Classroom of the Future

It was a really fun visit to at least give us cavemen oriented mentalities an idea of the possibilities of breaking out of conventionality. In some sense, perhaps I expected more. But then again, its already a big step to see the usual floating-in-the-air concepts being simulated in actuality.

In the future, all these high-tech gadgets and artificial intelligence will take over many of our current jobs, creating new ones in the process. It will be a whole new world incomprehensible to the people of today, where impossible dreams become actualized. We, who don't even know what's going to happen, will have to arm others with what's to come up.

Okay, I love this whole endless possibilities of opportunities of learning and discovery. But if I had to state the key factor in education in all these futuristic discussions, I think what's important to remember is the humane aspect and relationships in society. I guess that I still have somewhat of a fear of the loss of the "human touch" from over-dependence on technology.

Just look at all those people listening to their iPod walking around, choosing to feel a different ambience around them than reality...

But then again, progress is a must. But I really hope that we all remember that at the same time, its really important that root values and human nature don't get lost in the excitement of it all...

Second Life

The first time I heard about Second Life, it was in a GQ magazine where the author wrote a really hilarious article about how, for the sake of writing the article, had to do research by going in there and figuring things out for himself. From being traumatized by the fact that accidentally offended some people in a serious group meeting by flying around, the fact that every part of the body could be upgraded (including the genitals), the more attractive, the more expensive, and eventually being so depressed by the fact that most people just went in there to engage in unacceptable activity in real life society that he just tried impossibly to commit suicide and get rid of his avatar once and forever.

With that impression in my head, I feel skeptical in considering Second Life for education purposes so I guess it was a good thing that I watch the following clip:



Virtual spaces mimicking reality and virtual environments way beyond the limits of reality exist in Second Life. These simulations would bring the students out of the 4 walls of the classrooms and give them a more first-hand and interation of exploring and learning about places that no longer exist or are too far away.

What I thought was the coolest was the possibility to re-create environments. Although the minus side is that that would not come free, the thought of building and designing something out of your own creativity struck me as a useful platform for students to showcase their potential, and further encourage them to think out of the box.

WALL-E

It just struck me how our lives have evolutionized a full circle. From our parents' time of constantly loitering outdoors and playing with the kids in the block, to our time of staying indoors glued to our computer games, and then now to our juniors' time of living and playing in a computer simulated environment that mimics reality to the extent of even integrating the actions of (for example swinging the arm as one would when playing tennis or golf) games. In Wii (which mind you, I thought was really fun), the whole game is simulated, minus the running (as the avatar that represents you does all that automatically, plus the funky action moves, for you), and the sun beating down on your back (as you would be comfortably standing on your soft carpet in the comforts of your air-conditioned living room).

At this point, I am reminded of Wall-e. The bit on humans getting more and more dependent on technology to bring about so-called luxury in the form of automation and simulations that no longer require the bodily functions. The fact that we need a remote control now, a microwave, a television are all starting signs to show where we are headed: Axiom.

But don't forget the best bit, where they return back to earth and are all over-awed by the beauty of it. So perhaps we are beginning to feel the effects of over exposure to cyberspace, and hence, the production of games like Wii to remind us that hey, we still have a body!

A few days back, there was a small malay boy no older than 7 years old sitting next to me on the train totally engrossed in his psp. His mother, sister and baby brother were almost a family of their own as they oblivious to him. And I was just watching his game in silent surprise. He was playing a kickboxing game where his knowledge of where and how to hit his opponent in such accuracy was amazing. And I wondered why the game had to have information on things like where there vital points are to ensure maximum injury.

Then again, I don't understand why they need to make games like this. Let me explain. In learning kickboxing (in real life), there are alot of values such as respect being learnt at the same time, ensuring that the learner learns the value behind the sport beyond mere physical fighting. However, all these necessary values are filtered out in a computer game as there is nothing left but the ultimate goal of killing/hurting/eliminating someone else. But for exactly what reason are you killing that poor dude? Its hence no wonder that the ultimate result is children growing up being unable to distinguish make-belief from reality, and thinking that violence is normal.(http://news.softpedia.com/news/Violent-Video-Games-Are-Increasing-The-Aggressive-Behavior-of-Boys-6653.shtml)

Now, if we take the tools we have (i.e. the technological know-how) and use these to create games for a justifiable or beneficial reason, perhaps it makes more sense. A child, being unable to travel to the 7 wonders of the world, being unable to go to the deepest oceans and highest mountains and see space for himself, gets alot of benefit from learning about all these in the simulated environments that opens his horizon to beyond the 4 walls. Social impact games (http://www.socialimpactgames.com/) lets them experience phenomenas (such as an earthquake) or issues (such as political wars) first-hand that they would otherwise be unable to do in reality. All these are relevant and useful cyber creations that do not alienate reality nor compromise an individual's social capability to re-integrate back into society.

