Cooltown? COOL!

The trip reminded me of the "Classroom of the Future (COF)" @ NIE that I visited 2 years ago. (Well, heard there's some revamp... so that it looks more future??? er... or so as to remain futuristic)

Really, for such places - it's really the packaging that counts... and of course, the getting the right 'salesperson' to do the job matters!

Well, according to an article "HP's Cooltown shows how technology works for humans ", Singapore Cooltown is the only cooltown remains worldwide... Wow! Lucky we to have one just at our doorstep, isn't it?

Several observations @ HP Cooltown Innovation Center - a mixture of newer technologies as well as existing technologies...

1. Virtual Tour

• The tablet screen shows what the user would see as he moves around in the round... it's like: When one wonders in the room (in total darkness), with the device/program, you will not knock onto any objects - it's as good as what you see when the room is lighted up. Hm... equivalent to putting on those glasses/goggles for virtual reality experience.
• Well, so the concept is not something new... except the fact that it's the first time hearing it uses a digital compass (if I remember the term correctly) instead of tapping on GPS. Oh yes, the user can find his location in the virtual map at one corner of the screen.
• Of course, the software also allows one to have his imagination runs wild when designing a place... making it so visual and realistic! Hey, it would be nice if we could have something like that to help us designing our learning spaces of the new school campus!
• One potential is to provide 'experiential learning': At a touch of a button, students can 'shrink' themselves (or their avatar) and be absorbed into a solid ... where they could explore the carbon isotopes - graphite and diamond... where they see & experience how the different structures result in different properties of the various forms.
• Similarly, they can be shrunk and transported around the human body - to take a good close look at the organs... and to experience how blood flows (pumped in/out of the heart), etc...
• Another potential for learning - Art/Design-related learning activities! For instance, involving students to design a maze...
• Hm... both are tapping on the "Honey! I shrink my kids" concept.
• Alternatively, we can also 'showcase' our future learning spaces during the open house!

2. HP TouchSmart (http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/touchsmart/#/Main/) and that table!

• The first impression: Microsoft surface - equivalent, isn't it?
• http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html
• Why? Well, microsoft has made a big wave out of it! HP said the technology was developed before microsoft got it out... so... I guess it's due to the differences in the marketing strategies/emphasis of the 2 giants?
• Well, I was still very excited, got the chance to sit in front of that table... hahaha... it's this novelty thingy in play... if it's going to be more common and accessible... then will be 见怪不怪liao!
• Of course, the table is just an enlarged version of the PC monitor version...
• Hm... other peripherals are... wireless mouse, keyboard, printer, etc... ok, ok... these are not new.
• Potential in T&L? Hm... need to explore further... Perhaps something to do with collaborative tasks? (saw this in one of the advertisements where several children playing jigsaw puzzle... Er... it's a good to have isn't it? "High class Jigsaw Puzzle"?)

3. 2D-turned-3D visual magic!

• A image printed on a piece of paper, when placed under a camera - the image will be captured and displayed in the computer... however, another dimension is displayed too! The animated visual (which could be a video/animation tagged to certain text) or just a 3rd dimension image 'popping' out!
• Potential in T&L? Probably our kind of interactive textbook? Perhaps something we can envisage our pupils building up. However, it has to go with a camera, special programme to 'embed' the information (eg. images, videoclips) "onto" the piece of paper!

4. RFID Cafe

• The first demo was that of the fridge - whereby RFID is used to track the stock of goods. Hey, isn't this something we saw in London last year? (when we put up in the Hilton hotel? or while we were in one of the hotels in Japan 2 years ago?). Yes, was so amazed by the use of technology in these household applicances then! So, no novelty here.
• Of course, other demonstrations using (passive and active) RFID were pretty interesting :D - that includes the tracking of resources/equipment.
• And yes, packaging is useful here.... it's well-illustrated with the cafe concept.
• Potential for T&L? Er...
• Potential for admin and logistics? Yes, definitely... as mentioned by HP, RFID was developed for logistics management largely. Am amazed! The tiny piece of device can do wonders!
• Another interesting fact shared was the "injection" of RFID chip into the body - it seems to work wonders! With that chip of the size of a rice gain, it allows one to be 'scanned' for admission to outlets, make payment, etc... Hey, just a wild imagination - what if the burgler 'chop' off one's arm? hahaha... too much movies!

