Pay Attention

Great video which I missed all the while.

One key point here is the use of mobile phones in schools.

Well, it is always controversial, especially in primary and secondary schools. I must admit I am apprehensive of this idea too.

Questions like ‘What if kids steal phones?’, ‘What if kids use them just for casual SMSing during lessons?’, or ‘What if kids developed a mobile phone race for the trendiest model?’ often pop up from teachers’ mind.

I believe these questions are valid, since school teachers are always concerned of classroom management and discipline of pupils. I would not say teachers who expressed concerns are ‘refusing to enter the digital age with their teaching practices’. There are just too many issues needed to be addressed before mobile phones can be brought into classrooms, hence most teachers are as apprehensive as I am.

Singapore being a ‘SMS Nation’, schools should be tapping on mobile phone technology in teaching. In fact I have seen and heard the use mobile phones in teaching, but mostly only during Infocomm competitions and sharing sessions of pilot projects.

I certainly look forward to more positive developments in mobile phone technology in education in the near future.

We carry on surprising you

Britain’s Got Talent Week 3: Surprise!

I am simply awed by this act. The element of surprise is certainly one of the most powerful tools to enthuse audience. If all lessons can have some elements of surprise like this, learning will surely be interesting.

On the other hand, some of my pupils really did that – carry on surprising me!

iFlashbook in the news

I am not sure how the trial is going take place. 1:1 laptop or traditional classroom environment? 1:1 would be fantastic.

I am also a little puzzled that the news reported the bilingual nature of iFlashbook. True, but many reference materials like the infamous 词语手册 (A complete series of reference books which contain vocabulary from textbooks) are already using English to explain meanings of Chinese words and phrases.

If interested, please read my review of this application.

Learn@

Learn@ is a technology-based educational event organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on an annual basis. It aims to take learning outside the classroom and encourage pupils to make linkages between what they observe during the learning experience and what they learn in class. Based on their field experience and research, teams of pupils will be tasked to complete web-based projects and submit them as competition entries.

The theme for this year is ‘Climate Change’. I will be bringing a team to this competition. It sure looks fun with a great combination of online quiz, mobile technology, Amazing Race-like experiential learning and blogging!

Wish me good luck in this competition!

There is just the Web

From ReadWriteWeb:

Something struck me while listening to Tim O’Reilly’s keynote speech at the Web 2.0 expo yesterday: glancing at my notes after he walked off stage, I noticed that his current definition for Web 2.0, is a lot like the definition he’s given for Web 3.0. Based on those and past comments on I dug up via a few web searches I am forced to one conclusion: Tim O’Reilly, the man credited with popularizing the term Web 2.0, doesn’t actually believe it exists. For O’Reilly, there is just the web right now. 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 — it’s all the same ever-changing web.

As mentioned in my previous post, definitions are for purists. I guess my statement holds for even the definition of the web. Call it the return to innocence. Welcome back, the web.

Podcasting in Plain English

Frankly I do not know ‘pod’ stands for ‘personal on demand’. All along I thought it was derived from iPod!

But wait a minute, Wikipedia says the term is a portmanteau of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”.

Well, definitions are for purists, nevermind

Part 2 of Adventures with Voicethread

I finally got my Primary 6 pupils to record a Voicethread! It was the same oral practice the other time but this time without my voice. Most pupils were shy and reluctant to try, probably they were not comfortable hearing their own voices (In fact I am not that comfortable too!).

“At last, not Mr Kwan’s voice!”

After much coaxing and assurance, I managed to get 4 pupils, 3 boys and 1 girl to record their picture descriptions. As a matter of fact, I had given the class the picture and instructed everyone to write a script over the weekend. Hence everyone should come prepared. Although the pupils still stumbled here and there, they did pretty well as novices. I am proud of them.

Maybe I should briefly introduce the gadgets I am using. I am using the Asus Eee PC 701 (I hope I can do an educator’s review on this baby soon) and a Logitech Premium Stereo Headset. I did the recording in the classroom, with some effort in keeping the class quiet. I would say the quality of recording is decent.

And the adventure continues…

I am still in the process of planning my next Voicethread project. I might continue to beef up this oral practice idea or go on with another, for example a learning journey I thought of previously.

I am also considering making digital storytelling a project-based assignment for my Primary 5 class. Hopefully they will be more motivated to learn and speak mandarin with this cool tool.

Perhaps another ambitious project could be a collaboration between my school’s partner school in China, Bibo Experimental Primary School in Suzhou on the topic of Beijing Olympics! How exciting!

If, as a teacher…

Page taken from Carl Glickman’s Leadership for Learning: How to Help Teachers Succeed.

Maybe I would like to add one more line to the bullet points: I do not read edublogs by teachers and edtechs all over the world…

Great post by Darren Draper. Maybe I should print this page and stick it up somewhere to remind myself.

iCTLT 2008

This International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology (or iCTLT) is jointly organized by the Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). ISTE is the organization that hosts the premier NECC (or National Educational Computing Conference) annually in the U.S.

I am really looking forward to this conference in August. I thought Sir Ken Robinson is absolutely brilliant.

I hope my school will sponsor me for the full conference and pre-conference workshops ($450SGD)! Also, I hope my lessons would not be affected significantly because of my absence. PSLE will be around the corner then (I am teaching a Primary 6 class). So really got to plan ahead for it.

Singapore education draws global interest

Source: The Straits Times

By Jane Ng

SINGAPORE’s brand of education is already attracting interest worldwide, even from traditional education strongholds like the United States, Britain and Australia.

In recent weeks, representatives from education institutions in the three countries have come here to forge closer ties with Singapore institutions.

They are looking at sending their students here on exchange programmes, collaborating on scientific research or establishing a stronger presence here.

Not all are part of Singapore’s global schoolhouse plan of having 150,000 international students in seven years, but their presence adds to the buzz.