 Guest-of-Honour, Assoc Prof Ho Peng Kee, giving his speech |
The following is the address given by the Guest-of-Honour, Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State (Law and Home Affairs).
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Mr Palakrishnan, SC, President, Law Society of Singapore Distinguished guests Ladies and gentlemen
I am happy to be here today to launch the Law Society’s Online E-learning Portal.
A key objective of the Law Society is to help its members keep abreast of latest developments in the law. As new areas of law emerge, the Law Society’s Continuing Legal Education Committee also endeavours to broaden and deepen
Singapore lawyers’ store of knowledge. These are laudable objectives and in today’s fast-changing society, necessary ones. Against this backdrop, this new portal marks a great leap forward. Its introduction is also in tandem with
our national emphasis on lifelong learning. Lawyers, like all Singaporeans, must embrace lifelong learning.
As the world becomes a global village, with individual societies becoming more complex and interconnected, more areas of law are emerging. In addition, traditional areas such as property law and contract law are given a
facelift. To serve their clients better, it is incumbent on lawyers in Singapore to familiarise themselves with new areas of the law, as well as new developments in existing areas of the law. In other words, Singapore lawyers must
embrace the philosophy of continual legal education. This portal will help entrench this philosophy.
The traditional method of lectures or seminars has many drawbacks. In particular, adult learners such as busy lawyers may not be able to attend the lectures or seminars they want to, because of work commitments. Moreover, such courses are unlikely to be marketed overseas as the participants would have to travel to Singapore. Hence, the target audience is limited. This new portal overcomes these limitations. Now, any person anywhere in the world will be able to sign up for courses by accessing the Law Society’s website. Payments for the courses are made online. Once payment is made, the person will be given access to the course that he has signed up for. Participants will have the benefit of video lectures and interactive, easy-to-use teaching materials. They will have 24- hours access to the site and can go through the modules at their own pace. They can even interact online with instructors and other students. That’s the process. As for the contents, I am sure users will find currently-listed topics on areas such as e-business intellectual property rights and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments already very useful. In time, as the portal gives more coverage to ‘cutting edge’ areas of the law such as information technology, life sciences and intellectual property,
I have no doubt lawyers and, indeed, other professionals working in the field will find the portal an indispensable tool.
I understand the Law Society intends to actively promote and advertise its e-learning portal on the Web, so as to attract both domestic and international users. Many benefits will result from this move. For one, there will be
greater awareness of Singapore’s laws overseas. With greater familiarity of Singapore’s laws and Singapore’s legal system, I hope that more foreign lawyers will then choose Singapore law as the governing law in the contracts they
are drafting for their clients, and choose Singapore as the venue for arbitration. Another beneficial effect will be that Singapore lawyers working overseas can keep in touch with the latest developments in Singapore law. Already,
MinLaw is in contact with more than 60 Singaporeans working in law-related areas overseas. I am sure they and other professionals working overseas will find the portal useful. In this way, this portal can play a role in helping
Singapore to become a centre of legal education and a hub for legal services in this region, a key objective of the ERC’s Legal Work Group’s recommendations released recently.
It is also my understanding that the Law Society intends to partner renowned overseas institutions to provide specialised courses via the new portal. With more of such partnerships, the portal will, in future, provide an even wider offering of courses. Over time, I hope that the Law Society will make this e-learning portal even more accessible, not just to its members but to the general public as well. If not the entire portal, at least those parts on more general aspects of law which are of interest to a layman with an inquiring mind. As our society matures, Singaporeans will want to know about the law, and how it impacts on their lives.
Now, it gives me great pleasure to officially launch the E-learning Portal.
Thank you.
 Mr Palakrishnan, SC, President, Law Society of Singapore |
The following is the address given by Palakrishnan, SC, President, the Law Society of Singapore.
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Many of you may know by now that one of my favourite catch phrases is ‘Distance is Dead’.
So with this afternoon’s launch of the Law Society of Singapore’s E-learning Portal, may I say that I have come to bury ‘Distance’, not to praise it.
The wireless world has come of age, and with the forces that shape the communications revolution, the most fundamental impact is the way it transforms the availability of information and knowledge. All sorts of information are
now infinitely diffusible. The barriers to the instant global spread of knowledge are falling away. Anyone’s bright idea can quickly become everyone’s bright idea.
Consequently, legal education in Singapore is now poised to take on a whole new face. E-learning is thus just one of the bounties that the technological revolution has delivered to us, and the Law Society is proud to be a
pioneer in presenting this mode of legal learning to our members.
For many of us, armchair learning is nothing new, however old we are. But imagine being able to have all the comforts of learning at your own time, with all the benefits of doing so in an interactive way with the help of
technology.
Choosing when to switch on the teaching and learning, and when to take a break.
All at the click of a mouse.
The Law Society of Singapore’s E-learning Portal, made possible through the efforts of our Continuing Legal Education (‘CLE’) Committee and through our partnership with CrimsonLogic, is intended to be an online virtual legal
education centre, where you can study using state-of-the-art, multimedia, e-learning techniques, and at the same time gain a competitive advantage.
