[20260603] RPIC (Selected 4) Track Programme: Educating for the Unpredictable: Developing Human Strengths in the AI Age

Masterclass 1: Educating for the Unpredictable: Developing Human Strengths in the AI Age

Led by Prof Setoh Pei Pei (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Date : 3 June 2026
Time : 1515-1615hrs
Venue : NIE2-01-LT7

As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in everyday learning, educators and policymakers face urgent questions: How are students using AI in their learning? How can students use AI without ‘losing the learning’? How have the goals of education shifted in response to these changes? And what challenges are we encountering as we try to support students’ learning, wellbeing, and development in increasingly uncertain contexts? The masterclass invites participants to reflect on how core human strengths, such as curiosity, discernment, meaning, and motivation, can be shaped by the learning environments we design. Participants will be invited to share their observations from classrooms, schools, and policy settings, examining where current practices align with long term developmental goals, and where tensions are emerging. Together, this session will surface practical challenges and promising directions for practice and policy, and examine what the future for learning and teaching we aspire toward looks like.

My Learning/ Takeaway:

• 
  

[20260602] RPIC Keynote 3: Research Impact – How to Achieve It and Why It Matters

(by Professor Martin Knapp)

[20260602] RPIC Keynote 2: The Flourishing Bandwagon in Education: From 2020 Onwards

(by Professor Kristján Kristjánsson)

[20260602] RPIC Keynote 1: What if Every Child Could Succeed? Why Strengths Matter More than Ever?

(by Professor Setoh Peipei)

 

[20251129-20251130] SkillsFuture: Data Analytics with Excel (Intermediate): Turning Numbers into Insights

Some very useful functions/ features learnt: 

(1) Remove Duplicates (under Data) & Highlight Duplicates using conditional formatting

(2) Conditional Formatting: Various features, which can be customised further

(3) Absolute value is not new to me, what I want to illustrate here is the use of 

= Formulatext(cell address) to display the formula we used for calculation.

(4) Defining Range Names makes the spreadsheet more elegant. 

By Defining a range, the formula no longer requires us to select the cells, but directly use the name(s) assigned (see the formulae on the right)

(5) Slicers - a very powerful filter

(6) VLookUp/ HLookUp/ Lookup - a search and match tool, which I think I'm now more confident to use 

The biggest advantage of XLOOKUP is the table of items does not need to be organised in alphabetical order.

(7) Formatting Features that are useful:

(8) Logic Functions - IF, IF(AND), IF(OR), nested IF

In some instances, I attempted to show there are more than 1 way to do the same task (multiple solutions)

(9) Something useful when trying to check the relationship between the cells:

(10) Mathematical Functions (including "Database" approach) are very useful

Where possible, alternative methods are shown 

[20251122] SkillsFuture: Digital Mobile Phone Photography Design

Where it took place: @Hong Lim Building

Lesson by Lawrence Ang, a very experienced photographer - who shoots at various national events and also teaches in schools.

Was introduced to some gadgets: 

• Tripod - for stability; sometimes, our body could also be the 'tripod', with our arms rested on some steady surfaces or body lean against a steady structure/ wall
• Lightbox - it is useful to diffuse light (from having shadows), useful for product shots
• Backup lighting 
• Gimbal Stabiliser - helps to stabilise the axis; useful for videos
• Lens attachment - e.g. wide angle, macro (like a magnifier), fish eye (distorted wide angle perspective)
• Cleaning kit - use lens cloth; do not use tissue! (rough)

Some useful gadgets for better photo effects: clip-on Lighting, clip-on telescopic lens/ magnifier, Lightbox

Something that is highly relevant but somehow could not sink into my head...  but some layman terms

• Depth of view: Backdrop becomes blur so that the focus object will be clear and sharp. 
• Focal length: bigger the number, the clearer the background
• Aperture: The smaller the number implies more light is let in
• Lighting: Quality of light - Hard/ soft (diffused)
• To improve stability, consider setting timer (to minimise hand shaking)

A simulator to learn/ explore the 3 elements in the exposure triangle: https://dofsimulator.net/en/

Techniques: 

• Rule of Thirds: This was emphasised several times and is considered the golden rule.
• Leading lines: This usually applies to architecture 

In this diagram, the top view shows that the shadow of the teapot is almost fully eliminated. However, because of the 'ring' of light on top (that was supposed to diffuse the shadow), it created thin layer o shadow cast by the 'sides' of the teapot.

Here's a 'product shot' supported by the backup light to create depth and give greater clarity to the close-up shot.

Playing with LINES...

When space is intentional - to add text: 

Playing with reflection and 'fish eye lens'

A free photo editing tool:

• Snapseed - ULTIMATE GUIDE | All Tools & Sliders Explained | Mobile Photo Editing
• How to ADD YOURSELF to any PHOTO/ Snapseed Editing Tips & Tricks (2023)

Putting the stuff together, using Canvas:

TCEF 2025: about Productive Failure

Exploring Gemini-AI - what it is? what's it's potential in Mathematics Learning

This clip was created as part of the Gemini Academy attended on 5 June 2025 at Google Singapore. 

