care Challenge with $75,000 worth of prizes up for grabs for local growing enterprises. To participate in the HP Total Care Challenge 2008, go to www.hptotalcare.com.sg
This article was first published in The Business Times on Jun 17, 2008