This revolutionary new e-learning concept is the futuristic next generation of distance-learning and we, at the Law Society, are proud to offer an expanding range of courses in this exciting new format. With content provided by
lawyers who are regarded as experts in their field of practice, the highest standard is hoped to be maintained. My thanks go to them for their support, as well as to the handful of law firms who tested our pilot project and
provided invaluable feedback from which the current programmes have been reconstructed.
Whilst the Law Society prides itself in providing continual legal education seminars and workshops of a consistently high standard, our portal, which I believe is the first of its kind for the legal profession in South-East
Asia, represents a quantum leap forward in learning methodology.
The portal will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are no set lesson times; you simply study at home or at work or even from a resort, indeed any place you can connect to the internet, whenever you have some free
time. No sacrifice of weekends with the family or billable hours attending a full-day seminar. Log on and off from wherever you are and let your fingers do the walking.
And, as each of the course modules are presented in small, easy-to-follow, user friendly segments, it allows for not only our members, but also other professionals here and overseas, legal academics, students and members of the
public, the opportunity to tap on this innovative hub of legal education to educate and upgrade themselves.
With the convenience afforded by a portal such as this, we shall no longer have any excuse for not pursuing a programme of continual legal education.
Much time and effort has been expended by the Law Society and our CLE Committee, together with our IT development partner, CrimsonLogic, in developing this portal for the benefit of our members and the public.
This Launch truly marks a significant milestone for the Law Society of Singapore.
It remains for me now to only ask that in turn, you demonstrate your commitment to your lifelong legal learning, log on to this new gateway, gain entry into your virtual classroom and ride the technological revolution.
And let the lessons begin!
Thank you.
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Seated from left, Assoc Prof Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home affairs, Mr Palakrishnan, SC, President of the Law Society of Singapore, Mr V Mathivanan, CEO of CrimsonLogic and Ms Yasho Dhoraisingam, CEO of the Law Society of Singapore |
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The E-learning Portal is officially launched with an impressive demo |
The following is the address given by V Mathivanan, CEO, CrimsonLogic.
Good afternoon:
Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs; Mr Palakrishnan, SC President of the Law Society Council Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Trends and Forecasts
The internet has changed our lives — from the way we work to the way we play. Today, we will see how it transforms the way we learn.
According to Merrill Lynch, the knowledge economy is founded on brainpower, ideas and entrepreneurship. While technology is the driver of the new economy, though some are sceptical about this, fuelling it is the human capital,
also known as the knowledge worker.
The knowledge economy is all about people. The key to success in the new economy is how companies obtain, train and retrain these knowledge workers.
Riding high on the knowledge curve, law associations around the world are placing great importance on continuing learning education. In jurisdictions like Australia, the US, Canada and Hong Kong to name a few, there are various
professional development schemes — many of them mandatory — to maintain a high quality of legal services. These development programmes also enhance the competitiveness of their legal professions in the global market.
Supporting these developments, online or e-learning initiatives have been introduced, enabling convenient, fast and easy access to up-to-date information and knowledge. And internet savvy lawyers already accustomed to doing
online research, have taken to these portals like fish to water.
In Australia, for instance, the College of Law Alliance (New South Wales) initially assessed that 40% of its students would study by way of e-learning. As of 2001, the total stood at 82%. So we are witnessing a trend on the
rise, pretty much a cyber tsunami, if you were to ask me!
IDA Singapore projects the Singapore market for e-learning products and services to be worth US$62m by 2005, almost a seven-fold increase from last year’s US$9m.
With such high growth prediction in all sectors in Singapore and the significant adoption rates of internet use in Singapore homes, it is inevitable that e-learning will soon become part and parcel of our professional and
personal lives.
The foresight of Mr Palakrishnan, SC, the President of the Law Society of Singapore, and the members of his Council and CLE Committee in embarking on an e-learning journey, thus marks a good and important milestone.
Good because Singapore can take a lead in Asia to blaze a trail in innovative use of technology-enabled learning. Important because making available knowledge and training on our law and legal system on the Web puts Singapore
law and its legal experts on the global radar screen.
About E-learning
The benefits are immense, both to the employer and to the employee, as Mr Palakrishnan has pointed out. E-learning, or technology-enabled learning, offers the user a total learning experience, from online written material and
assignments, video streaming, interactive quizzes, to threaded discussions and interactive chat rooms.
A lawyer or a professional, logging onto the Law Society’s legal education portal embarks immediately on an interactive and enjoyable learning journey. They will be able to choose from a range of subject modules, set their own
pace of learning, track progress and receive feedback from the course facilitator.
Shortly we will bring you through a preview of an online course to demonstrate how Logecis, our e-learning solution, can be a useful and interesting resource not just for lawyers but those who want to learn things legal.
ASP Services
And to make it even more convenient, the e-learning that you will experience is, like most of our other services, ‘on the tap’. It’s there when you need it, whenever you need it, and from anywhere you choose to be.
This is made possible by our 24/7-managed data hosting services, network availability, security monitoring and technical helpdesk. All the infrastructure support is provided for, on a secure and reliable framework, and this
translates to cost savings, for the Law Society as well as employers. The only investment required is for the user to have a Pentium PC or notebook, soundcard and internet, preferably broadband connection.
These will plug the user into the fully interactive learning experience whenever and wherever he wants it.
Conclusion
To stay competitive in the global market space, we have to be able to expand our knowledge base and skills set quickly, with minimum productive downtime.
E-learning is one such way.
Thank you.