2014 PS21 Star Service Award Winner

news is out! 2014 PS21 Star Service Award Winner. #edsg
16 colleagues from MOE and MOE Statutory Boards will be awarded the PS21 Star Service Award (2014). write up to support my nomination is here.

Congratulations go to the following 2014 PS21 Star Service Awardees [PSSSA] (not arranged in any order of merit):

1	Leong-Ho Hil May	MOE HQ	Education Services Division
2	Wee Loo Kang Lawrence	MOE HQ	Educational Technology Division
3	Arthur Poh	MOE HQ	Higher Education Division
4	Noor Huda Abu Samah	MOE HQ	School Planning and Placement Division
5	Vikneswaran s/o Krishnan Murthi	MOE School	Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)
6	Yang Su Yin	MOE School	Gan Eng Seng Primary School
7	Liau Thiam Huat	MOE School	Henderson Secondary School
8	Denise Teh Shu Hui	MOE School	Junyuan Secondary School
9	Vicknesh Thiagarah	MOE School	Mayflower Secondary School
10	Karlinah Binte Sahadan	MOE School	Pei Tong Primary School
11	Nur Hidayah Binte Eser	MOE School	Serangoon Garden Secondary School
12	Choo Kok Luang	MOE School	Si Ling Secondary School
13	Lee Kim Seng	MOE School	St. Hilda’s Secondary School
14	Lee Thiam Hin Ivan	MOE School	Zhonghua Secondary School
15	Hanley Loo	MOE Statutory Board	Institute of Technical Education (ITE College East)
16	Tan Ai Chin	MOE Statutory Board	Republic Polytechnic

1) Videoshoot

Date: 2 Apr 2014

Venue:  Bishan Public Library (located behind Junction 8) 5 Bishan Place, #01-01 Singapore 579841. Programme Zone at Level 2 How to get there: Link

Time: 10am - 1pm

2) Photoshoot (not required if i am attending 1) 

Date: 15 Apr 2014
thanks to winston tan for the photo!

Venue: Multi-Purpose Room, Central Public Library, (located at the National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street, Basement 1, Singapore 188064.) How to get there: Link

Time: 10am - 11am

Questions:

1. Describe one quality needed in your work and why
1. Quality needed is the ability stay focused and true to vision of the Public Service. 
• v2 actual used: Technology - Using Educational Technology to allow students to be interactively engagement thereby bringing out the best in every child. 
• v1: There are many initiatives (21CC, mp3, teach less, learn more) and frameworks (cyberwellness, 21CC, C2015) being rolled out in my Ministry that require us to rationale and make sense, perhaps even make more vivid and better than the original localized intent. The world is already so connected through the internet, why not push our initiatives and frameworks to benefit young children in developing as well as other industrialized countries? If by spending 1 dollar more can make millions of children everywhere learn better through the internet, I say just do it because it is what public service is about, for the benefit of the general public.  
2. In a few sentences, describe one definitive moment in your line of work
1. To experience the joy of students having evidence based discussions and having them to tell their perspectives on how we can improve the learning and teaching practices. There is always something to improve on and the feedback fuels my service and work.
2. I also recently created a suite of TEN mobile devices enabled simulations and i emailed Physics teachers in almost all the junior colleges, and some of them replied back about how the were able to incorporate them into their existing teaching and practices, just make me happy. Some of the teachers even suggested ways to customized the simulations to better suit their practices, that really is a rewarding experience knowing that busy teachers find value in the work and service that i provide.
3. In a few sentences, describe the person who inspired you
1. Professor Hwang Fu-Kwun from Taiwan, Professor Francisco Esquembre from Spain and Professor Wolfgang Christian, USA are the 3 people's work and passion have inspired me to give away free and open sourced thousands of educational resources so that these simulations can be changed legally under the licenses of creative commons attributions and other compatible licenses like GNU. They are truly role models for me as they selflessly give their intellectual creations away for the benefit of all humankind, that the reason, I am who I am today, able to serve selflessly for public good. 
4. In a few sentences, give one way to encourage Singaporeans to pursue public service
1. Once you can figure out 'why' you should be in the business of public service such as Ministry of Education like I have, you will be able to act beyond and do further then what is articulated and set yourself to achieve more lasting change for the benefit of all others, before self. 

3) Submission of self-taken photograph (not required since i am attending 1) and 2)

If you are unable to meet the time for the photoshoot, you may submit your self-taken photograph to us.
In order for the photo to come up well, the requirements are as follows:

1. At least 300dpi: portrait style – upper body only; from the buttocks up (photo should not show the legs)
2. JPEG format
3. Should not be candid photo but professional-looking (see attached examples provided)
4. Those serving public in uniform should be in full uniform
5. Person should not fill up whole photo; there should be some space at the top, bottom and sides (about 2-3cm) - file size should be at least 1MB
6. Should be brightly lit – not taken in dark places.

4) Write-up for commemorative e-publication

We need a short write-up from you for our e-publication.
Please provide a paragraph or two (not more than 80 words) that answers any ONE of the following questions :

1. What motivates you to serve/continue in your work?
1. v2: 1. Make the world a better place for everyone. Just doing my humble part as an concerned citizen of the world by contributing to open educational resources, creating engaging and interactive computer models-simulations that support active learning for improving education all over the world. Thus my motivation is to serve students, teachers and the public with the well designed and customized simulations resources for the world, while being rooted in Singapore.
2. v1: Make the world a better place for everyone. Just doing my humble part as an concerned citizen of the world by contributing to open educational resources, creating engaging and interactive computer models-simulations that support self directed and personalized active learning for improving education all over the world, granting universal access to quality resources. This my motivation to serve students, teachers and the public with the well designed and customized simulations resources.  
2. How do you deal with difficult situations/customers?
3. Can you describe a memorable event in your working life/made an impact on another individual or something that left a deep impression on you.
4. One tip/advice for others to provide excellent service.
5. Any other thing you want to share?

2013 PS21 Distinguished Star Service Award Winner - Brinda Naid