5. Zapcode

• Another "IN" thing now... zap here, zap there... first heard about it in the learning trail at Sungei Buloh, then they appear more on newspapers, followed by Learn@ this year... and yes, today see a live demo...
• WOW! There's potential! As seen in the learning trail recently. Yes, the push and pull technology... there's definitely potential for T&L... hm... emerging??? Have to think harder... (innovative use of the tool?)

6. Digital Pen

• See here
• Another similar product: Zpen (see http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20080615/zpen-from-dane-elec/)

7. The Halo

• Really, think this is the highlight, when Iba insisted showing us... hm... the state of art... yes, the first time heard about this in the talk "Tracking the Internet into the 21st Century" by Vinton G Cerf (see HERE).
• Yeap, it's just video conferencing! But over a private network. And yes, it has overcome the 'lags' and other issues encounter in a typical videoconferencing environment. I think, its selling point is really - "so easy to use" (even by layman).
• See previous post on this.

Reflection: Workshop on e-Learning for Maths (Primary)

It's been a while... after the last workshop reflection... Guess, it's because certain workshop has been routine-iced already, when it's not just the 2nd run, but the 3rd, 4th, ... run.

The e-Learning workshop is a brand new one! Yes, to the Maths team, and I thought there are several break-throughs... we attempted a few things we had never done before...

It's during the 1st week of the school vacation - and it crashed with a few other major events in education happenings here - Sharing at Teachers' Network, Teachers' Conference, Maths Teachers' Conference and the Library Conference (there could be more!!!). Amazing, isn't it? While there's lots of talk about children having to go back to schools for enrichment and remedial programmes, there're also lots of programmes lined up for teacher educators!!!

The e-Learning module is challenging - it's new to us! Yes, 'new' because the original content has so much meat that not many of us are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to deliver. It's too broad... so is its definition... What's e-Learning? To us, to the participants, to the schools... it can be very different. Apart from opening ourselves to a whole new world... we also acquire a set of new skills and immerse (engaged?) in the act of going through it.

Some highlights...

• Background Bingo - it's a common ice-breaking activity that many of us go through when we attend workshops or training... Some of the subject teams have been faithfully carrying out this activity, I believe. But, the Maths team has not (since I joined the team in Day 1). Just wondering... is it because of the nature of our workshop, we don't see the necessity of doing it. There is little interaction needed apart from the partner beside them (Think-Pair-Share is more often carried out). And of course, most of our workshops are 2 session workshops (ie. 6 hours, including tea breaks!). Time is precious! However, think that it's worth doing if the participants are going to work together for a longer period of time, and having to harness on each other's capability (eg. in this activity, we discover who are the ones who are more familiar with the Web 2.0 tools, people of the different learning style...) Hey, this is pretty obvious in the end product of the first activity :D
• Name Stickers - did not expect that it can be put to such good use! (so versatile). The basic use is to display their name... then we asked them to indicate their learning style "V", "A", "R", "K" ... that helps them to look for people during the background bingo activity. It also helps them to find the members to form the teams! Oh yes, one thing right... we asked them to write their GMail address on the sticker... then, they simply need to circulate their name sticker when they need to include each other in the contact list. So convenient! Thought it's also a brillant idea, isn't it?
• Point system & Prizes - yes, it's also the first time we go for such activities! We have never integrated the competition element into our workshops... hahaha... no need, right? Anyway, most of the time, participants will have to deliver certain outputs. However, I agree that the nature of activities in this workshop is pretty different from the past. Lots of collaboration among the members in the team... But I guess the most important thing is, we managed to model one of the strategies to participants that they could employ with the class - how to start off with extrinsic motivators to get pupils to participate in (for instance) discussion forum. It really works!

What could be better...

• Leveraging on what participants have put on the background bingo. In fact, if we have more time, would be good to customise the 'descriptors' more... that will get them to know each other better.
• Modeling the facilitation, especially in assessing the inputs, and anticipating 'competition' among participants - which, in fact, will happen among pupils.
• The last component when participants suppose to come up with a unit plan... we're still quite new to...

Tracking the internet into the 21st century

See videoclip of talk HERE.

Attended the Talk by Vinton G. Cerf, the vice-president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google at the School of Computing, NUS Ah ha... what an interesting title, Internet Evangelist? An Internet "travelling preacher"? So creative! Did not exactly know what's expected from the talk... but definitely is a "What's next...", I thought, when I registered.

All in all, there wasn't a single minute went noticed... despite it was a 80-minute one-man show! No fancy slides, but it's the presentation that engaged the audience - the entire seminar room was fill-up!!! Why? Of course, I think the brand name "Google" is could be the first draw, for anybody who does not know who Vinton Cert was till today... but to sustain the interest of the audience, it's the belief and in-depth knowledge of the presenter that's translated through the talk that make the difference!

