Wilson's Blog: October 2008

let me first start off by sharing my own definition of engaged learning. to me, engaged learning is about engaging the learners (students) in meaningful ways to learn new things. as the learners are engaged in the lessons, they are encouraged to construct and produce meaningful knowledge. for example, to engage us and to help us to learn to incorporate ict into our lessons and curriculum, we were involved in using various forms of ict for presentations in the class. this provided many of us with opportunities to learn new forms of ict tools. we, as learners in this course, were involved in the whole learning. i should say, we were all engaged in the learning!

engaged learning is also student centered. students are at the very core of the learning process. they are the reasons why lessons are planned in a certain way. engaged learning is also interactive as the learners are actively involved in the learning process. besides that, teachers played the role of facilitators to guide students to discover new things for themselves. students play the role of explorers and in our case, we explored various forms of ict tools in this course and shared the new found knowledge with each other through peer learning.

i guess this is one of the classes that i enjoyed myself. engaged learning elevates the entire learning environment of the learners and helped us to look forward to every lesson. for now, i'm back to rushing my projects and assignments. till then, take care! :D

i visited the classroom of the future (cotf) with my buddies on monday afternoon. the moment i stepped into the room, it was as though i had entered another world. the first scene was that of a bar or drinking place. it wasn't a conventional classroom setting! but we could still carry out lessons in that environment... so what's the point to bring back? lessons should not be restricted only to classrooms. we could learn anything anywhere. the influx of technology was overwhelming! from the umpc that we were allocated to try out, to the multi-user learning tables where collaborative learning took place, learning was pure enjoyment and fun! :)

learning is really fun and student-centred in the cotf. for example, we could discuss or collaborate with people from other countries for projects. language barriers no longer hold as there could be built-in translators to do translation of conversations. asking teachers questions could be done so much easier and faster. however, i wonder when we would see cotf implemented in the schools. it would definitely be exciting and something that i look forward to. perhaps not the whole aspect of it... maybe just relevant parts would suffice.

as for iN2015, i think it's a realistic possibility. with the advancement of technology in the world today, it is a matter of when what's being protrayed in iN2015 happens. learning in singapore in 2015 might no longer be textbook-centred or classroom-centred. it will perhaps be a combination of face-to-face learning with computer-based elements. according to iN2015's blueprint, it aims to give everyone seamless access to intelligent technology and the ability to take charge of it. so that's going to change the educational landscape with our IT masterplan three already in place. ict is going to be the new buzz word. lessons will no longer be done in the same manner.

as a whole, the preparation or training given in nie is not sufficient for us to face such environments. so how do i as a teacher better prepare myself? i guess i would simply have to keep myself relevant and up-to-date with the technologies and always stay in the frontier of technology changes. be daring and courageous to explore and learn new things. do not be put off by the demands of making changes but chart into uncharted waters. embrace new technologies and make it a part of my life. only then will i truly enjoy the emerging environments in the near future! :D