As the world is now all interconnected thanks to the media and the internet, we have now come to an age where we have much power in our hands to impact the world. With our knowledge of technology which we will never be able to escape from anyway, we can choose to use it for destruction or for benefit. Of course, we cannot dictate every single person to be pure and perfectly straight-laced. However, as a personal social responsibility, it would certainly benefit more people to use our knowledge and tools for things that could contribute towards helping and create a positive impact on others.

My Unsafe Assignment

I'd like to do a reflection on my Case Study Assignment. Safe Assignment has very efficiently informed me that 53% of my work is plagiarized. So I got a heart attack. And then I found out that that 53% consists of only my References that copied 5 other students' work. I'm not sure but I feel like I was caught in some kind of GOTCHA!! moment.

Grammar test is over (with prayers to the Grammar God to allow me to pass it.. yes.. we can discuss the topic of lack of Self-efficacy and Motivation here), ICT Demo is over (with the Q&A coming in after the Q&A session of course), and now, my 53% plagiarized assignment can't be re-submitted anyway (as I was thinking of removing the References to see if Safe Assignment could check properly that way).

That's really one thing about ICT. Its so good that sometimes it seems like it has a mind of its own that makes it totally impossible to cooperate with or understand...

Learning is Fun*

*Terms and Conditions apply

Emo

So here I am again, on this pouring Sunday afternoon. First thing I had to say about my previous post would be what my students would call that being "Emo". But being "Emo" aside, I would like to add that those D&T teachers I worked with, as cavemen as they were, were really sweet and more than happy to go out of their way to provide me with their materials, advice and chocolates. So yea, as much as I can be a mascot for PMS, I am not a total ungrateful wretch...

We spent the whole Friday doing ICT.. I spent the whole Saturday doing ICT.. and its now Sunday and I am staring at:

• Have you come across any of these pedagogical approaches as a student?
• What is the relationship of these approaches?
• What roles do the various ICT tools/interactive resources play in these approaches?

Being melodramatic, I would say that the rain feels for me. I feel like my students now when they come lamenting to me that they actually hate E-Learning as although they get 3 days off school, they actually have more work and spend more time doing them than they would have had if they had lessons in school. My dears, I feel your pain!

I feel more tempted to broach the topic of work(school)-life balance mentioned by PM Lee Hsien Loong during the National Day Rally rather than the topics I am supposed to discuss but I have been promptly informed that the influences from my western counterparts affecting my freedom of speech and opinion is possibly going to get me into trouble in conservative Singapore. I was already wondering (and being somewhat disturbed) that why is it to deal with things like bullying (refer to E-Learning assignment), its always to report them to authorities/teachers/police. Its no wonder that many of our kids are so extremely socially-shy (I am tempted to say socially-stunted) among their international peers. If they were taught to go running to mommy and daddy each time they got teased, and never learnt to stand up for themselves and learn social skills, its no wonder that there is a lack in self-confidence and the fight for survival to distinguish oneself from the rest, which would describe the majority of us (myself definitely included). Think back to the high school debate show we saw on tv and the discussion then when one of our top schools were trashed beyond hope by an international school. Anyway, when I last spoke to an "angmoh" friend about the phenomena of "Don't friend you!" today and "Friend you!" tomorrow, I deducted that such things were just not within the scope of understanding within their framework of social rules.

Student A once complained to me in the most seriously pestering way that Student B was disturbing student C. So I took Student A to Student C and asked Student C if there was a problem with Student B. Student C said no (as she already solved the problem herself). So I told Student A that for 1, why does the problem affect him if it doesn't affect the victim, and for 2, why is he complaining on behalf of Student C when it had absolutely nothing to do with him? Of course we encourage everyone to blow horns at one another, but I really think there's something to learn in establishing social rules that are still upright and care-taking. We know that we are all pretty good at complaining left right center, but is this attitude of constantly whining to the teacher the reason why we still seek to complain up down left right even when we are no longer kids?

I digress.

My brain feels as brittle as those pumice stone-scrubs for the feet after all I had to think about pedagogical implementations.

Okay. One thing I had to say about pedagogical approaches is that I am glad they are emphasizing more and more on team work and pushing students to stop wanting to be spoon fed. I asked that same angmoh friend about social issues during his childhood (about situations similar to "Don't friend you!") and what he said was that he was too busy playing and being excited about finding out (which sounds pretty much like a whole lot of Inquiry-based Learning) and making things to really have any time to fight/quarrel etc. Its either that these people really have had a great social development since birth or really good pedagogical approach in school I guess.

