Speech by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, at Connexion 2009

NEw Media

Good morning distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

I am delighted to be here today at this networking session for National Education (NE) practitioners. Today's event inaugurates the "Connexion" initiative by Nexus, the central coordinating agency for NE in Singapore. A series of seminars and networking events will follow with the aim of providing the NE community with new tools, skills and resources that will help them more effectively reach out to their audiences. Today's seminar that kick-starts the "Connexion" series focuses on the New Media and technology, and how it can be used to better engage younger Singaporeans like students and National Servicemen. This is a timely and important theme because of the profound impact that New Media has had and will continue to have in the world. And today's world is much more compact.

The impact of New Media in today's world Three events within the last decade illustrated vividly to Singaporeans that the world we presently live in is inextricably inter-connected. In November 2002, ground zero for the SARS virus was Guangdong in Southern China - some 2600 kilometres away - but the virus spread rapidly to places such as Canada and Singapore by March 2003. The global financial crisis started as a sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US in June 2007 but from it, a fast and furious wave rapidly hit economies all over the world in 2008, as banks collapsed and global stock prices plunged. Last month, the terror attacks in Mumbai, 4000 kilometres away, claimed the life of one of our own, Lo Hwei Yen. These physical events - episodic and catastrophic - are stark reminders that events far away can affect lives here in Singapore. The pervasive effects of an inter-connected world do not occur only during crisis, but do so on a daily basis, and affects the masses of all countries in the virtual world through New Media. Because Singapore is wired up as a global city, plugged into the world - real time, all the time - willy-nilly, we are greatly exposed to external influences from far-flung places and a myriad of interest groups.

This internet super-highway is vast and intricately networked. The torrent of information, images and interaction is growing exponentially. It is vital to modern economies and has enabled a "customised" way of life, to all and sundry. Through it, the entire spectrum of diverse interests can be catered to. Mass media or broadcasting is not quite the appropriate word and experts have preferred multiple narrow casting to describe its reach. On the net, you can perform daily mundane tasks or, at the other extreme, track down and purchase a collector's item that very few would be interested in. Borderless and with few restraints, the tagline "where do you want to go today?" succinctly captures the possibilities that inter-connectivity brings.

But dangers also lurk there. We read regularly of reports of sham schemes and sexual predators. Another phenomenon, as has happened in Singapore, is "self-radicalisation", to become a willing agent for terror. Abdul Basheer s/o Abdul Kader who was arrested in February 2007 is a case in point. No one physically contacted him but he began to develop militant jihad ideas in late 2004, after being affected by the radical discourse he read on the internet which fed into his own narrow perspective of what the world was. This became so powerfully reinforcing that the virtual reality transmuted to his physical reality.

For the older generation - in the context of internet, those in their 40s and older today - these recent phenomena could be amusing or curious. But for those in their 30s and younger - the so-called "net-natives" - breathe and live around the New Media. Take the source of information as an illustration. In the United States, a survey conducted in December 2008 by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press among 1,489 Americans found that the internet had surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news. 40% of those surveyed said they got most of their news from the internet, more than when compared to newspapers (35%). For Americans younger than 30 years old (they would be the Gen Ys, defined by some as those born between 1977 and 1994), a higher percentage, 59%, got their news online while TV as a source of news had declined from 68% in September 2007 to 59% in December 2008. This tidal change is also affecting Singaporeans here. In 2008, a group of students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic surveyed 510 Gen X and Y Singaporeans on their media consumption. They found that 42.6% of Gen Ys, i.e., teenagers and young adults, surveyed preferred the internet as a medium for getting news and information as compared to newspapers (25.2%). For the Gen X (defined by some as those born between 1964 and 1976, now in their mid 30s to mid 40s), it was the opposite - about 50% preferred newspapers as a medium as compared to the internet (about 23%).New Media is evolvingThe internet has changed our way of life and for most part positively, but with it comes new challenges. Communities everywhere are grappling with the tension that exists in the New Media.

While we all enjoy unfettered access and platforms to receive information and express ourselves, how do we guard against the propagation of bigotry, prejudices, untruths and exploitation that can result from an uncontrolled environment? How do we protect the young and vulnerable from falling prey to negative influences through New Media? The collective search for solutions and trade-offs will continue and evolve, as it did when the printing press or TV made broadcasting possible. In this regard, positive changes are taking place. For example, social networking, where the identity of persons involved is known, is gaining more traction than forums where contributors are anonymous and hold no accountability.

