Most Significant Change Story 2015 (eduLab Learning Designers)

UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education
Photo by UNESCO/P. Chiang-Joo

(a) What happened across the participating schools for your project?

The most significant change that has occurred across the project schools is the more effective and sustainable use of the NRF2013-EDU001-EL017 Becoming Scientists through Video Analysis open source physics @ Singapore[1] (OSP@SG) resources. Every school created, infused into other parts of the curriculum (outside edulab project scope) and contributed to the ICT connection portal as lessons[2] as well as open educational resources (OER), a vital reason of the award for Singapore UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education 2015.[3]

(b) How have you been involved?

I have been charting the trajectory of the project by inspiring the fellow teachers to enact meaningful learning experiences such as video analysis[4] for (d = 0.79±0.23) large effective size learning gains in kinematics of tossing up a ball and for student directed performance tasks, the modelling pedagogical approach to promote becoming like scientists in classrooms[5].

(c) Why is the change significant to you?

On reflecting, the change is significant because the students’ lives of schooling in Singapore have been made more relevant and relatable to real world and we speculate the project has inspired students’ to enjoy learning with meaningful use of technology such as OSP@SG.

(d) What difference has this made or will make?

We suspect students will find other ways to use the skills learnt in the project to further their own further studies beyond the secondary school education, such as video analysing motion of swimming, flying birds etc, to collect data and evidences for scientific evidence based discussions.

(e) What are the lessons learnt?

Change in teaching and learning practice requires a huge amount effort that cannot be seen in the period of the 2014-2015 funding project.

(f) What recommendations can you make?

At a first step, Educational Technology Division (MOE-ETD ) could publish on their website[6] like the Physics Chapter at the Academy of Singapore Teachers of the win of the global Pedagogical Innovation in the Use of ICT in Teaching and Learning award[7], to further strengthen the branding of the ETD program, hopefully adding to the force to modernize teaching practices with meaningful use of ICT and OER across Singapore educational landscape. 

Strategically, align Masterplan Four[8] in ICT education, with open educational resources global initiatives to “provide education stakeholders with opportunities to improve the quality of, and expand access to, textbooks and other forms of learning content, to catalyst the innovative use of content, and to foster knowledge creation.’ tapping on UNESCO[9] Qingdao Declaration, 2015[10] for a equitable and inclusive educational for the benefit of all.

Footnote:

[1] http://iwant2study.org/ospsg/index.php/component/tags/tag/60-tracker
[2] http://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/lesson
[3] http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2016/01/singapores-ict-pedagogical-innovation-recognised-by-unesco.php
[4] http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9120/50/4/436
[5] http://pubs.sciepub.com/education/3/2/13/index.html
[6] http://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/  & http://edulab.moe.edu.sg/edulab-programmes/existing-projects/nrf2013-edu001-el017
[7] http://www.academyofsingaporeteachers.moe.gov.sg/networked-learning-communities/subject-chapters/physics-chapter

[8] http://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/masterplan-4 

[9] http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/the_2015_unesco_king_hamad_bin_isa_al_khalifa_prize_for_the_use_of_icts_in_education_rewards_projects_from_costa_rica_and_singapore/
[10] http://www.unesco.org/new/en/member-states/single-view/news/qingdao_declaration_promotes_use_of_ict_to_achieve_education_targets_in_new_sustainable_development_goals/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed are my own, and do not necessary reflect that of my organisation.