At this school, it’s okay to ‘tweet’ in class
Great news article from The Straits Times, 6 November 2009.
This is exactly how technology should be used to improve education – “it’s okay to ‘tweet’ in class”
Congratulations to Ngee Ann Secondary School for becoming one of the 30 “Microsoft Pathfinder Schools” worldwide.
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Baseline ICT Standards (Singapore): Where is Web 2.0 for Primary level?
This afternoon I attended a briefing at MOE HQ on Pupils’ Attainment of Baseline ICT Standards. The highlight of the briefing was the demonstration of the Online Assessment Tool which is task based and automated. Pretty impressive stuff.
However what made me a little upset was the glaring absence of Web 2.0 for Primary level Skills areas in the revised standards.
Frankly, I was quite puzzled by this first ICT Focus:
Pupils will use the Internet for email and searches.
and this Skills Area:
Learning with Communication Tools: Online Communication: Send a message. Send an attachment.
While Secondary and Tertiary levels placed some emphasis on Web 2.0, I can’t say the same for Primary level (except for the brief mention of ‘Digital portfolio’ and ‘blog’ as ‘Suggested Evidence’).
I can’t help but ask myself: Is Web 2.0 deemed too early for Primary level?
I will probably slap myself first if the answer is a yes.
As what Deputy Director. Professional Development & Consultancy, Mr. Sin Kim Ho pointed out, the Baseline Standards will be evolving.
I guess evolving is just too slow. It needs an immediate transformation.
Note: Primary level pupils in Singapore are between 7 years old (Primary 1) to 12 years old (Primary 6).
Goodbye 110mb!
From MOE Press Releases:
The Ministry of Education (MOE), together with NCS Pte Ltd and Google, officially announced today that they are working together to make available the Google Apps (Education version) suite of online communications and collaboration tools to more than 30,000 teachers and staff in over 350 schools in Singapore by end 2009. This will make MOE the first Ministry in Singapore to adopt an open standard cloud computing platform and the first in Asia to provide Web 2.0 communication and collaboration tools to all teachers in the public school system.
Besides embracing Web 2.0 and cloud computing, I must say good riddance to the pathetic 110mb MyEDUmail2! :p
Bad English – Who to blame?
Miss Ris Low is the most talk-about girl of moment in Singapore. Being the winner of Miss Singapore 2009, her command of English was much maligned.
Many felt as the competition ambassador of the country, she will not project a good image of Singapore. On the other hand, some felt she is a true reflection of the English standard in Singapore, and Singaporeans should not criticise her English as most of us are no better.
From an educator’s perspective, I can’t help to feel for some forum comments on the papers. Some put the blame of her bad English on her teachers.
What do you say?
Rulang Primary School awarded the School Excellence Award (SEA)
Congratulations to my school for getting this prestigious award! 
Singapore Teachers—Lead. Care. Inspire.
“By word and deed, through the care we give, we touch the lives of our students. We make a difference—leading and inspiring our students to believe in themselves and to be the best they can be.
As individuals and as a community of professionals, we seek continually to deepen our expertise. Respectful of fellow educators, we collaborate to build a strong fraternity, taking pride in our work and profession.
We forge trusting partnerships with families and the community for the growth and well-being of each student.
We Lead, Care, Inspire,
For the Future of the Nation Passes through Our Hands.”
A Vision for the Teaching Service 
Here’s how IT-savvy a Singapore school is
From TechXav:
Touted as “one of the most wired countries in the world“, Singaporeans second most tech savvy in the world as one of the most avid owners and consumers globally of entertainment technology. According to a survey conducted by Nielsen, Singapore also emerged as the country with the highest rate of mobile phone ownership in the world, with a penetration rate of 129.7%. The statistics mean that many Singaporeans own at least one or two mobile phones. Besides these, it’s a common sight to see teenagers interacting with their friends on Facebook, Twitter and MSN. Blogging is also a popular pastime by students.
As for today, I’ll narrow down my scope to how tech-savvy schools in Singapore are. In this post, I’ll share my personal experience as a 15-Year-Old student studying in Maris Stella.
From a Singapore student’s pespective. Although I must say Maris Stella is one of the more IT-savvy schools, it basically reflects the direction Singapore schools are moving.
edumall2.0
A great revamp of MOE’s eduportal. Great platform to learn, share and collaborate with fellow teachers.
From About Us page:
edumall2.0 is a common Internet-based platform for hosting all MOE-HQ Teaching and Learning (T&L) digital content produced or procured by MOE HQ divisions. Teachers and students can access trusted curriculum-based education digital content and interact with one and other using a variety of Internet services.
Through edumall, teachers and students can easily access their preferred content collated from the different sources and engage personalised services from trusted industry partners. As such, edumall will enable the nurturing of a voluntary online learning community, the fostering of collaboration amongst teachers, amongst students, and between teachers and students. Through greater interactivity via digital content, the teaching and learning experiences of teachers and students respectively will be more stimulating and engaging.
Key Features
edumall provides:
- Communities: A publicly accessible space where users can access selected content and engage learning services. Materials are presented in lively multimedia format such as flash animation, video streaming or podcasting. There are a variety of interactive tools in various communities, these include wiki, discussion forum, opinion poll and Survey.
- Repository: An electronic library of digital content for teaching and learning from various MOE HQ divisions or trusted third-party providers.
- Search: A powerful search engine which enables users to search the entire edumall by simple keywords or advanced criteria.
- MyEdumall: A personalized space where teachers and students where can customize and present personalized content. Teachers can post articles in a special personal blog known as KnowBlog to stimulate and facilitate online learning. (This is a personalized space, login required)
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