Such internet forums have not produced meaningful discussions or social exchanges. Instead they self-select nameless and faceless individuals, who seldom represent the majority. More often than not, these forums degenerate into self-gratifying rantings and unproductive discourse. Thankfully, teenagers in school are discerning. They tell me that these sites predictably take a negative stance to almost all issues and offer little by way of constructive criticisms, let alone solutions. Most students have learnt to discount the stereotyped perspectives in such sites and know where else to go for more reliable information and objective views.

The terms of engagement on New Media will, doubtless, continue to evolve to find a more productive equilibrium. But in the meantime, governments in most developed countries have realised the importance of New Media as an important avenue of engaging its citizens. In Singapore, as a "Whole-of-Government", we have made this commitment too. In the context of our efforts in National Education, we must have a presence on New Media, especially because there are now so many competing worldviews. We must provide a balance to ideas that sow discord and disunity. We should refute falsehoods where appropriate. It makes it even more crucial for us to build up our resilience and strengthen our social cohesion so that we can stand united in the face of any crisis. We also have to work harder to ensure that Singaporeans - whether born here or a new citizen - develop a sense of shared identity, emotional attachment and sense of belonging to Singapore.

National Education, or NE, therefore, has become more challenging than ever. But it is an important challenge because the Singapore Story needs to be told. Through NE, we imbue the timeless values that have helped Singapore progress; that have united Singaporeans as one people. NE is vital to our total defence for now and for the future.NE engagement through New MediaTo facilitate engagement in the New Media, I am officially launching today, Connexion.sg. Developed by Nexus, Connexion.sg brings together, for the first time, everyone involved in National Education in one way or another. With links to other websites, Connexion.sg is a first-stop website where NE practitioners can download and share information on NE-related issues, resources, events, best practices and vendors.

You can also network with one another and find partners to collaborate with. Through this portal, NEXUS hopes to grow an active and vibrant online community of NE practitioners who are not only users but also co-creators of the website.

The mere presence of a portal will not be sufficient to achieve our goals. To do so, we have to refine our approaches to reach out to the new generation of Singaporeans who are web-savvy and well travelled. We can no longer simply focus on disseminating knowledge. We must become better story-tellers. In the era of radio, Lee Dai Sor had the power to capture the imagination of thousands of listeners, who listened in rapt attention to every note of his voice. Only the auditory sense was stimulated, but the inflexions, the strategic pause, the suspense, all made for compelling listening. Technology allows us now to provide the total sensory experience, but it is no guarantee that we can elicit a high level of engagement.

To engage citizens, we must tell our stories, where people will listen and in a way that will grab their attention. Having grown up with digital technology, the Generation Y takes naturally to New Media. Survey data released in 2008 by Synovate, a leading global research firm, show that multi-tasking and media-rich lifestyles are the norm among 8-to-24-year-olds in Asia including Singapore, with most respondents fitting 38 hours worth of activities into a single day! The survey found that in a day, young Singaporeans aged 15 to 24 spent an average of more than one and a half hours on email, another one and a half hours as part of online communities, more than four hours on instant messaging (the region's highest!) and almost four hours on other internet activities. While online, they play games, listen to music, communicate with others, create or update a blog, and more.

New Media: Challenges and opportunitiesWe must keep up with trends. Our messages on NE must adapt to the way people now live, communicate and work. Until recently, we accessed the web via a traditional desktop. Today, we can create, share and distribute content instantaneously through smart communication devices, enabled by broadband mobility. We live in a world where MTV has been surpassed by YouTube; snail mail by blogs and social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. While traditional media (e.g., newspapers, books, radio, TV) continue to play their part, the advent of New Media has radically brought consumers and producers of information to another level of communication.

All these have implications for us who are involved in NE. Our audiences are no longer satisfied to be passive consumers of information. They also want to be creators, modifiers and disseminators of the content instantly to large audiences. This means that issues important to Singaporeans, including national identity, should be debated in the open cyberspace. To be effective, we have to provide three elements that ensure the popularity of New Media: More effective engagement on New Media - the 3CsCurrent information at your fingertipsThe blanket coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks illustrates the quickened pace, the immediacy of New Media. The first reports of the attacks appeared on social networking sites such as Twitter and Flickr even before mainstream media agencies were able to release news stories. Twitter users posted real-time personal updates; with even the mainstream media using some images of the attacks that were uploaded on Flickr. Bloggers also actively disseminated information, such as consulate hotlines for the crisis. Now, you can even find an entry on the attacks in Wikipedia with details of the attacks, casualties, reactions, recovery efforts and so on. Clearly, New Media sites have become important sources for current, real-time information. It also shows that the contributors of content are no longer confined to media agencies and publishing houses, as user-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent.

