Just into the second day of the attachment, I must say that the journey has been fruitful so far . ETD colleagues have been very generous in their time and their sharing.Once again, I deeply appreciate their hospitality.
This morning, Yuh Huann and Loo Kang from TDL shared on the ICT connection portal. I must admit that I did not fully explore the functions inside ICT connection when it was launched earlier this year. During the briefing , I was given a detailed walk through on every single component inside the portal. I particularly like the Learning Team forum where teachers from all over Singapore can converge into a single portal to engage in professional dialogues online. The concept of collaboration in PLC is not just limited within the 4 walls of schools but to a wider audience. Another thing I feel is good about ICT Connection is that the ETOs are personally involved in giving their comments for every lesson plan submitted. For instance, Loo Kang shared how he would look through a lesson plan, suggest some IT resources or links and repost them for everyone to see. Moving forward, I would want my staff to fully utilize the ICT connection. Already, I am working on a set of comms plan on how I could effectively create buy-in among my staff to encourage them to use this portal on a regularly basis.
In the afternoon, I was pleasantly surprise when Jimmy, my ex colleague and ex boss came to me and offered to walk me through his project on Second Life. Together with Chuan Leong and Kent, they showed me various examples on how SL was being integrated into curriculum and tried at the various pilot schools. Prior to this , I have tried to find examples on the Internet on how schools use SL to engage their students, however, many of these examples were from overseas and many were from tertiary institutions.I needed local examples and that was when Jimmy's presentation came just in time .Within the short 2- hour presentation and dialogue, I was able to see for myself how SL could be used to engage students in perspective thinking, scenario-based instruction as well as inquiry-based learning, just to name a few. I have always wanted to pilot an SL project in my school, in fact, a few KPs and I have met a vendor two months back to discuss on the possibility of creating a virtual world portal integrating Maths and Science. I am convinced that this platform would provide a powerful learning experience for our children and I look forward to tapping the expertise of ETD colleagues in this area when we launch our vw next year.
