QED 522 ICT - Reflection 9: E-learning on iN2015 & COTF

My group & I visited the Classroom Of The Future (COTF) at NIE today. Having watched iN2015 last Tue at MxL, I was not greatly impressed by the set-up in the COTF. I probably had visualised COTF differently. I thought it would be a typical classroom set-up with a lot of ICT technology in place. It wasn't realistic enough, I thought, with regards to the classroom set-up. I could not see how possible it is have similar set-up for all the classrooms in schools.

Nevertheless, the learning environment in the COTF seems exciting & refreshing. It is very stimulating too. I was very impressed with how pupils learn in the iN2015 video. With technology, learning can take place anywhere anytime. Pupils become self-regulating & self-directed learners. They take charge of what they want to learn, how much they want to learn, when they want to learn, where they want to learn, etc. Learning becomes an active & on-going process. It is very learner-centered.

What concerns me greater is iN2015. BTW, Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) is Singapore’s 10-year masterplan to help us realise the potential of infocomm over the next decade. Led by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), iN2015 is a multi-agency effort that is the result of private, public and people sector co-creation. See video below:



The year 2008 is coming to a close in 3 months time. Singapore has another 6-7 years to realise the iN2015 vision. Can we achieve it? Are we on track? Is everyone aware of this vision? Are we prepared for it? If not, how can we better prepare ourselves? Also, what concerns me are not the younger generations who are already digital natives, but digital immigrants in their 40s, 50s & older. Will there be a communication breakdown between the two? How can they cope & live with the changes in technology that will have a significant impact on their lives? Can they adapt to the changes or will they be left behind to live in a world of their own? Will these digital natives spend more time with their gadgets, thus have less socio-emotional interaction with other human species?

Being a digital immigrant myself, I do not deny having these genuine fears & concerns myself. I'm thankful that I've picked up useful knowledge & experience from the ICT subject. However, there are many teachers in schools who may not have been privileged to undergo proper ICT training for one reason or another. How will they cope with the pressure to infuse ICT tools in our education? And will their ignorance have a negative impact on the education of our young? Will teachers have to learn from these digital natives instead? How will I face up to these challenges?

For one thing, I know NIE (in particular ICT) has helped me experience ICT in education. What would happen when I graduate from NIE? How would I keep up with the changes & advancements in ICT. I am just one of the many thousands of teachers who may have similar fears. How would MOE address this issue? Have an ICT support group for us?

I hope MOE or NIE would have some answers or solutions to the above-mentioned concerns & fear. I guess one way is to continue to learn as we teach. Sign up & attend in-service courses organised by NIE or other institutions. The 100 TRAISI hours would come in handy. Hope there would be such courses in the pipeline... :)

QED 522 ICT - Reflection 7/8

We had our group demo today. The team had put in a great deal of effort into it. Now, we can proceed to fine-tune our lesson idea into a lesson plan.

Prof Ashley introduced Second Life to us. It was an eye-opener! We had fun. It was really amazing & impressive!!! We were so engrossed in it. Then Prof also spoke to us about some of the educational & social values of SL. Yeah, I must agree that SL really does work wonders, if put to the right use.



This second video gives many practical & good applications of SL in education. A must watch! The benefits are self-explanatory.



We'll be visiting Classroom Of The Future (COTF) this Thur. Oh yeah, Prof also showed us what it life would be in 2015. Lotsa fantastic unthinkable digital gadgets. So cool. Hmmm...2015...how old would I be then??? Lol....that's 7 years away...haha...

Will post more when we do our e-learning next week & after visiting COTF. :)

QED 522 ICT - Reflection 6

Today 2 other groups presented their ICT tool - YouTube & Hot Potatoes. And we completed our gaming experience at MxL. Dr Tan also introduced another mindmapping tool called the Mind Meister. Pretty cool cos several people could mind map from different accounts at the same time. Something that could come in handy for collaborative learning or when we could work from different locations.

My group & I will be having our demo next Tue. Thus, we'll have our rehearsal this Thu. And next week, Dr Tan will share with us Second Life...hmmm...interesting...new to me...

QED 522 ICT - Reflection 5

This week, we submitted our Case Study assignment worth 40%! The 'similarity test' for my assignment was 18%, mostly due to the references quoted in the report.

Groups C & D presented their group demo. Was impressed by Group C's presentation on Google's Sketchup. And they have already done their lesson plan! (more or less). We continued to be exposed to another educational gaming software.

Meanwhile, my group members & I are also preparing for our group demo on 23 Sep. Will be introducing CmapTools, yet another mindmapping tool! Kinda boring when 2 other groups had already presented mindmapping tools. Well, what we could do is perhaps demo to everyone its advantages & disadvantages over E-draw & bubb.us. In fact, CmapTools have more features!

U can read more here .

Collaborative learning vs cooperative learning

Collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle where individuals are responsible for their actions, including learning and respect the abilities and contributions of their peers.

Collaborative learning is a personal philosophy, not just a classroom technique. In all situations where people come together in groups, it suggests a way of dealing with people which respect and highlights individual group members' abilities and contributions. There is a sharing of authority and acceptance of responsibility among group members for the groups actions. The underlying premise of collaborative learning is based upon consensus building through cooperation by group members, in contrast to competition in which individuals best other group members. CL practitioners apply this philosophy in the classroom, at committee meetings, with community groups, within their families and generally as a way of living with and dealing with other people.

In collaborative learning environments, students:

- frequently work as a team
- actively solve meaningful problems
- publicly exhibit their learning
- reflect on what they are learning and doing
- apply quality criteria to their work
- take responsibility for and ownership of their learning.


Cooperation is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of a specific end product or goal through people working together in groups.

Cooperative learning is defined by a set of processes which help people interact together in order to accomplish a specific goal or develop an end product which is usually content specific. It is more directive than a collaboratve system of governance and closely controlled by the teacher. While there are many mechanisms for group analysis and introspection the fundamental approach is teacher centered whereas collaborative learning is more student centered.

QED 522 ICT - Reflection 4

For the next few sessions, we'll be focusing on integrating technology in our lessons.

Today, one group shared how they would use E-draw mindmapping tool in their D&T lesson, to design a night light. Lotsa words but little explanation on how to start the map from scratch.

After that, the class was exposed to the various educational gaming softwares that were meant to promote ICT-based enagged learning among students.

This was the first time I 'played' with such 'toys'. At station 3, somehow or another, I felt the games were more suitable for primary school kids. The maths & science questions seemed too simple for secondary school students.

At the next station, I played Nintendo Wii Sports (tennis & boxing). Though I liked the concept, trying to aim at my target was challenging. More often than not, it was trial & error. Wish there was some navigation help. Nonetheless, managed to work out a little sweat & kept the heart pumping hard.

Dr Tan also briefed us on our case study assignment. And yes, he was right, we're all exhausted & loaded with assignments. The assignments kept coming like some production line. I wish we had more time & less assignments so that we can really absorb stuff & LEARN. I know what I wanna learn & benefit from NIE. I just wish NIE would go easy on the assignments so that we can really really absorb, learn & benefit from this course.

Oh yeah...need to ponder what cooperative & collaborative learning mean...I roughly have the idea when Dr Tan showed to us how some groups took ownership of their contribution in the previous e-learning task. I guess in collaborative learning, we share information without taking any credit. We should just share info willingly & openly, for the benefit of anyone & everyone...being SELFLESS!