Collaborative tool to rally people togetherA few months ago, we witnessed how US President-elect Obama used New Media platforms to organise events, rally supporters and raise funds for his presidential campaign. Some say that he will be the first occupant of the White House to have won a presidential election on the Web. He had an official YouTube channel and a presence on Facebook; he published dozens of podcast episodes, and had audiobooks on iTunes and even an iPhone application! Campaign volunteer meetings were organised via Facebook. These made it easier for his supporters to stay on top of news and gave them mobile tools to call friends, get involved in the campaign and donate funds. It shows how New Media has provided opportunities for not only mass participation but also collaboration, interaction and networking. Like-minded people can be virtually brought together to collaborate for a common cause. Carrier of viral contentThe success of any particular product on New Media is measured by how often it is viewed and shared. Successful clips spread rapidly like a virus. A classic example of viral dissemination is the Star Wars Kid video. It features a kid who was unaware he was being filmed, playing with a big stick. The person who released it on the web thought it was funny and people would enjoy watching it. He was right! It attracted almost 10 million views on You Tube, over 45,000 comments, its own Wikipedia entry, and if you google "Star Wars Kid" with quotation marks, you will get around 370,000 results. This video illustrates how New Media provides a platform through which content created can become viral, spreading from person to person, being adapted by others and obtaining enormous popularity.

Our young have skills in New MediaOur young are taught in schools how to interact and create content on the Web, and this is something we can use to our advantage. In August 2008, MOE launched its Third Masterplan for IT in Education. Some schools are already benefitting from these new programmes. Beacon Primary School's students learn about digital storytelling, using affordable tablet PCs, voice-recording functions and presentation software to enable its pupils to easily create and share stories. The Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education (NIE) has also developed a hybrid role-playing and simulation game called Space Station Leonis, which it is trying out with selected secondary schools such as Evergreen Secondary and Tanglin Secondary. In the game, students play the role of citizens living on a space station, and experience the challenges of managing the infrastructure of a space station which, coincidentally, is the size of Singapore. NIE is also working with Mayflower Primary and Stanford Research Institute (International), a large research and consultancy institute based in the United States, to harness Group Scribbles (GS), tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards for collaborative knowledge-building among pupils for subjects like Science and Mathematics. Group Scribbles allows users to scribble contributions on electronic notes, similar to post-it notes, and to jointly manage the movements of these notes within and between public and private spaces. Such New Media applications, whether they are for digital narratives, gaming or collaborative knowledge-building, can be harnessed as part of your NE efforts to deepen discussions and encourage sharing among your target audiences. The goal should be to find ways for them to take ownership of their own NE experience and discover their own conclusions.

And this is what N.E.mation!, which is organised by Nexus, seeks to do. It is another example of how we have used innovative means to engage our youth. It provides a creative platform for students to express their personal ideas on Total Defence. Students are equipped with skills to produce one-minute animation clips for public viewing and voting. In the process, they create valuable NE content and NE messages can be then spread to the rest of Singapore in a light-hearted way. Winning clips from past years have been screened on TV and at public places such as cinemas, and appreciated by many in Singapore and even overseas. This year, students who are taking part in N.E.mation! III have set up Facebook groups and have even blogged about their experiences. Today, you can view their clips at the Animagine's booth in the exhibition area and vote for your favourite clips as the online voting starts today.

Conclusion

The NE community will continue to play a crucial role in helping younger generations of Singaporeans understand how our past shaped the present and what we must defend to provide hope for our future. Today's networking session revolves around the theme of how New Media can be used to engage our Generation Y. This initiative by Nexus and Mindef reflects Government agencies increasing commitment to engage citizens on the net. We have brought together people who are involved in NE efforts, from the ministries, SAF, schools and the private sector. I hope that your discussions will be productive and bring out good ideas to tap on New Media to expand and enrich your NE efforts. I wish you a fruitful session ahead.

Thank you.