Found a similar set of slides in the internet (click HERE) probably used less than a year ago... but there are some differences. Also, to satisfy my curiosity, went to YouTube to do a search... and found a couple of his presentations there... mostly from 2007's 3rd quarter onwards. Though using the same title, but each time, there were updates... of course, yet found the one I saw at SoC (ok, there's probably the most updated version, I guess). This is another learning point for us: Despite of the tough and patience-testing QC process the team has to go through, we must keep ourselves abreast, progress together with the rest of the world... so, should continually be seeking new updates and integrate the relevant ones into our workshop materials! (of course, whoever put the rubber stamp on the materials earlier has to accept this idea, too!)

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Here are some points from the talk... (notice that it actually sets the background, context... before moving into the 'possibilities' (dreams???) to come in 2035. Er... why 2035? Don't know? Probably because it's far, yet near enough for us to see whether what's projected (anticipated?) will come to reality?

• It was amazing to hear that, Asia has ranked the top in terms of Internet population (with 510.5 million) against the world's 1, 320 million. However, in terms of internet penetration, it's only 13.7%, which is much below than the world's 20.0%. What does that say? It's so much potential in Asia!
• What happens to the world population in 2300? The patterns of population growth in the various continents - who's going to drive the behaviour patterns of internet users? (www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf)

Projections (Anticipations?) in 2035 include:

• IT to substitute and minimise transportation - ie. virtual meetings will become ubitquous, saving people from traveling to meet face-to-face physically, but to meet face-to-face virtually. CISCO has already come up with a video conferencing system that comes with screen projection of images of real-life size... and more amazingly, the sound system - the sound is heard at the direction where it 'should' come from. So, reality has moved into another dimension! Well, it'll take some time to make its way to the industry as it costs more than (US$300,000) (Website 1: http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/telepresence/fox/index.html Website 2: http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/webdev/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193401457 Website 3: http://news.cnet.com/Can-Cisco-be-a-video-star/2100-1037_3-6128204.html)
• IT will become a big consumer (energy production; consumption)
• Internet will turn to 52 (born 1983), with a population of 8.12 billion and internet penetration of 70% (world average, anticipating >100% in developed countries!). Device penetration is projected to be 60 billion (0-10 devices per person).

Information Ecology

• Wired & Wireless are here to stay...
• Online Business: Intra-& Inter-corporate; Cloud Computing; Collaboration in Virtual Environment; Seamless joining of real & virtual environments - an interesting one, when it's not just performing a virtual experiment with objects created in the virtual environment, but these 'virtual objects' are representations of real objects in real labs - The user carries out these laboratory experiments 'physically' while they're else where!
• Convergence of digital objects and processes - discovery & rendezvous
• State-wide database -Prediction of epidemic, based on the searches/queries entered into the search engines. It was reported that this could surfaced about 30 days before them epidemic. Wow! There's where data analysis can help to anticipate and prepare for certain crisis.

Socio-economic Effects of Internet 2035

• Internet transport & display units
• Internet group interactions - political actions, polling, marketplaces
• Information consumers are the producers (eg. blogging, Youtube - 10h amount of video every minute)
• Innovation at the edge (eg. wikipedia) - data mining, mass information
• Social networking (eg. facebook) - How about a Robotic representative?
• Gameplaying (eg. Second life) - Holographics
• New Business model (eg. eBay, Amazon, Google) - Paper pubication limited to special editions; online is the norm.
• Mobility & Mobiles 2035
• 10 billion mobiles (with 85% internet enabled)
• text-web access
• remote control of services and devices
• innovative interfaces (haptics - multi-touch screen)
• navigation systems (Geo location-based services)
• Internet-enabled socks (clothing) (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,2089570,00.htm)
• Internet-enabled surf board (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3812357.stm)
• Universal Remote Controls

Click HERE to see recorded lecture

International Year of Potato... some ideas generated

Source: http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html (embedded on 2008, April 26)




First heard about the "International Year of Potato" while reading Mind & Body earlier this year. Till today went to the UN website and take a look... Wah! A website solely devoted to this.