It's a truly first time introduction to Gemini - though have heard about it, alongside with ChatGPT and even downloaded the app (but had not used it). 

It's a fruitful one - appreciate the learning opportunity - being one of the early adopters to this powerful feature/ enhancement to the tools we use everyday. 

Here's the video submission on how, I think, Gemini - could be useful to enhance mathematics teaching and learning. I guess, at this point, still very teacher-centric - as we get to use it and still exploring the features and its capacity. Though it's very capacity, I want to be the one in control - to determine how it should look like or be used, I would like to put on a sceptical lens - to keep questioning and refining the materials generation according to my direction and needs. 

Here's a clip that briefly shows how I got Gemini to suggest how teachers and students can learn with Gemini. It also comes with some short clips how some features in the Gemini-enhanced GoogleDoc, Slides, Sheets can help support resource creation and possibly learning. 

Longer 'clips' for each small segments will be shared in other blog posts :P

Yeah! A certificate after 2 hours of intensive training  on 5 June 2025 and a video clip assignment 👆

 

Note: The AI features are only available with the Education Plus account. 

Extending from here.... (next 2 posts)

• Exploring... Gemini-powered GoogleDoc, GoogleSlides & GoogleSheet
• Gemini-supported suite... Creating Video with "Vids"
• Notebook LM for Mathematics Learning

Exploring... Gemini-powered GoogleDoc, GoogleSlides & GoogleSheet

It was pretty exciting to see how AI could take over some of the load when we craft questions. This is a common trait I notice. 

All these applications now could 'take over' the generation of questions. OR it saves our time from thinking very hard to craft questions right from scratch. Just feed the relevant info and prompts, it will generate a variety of questions - based on what it can 'combed' from the internet, I supposed. This is helpful from the teacher's perspective because crafting questions, fresh questions in particular, could be very time consuming. I spent at least 5 days to get a class test paper and the end-of-year exam paper out.  The only load, which I find AI comes in very handy is to help refine the sentence structure to improve clarity of the question (phrasing). Yes, this is the part, indeed, takes up a lot of my time, too. 

I'm still not used to just adopting questions generated. There are definitely limitations. So, I guess AI comes in handy for its enhancement role, and sometimes to give "opinions" for our own self-checking. Nevertheless, do keep in mind that AI could be 'swayed' by our arguments, too! 

One other common advantage I could see across all these 3 applications is - if it is put to proper or good use, it could be a learning aid for students - to help them clarify their thinking, in particular, areas that they are not very sure. It is there to provide good reasons to support the pros and cons. 

In each of the short clips, it demonstrates briefly how the AI-enhanced GoogleSuite can be used for resource generation and learning through "clarification".

GoogleDoc (with Gemini)

GoogleSlides (with Gemini)

GoogleSheet (with Gemini)

Note: These features are available only for education plus account.

Gemini-supported suite... Creating Video with "Vids"

"Vids" seemed like a very popular tool when I first heard this in the workshop. Hm... something exciting I missed? I wonder. BUT... it's only available with the educational plus account. 

We were tasked to create a video clip as an assignment to the Gemini Academy. 

Took a while to navigate and become a bit familiar to the interface - as it was my first encounter with the application. Quite habitually, I chose to start from scratch ("Blank" is where I would go to for all my working documents).

It taps on one's familiarity with Google Slides - as its storyboard - easy to layout and the edit. Of course, as a video creating software, it comes with other uniquely-video features like VoiceOver, insertion of background music, etc. 

Created a copy of clip in a short timespan at the workshop using a template, as suggested - experienced some success but definitely a lot more to go - especially when I did not like the proposed template and the draft generated requires so much more editing! Of course, starting from scratch is definitely much easier, I thought.

To do the task, it took some planning - how to use AI for the subject teaching. 

Though supposed to be a one-minute videoclip, I decided to use the opportunity to summarise what I learnt (before I forget, if without documentation).

This time, I did not choose a template. There's a still a guide to prompt me upload the resources (photos, video clips). However, need to note that the total duration is up to 10 min. I guess it's a means to help frame the clip so that it will not be too long or draggy.

Learnt to appreciate the various features in the software more as I started to put the stuff together. In particular the voice over part. With the resources uploaded, the Vids will attempt to organise the resource according to the order they are uploaded. It also attempted to put up some brief points on the slides and the script for each slide. 

This is helpful, I think, and it's pretty easy to edit and re-organise the stuff.  

A useful tip on the voice over script is to use the autogenerated script as the base to extend and modify. Then copy it to gemini to refine, copy and paste into the script box again. One last but important step for each slide is to UPDATE the voice over text so that it will read the updated script. Pretty straightforward. 

The background music was included automatically - can be extended if the clip runs beyond its length. 

The export is straightforward too.