During my days doing English Literature, I now feel proud of my Lit teachers as they succeeded in making us think both objectively and subjectively through things like (what I now realize probably is) Knowledge building. The problem with Literature is that its essentially a whole lot of talk about nothing and it could be argued forever. So plenty of exercises relied on overly discussing topics in groups and building on top of it in layers as a class and then compiling it as a whole set of notes. Having 38 brains thinking about the same thing and over analyzing it gave us more or less all the different perspectives we needed. We started attracting attention (in amusement) from the public when we unconsciously continued our bombastic banter while taking the public transport which could be somewhat considered of a job hazard but the end result was of course, that all of us scored in our Literature papers.

To give some scope in my blog (I burst out laughing just after I typed that phrase as to treat your blog as an argumentative essay is somewhat abnormal but I guess I am doing this thanks to Pavlov's Conditioning and Reinforcement Theory after life in JC), I shall now discuss Anchored Instruction as the pedagogical approach a math teacher undertook to teach angles to her Primary 5 students while I was teaching there a few months ago. She had this online program that was done in animation that showed this character (which the students are familiar with as she had been using the same program for all her lessons) asking itself questions on how to find answers to problems given to her. This character was a space girl in a really weird outfit and really quite 2-D but I guess the kids liked her (enough to prefer it to regular maths lessons). Anyway, for this topic, the character had to find her way around on a visual map with the character herself and landmarks drawn in relation to one another on the screen. The character was asked how many degrees she had to turn so that she would be facing the landmark that she had to walk towards, as well as the angles of which the other landmarks were to each other. So the students were in the role of that character and the teacher paused the clip after each question to allow students to give answers. Sometimes students would argue about the answers (whether it was clockwise or anti-clockwise), giving them opportunity to discover the flexibility in thinking as well as to solve realistic problem situations.

(At this point, I feel like my brain that has dried up to a raisin that was forgotten in the fridge for a century.)

Anyway, for all these efforts, I still have to commend on dear Bandura's Observational Learning (Social Cognitive Approach). This is because in spite of all these pedagogical approaches, the way I learnt to speak (in non-singlish) is more or less a copycat of one of my (excellent) English teachers. I only realized this when my students started imitating the somewhat dramatic emphasis I have for certain words and topics which was picked up when I was a student myself. (Yes its embarrassing, but hey, at least I know they are paying attention right?!)

On an aside, I have begun to dream of word classes, forms and function of words thanks to my English Content Upgrading classes and am already littering this blog with >.< terminology from Education Psychology classes and insanely giggling to myself. So I will have a break now and do something normal like doing some reading on a dinner food menu instead..

Catharsis

So due to the fact that the technical teachers were from the dinosaur era, during my ESE, I became the only person in that department who actually liked using computers and all the gadgety stuff...

I was tasked to prepare a lesson that was identified as just not working out at all. So I used MS PowerPoint with all the related animation to show how to start drawing and measurements to take note off, and used Photoshop to aid me in things like coloring surfaces to make it clearer for understanding. Plus, I integrated the softwares like Solidworks and Rhinoceros that are pretty commonly used in the industry (since I have a degree in Industrial Design which was where I was forced to learn these things) to show things like hidden lines and perspective views that are pretty difficult for the students to comprehend. And lastly, bothered to go for the workshop for teachers to use the software Lectora to prepare E-Learning material so that for the first time in history, D&T was involved in the E-Learning week (although none of the students did it because they never thought D&T could ever prepare an E-Learning course). Yes I could say that I was feeling rather smug about myself then.

It all sounds fine and dandy. And considering the time and effort, really diligent and hardworking. The drawing presentation I did impressed my subject head so much that he wanted me to take over the other teacher's classes. And I more or less got the shove over by that teacher who was supposed to take that lesson so the presentation I did more or less became research material to disect and analyse to the both of them (I had to surrender the presentation and that's that).

Well, on the bright side, I did manage to handle the whole Image Boards creation topic (which is one hour per class for that week) to the students at least in the end (because everyone being engineers, no one really knew how to do it so once again, things got shoved over to me.. And I really wonder if D&T teachers go back for some content upgrading??? I was the only person who knew that the products seen on the cover of the textbook was actually designed by a famous Italian designer!) And the students came up and told me that for once, D&T was fun and exciting. I think that was simply the highlight of my stint there.

And to end off this frustration which I am just letting out here, I was told in the end of my ESE that I would make an excellent teacher blah blah blah, but there was no hope of returning to that school unless one of them transferred out or the other one retired. So could I please just surrender all my work to them and good luck to the rest of my life byebye. It feels like I was already dragged into some kind of politics that I was just simply blind towards, and didn't and still don't care about.

To end off, the future is here. But if dinosaur men don't wanna join the future... *ROAR*