Thought the video gives a good and a easy-to-understand overview. Ideas generated for lessons. The commentary touches on several aspects:

• Migration to all over the years and its economic value
• Potential in alleviating the world poverty and hunger
• It's role in agriculture sector and impact on the economic growth
• Farming - science and technology use to become widespread
• Conservation efforts
• Science and Research

A look at the website... There are lots more to offer... that subjects like Science, Humanities, and Food & Nutrition can tap on... of course, not forgetting English! Also, there's a photography competition, which can be a by-the-way submission by pupils as they attempt the related task/project.

An Attempt: Online Whiteboard - Scriblink

Here's another one... slightly different from the previous one...
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Attempt 1

Thanks for using Scriblink. To access your saved board click on the link below. If you need a hard copy, Scriblink allows users to print the board under the file button.

http://www.scriblink.com/index.jsp?act=phome&ld=1&rid=448&cid=544

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Attempt 2

Thanks for using Scriblink. To access your saved board click on the link below. If you need a hard copy, Scriblink allows users to print the board under the file button.

http://www.scriblink.com/index.jsp?act=phome&ld=1&rid=448&cid=544

An attempt: Online Interactive Whiteboard - Imagination Cubed

1st attempt
Have just tried this online 'interactive whiteboard'... looks interesting... it allows one to draw easily with the mouse (well, the entire web browser turns into a drawing area).

The only disadvantage is, it could not be 'saved online'. Each time a piece of work is completed, one will be prompted to save and email to the user.

Below is a sample of 'sent' work - it comes in the form of hyperlink.
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lohky (sent via imaginationcubed.com) has sent you a drawing from Imagination Cubed with this message:

Click this link to see a drawing come to life at Imagination Cubed

This message was sent to you by a user of the Imagination Cubed website operated by General Electric Company (GE), but may be considered an advertisement or solicitation under US law. The names and addresses that the sender entered for themselves and for you were accepted as is and have not been validated by GE. They were also free to enter content into the message above, which GE does not control. You cannot respond directly to the sender. However, you can:
(a) click on the link in the message above to join the sender in a Drawing and use the e-mail tools there to communicate; or
(b) simply delete the message if you do not want to participate; or
(c) if you want to opt out of receiving further invitations to draw from the imaginationcubed.com site, click here to opt out, or write to GE Global Advertising at 3135 Easton Turnpike, Fairfield, CT 06431.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2nd attempt:
Have made this attempt after retrieving the file and scribbling on it. Notice that a new URL is emailed over.

It comes with the 'animation' on the sequence the object is drawn... then allows the user to continue to draw. So, it serves like a recorder of the event (from beginning till where it stops), while the old drawing still remain in the server. The original piece of work will not be overwritten.

KY (sent via imaginationcubed.com) has sent you a drawing from Imagination Cubed with this message:

Click this link to see a drawing come to life at Imagination Cubed



This message was sent to you by a user of the Imagination Cubed website operated by General Electric Company (GE), but may be considered an advertisement or solicitation under US law. The names and addresses that the sender entered for themselves and for you were accepted as is and have not been validated by GE. They were also free to enter content into the message above, which GE does not control. You cannot respond directly to the sender. However, you can:
(a) click on the link in the message above to join the sender in a Drawing and use the e-mail tools there to communicate; or
(b) simply delete the message if you do not want to participate; or
(c) if you want to opt out of receiving further invitations to draw from the imaginationcubed.com site, click here to opt out, or write to GE Global Advertising at 3135 Easton Turnpike, Fairfield, CT 06431.

21st Century Skills

Recently, there's this talk about the 21st century skills in the section/branch... esp after the mp2 IPR... yes, but to-date, there's no "concrete" on what 21st century skills we are talking about - so many versions - each has their own merits and focus.

Here are some...

• Ideas from Daniel Pink: A Whole New Mind
• Leading with a Whole New Mind: Daniel Pink's Memo for Tomorrow's Leaders

more to be added along the way...

Game for learning in an Immersive Virtual Environment?

This afternoon attended the 1st session of the IVE workshop. Though have little idea what IVEs are and what it really offers (in the educational context), am somewhat excited - before and during the workshop :D Hm... not so much of a fear factor anyway... unlike the eLearning session.

Spend a fair bit of playing the game... perhaps I started with the right footing - the easiest one first - Food Force. (http://www.food-force.com/)
- For a start, it's not easy to play - because there wasn't any background or 'objective' mentioned in the handout.
- OK, one 'guy' was talking to give the background - but, not patient enough to listen through before jumping into the game!
- There are 6 missions - seem to be sequential, though at the end of each mission, the links to the 6 missions are displayed together with the 'results' of that mission.
- Again, curriculum link from each activity was not clear.
- Teaching Idea that I could think of is, National Education and Character Education - in particular, I think the NE message, "No one owes Singapore a living". In the last mission (#6), the player will start to build a village, having to take into consideration which sector (eg. farming, education, health care) will receive more support (some kind of balancing act) such that by the end of 10 years, the village would be able to survive on its own, and not to depend on the help rendered by UN. Of course, there are other things and learning points that would be valuable to our students - when they compare and reflect on the 2 different 'worlds'.

The other game introduced is "Darfur is Dying" (http://www.darfurisdying.com/) - which is a springoff from Food Force. This online game is a "Refugee Game".
- Did not play this during the workshop, but spent about 20 minutes
- The website provides some background info of this region call Darfur (well, it's something new to me!) though I have heard of Sudan!
- It started off with identifying someone to get water and this person has to avoid the militiamen. Notice that it's really an 'action' activity - run and run and run! Doubt can link to any subject learning outcome directly (Oops! it requires a fair bit of creativity!).
- More info can be found at http://www.food-force.com/index.php/blog/students-new-game; http://www.darfurisdying.com/background.html

Reflection: Workshop for HOD/Maths (3rd Run)

on 26 March 2008 @ Commonwealth Secondary (workshop blog)

Things that went well...

• For the 1st run, we started quite punctually.
• Once again, most participants expressed the ICT tools in Education component was useful.
• We managed the time of the activities pretty well - time spent on the activities were close to what's allocated.
• Participants had some fun with the grouping activity, using the strings.
• Participants managed to find something appropriate to address the learning gap - some brought in their own resources, one group had suggested a spreadsheet resource to learn quadratic inequalities - thought that's something we can work on :D
• Able to answer to the queries from participants pertaining to baseline - (i) eLearning - activities that incorporate baseline skills (ii) BY(i)TES in relation to Baseline (iii) Graphmatical use - yes & no for baseline
• Pointing out to participants another way to identify learning gaps, apart from approaching by topics; but also make reference to the Mathematics Framework

Things that could be better...

• Remembering to refer participants to handouts - especially Handout 1 (the Cycle)
• Helping participants to interpret the learning gaps correctly and being able to explain beyond the words already printed there.
• Clarify/elaborate the examples came up by the participants and help to sharpen it so that it illustrates the gap better.
• Notice the discussion on the ICT Tools in Education was less rigor than that of the 2nd run. Hm... Why??? Just wonder - the liveliness somehow was not there. What caused the dip?
• The activities in 2nd session did not seem solid enough...
• Some participants did not bring their scheme of work though they had been informed... looks like it works better when they were reminded via email - the emphasis on the need to use.

Anyway, am glad that it's the last run of the full series of the Baseline Workshop for HODs/Maths (Secondary).

2 more things to follow-up: Post participants' work - Learning Gaps and findings into the wiki (for both 2nd & 3rd runs)... have to keep in mind... must work on this...

Eat That Frog! (1st thoughts)

This reminded me about Frog Porridge!!! Hahaha... yes, it's a delicacy! But my Bhutanese friends, to-date, still can't believe we eat Frog Porridge! :P

No, no... this book is not about eating REAL frogs! It's a metaphor.

It's about fighting "Procrastinating" by reframing the "problem" positively... have just started reading... hahaha... wondering if I would finish the book... OK, it's self-fulfilling prophecy in play again, "I don't like to read"... Sign... looking at the shelf - hm... they are not impulsive buys... I'm very sure ('cos I know I usually won't finish the book), but it's really... Argrrrrrrrrrrr....

Anyway, started reading the first few chapters... along the way jotted down some thoughts and questions... after setting level 14 as the background...

What's the "frog"? Hm... like the "monkey" (in the one-minute manager), it's a piece of work to complete - but it's more than that, it comes with a perception casted on it, the doer's emotion and psyche towards the task! Ah... very difficult to put it across in black and white, but as you read the book, you can connect to it pretty easily.

There are a few "Rules" at the beginning chapter - again, it's a "Who don't know?" but it's really "How often it's practise?!"

The 1st rule of frog eating is: If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest first.
That is to practise 先苦后甜nothing more worse off will come...

The 2nd rule of frog eating is: If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long.
So, it's a matter of time, isn't it? Don't prolong suffering - the longer you wait, the more fear, the more worry will be generated... 速战速决，长痛不如短痛 cut short the pain.

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• Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy : Book Reviews by eConsultant
• Eat That Frog Book
• Matt's Idea Blog: Some thoughts on "Eat that frog!" by Brian Tracy