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Monday, October 21, 2019

Survey for UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education Prize Winners (2006 - 2019)





Survey for
UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education Prize Winners
 (2006 - 2019)
Background

Established in 2005, with the financial support of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education ( referred to as ‘the Prize’) recognizes innovative approaches in leveraging new technologies to expand educational opportunities by enabling access to quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. 

The first cycle of the Prize took place from 2006 to 2011. It was renewed in 2014 for the second cycle of 6 years until 2020. So far, a total of 20 innovative projects and programmes from 16 countries (Belgium, Bangladesh, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Jordan, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States of America, India, Morocco, the Netherlands) were awarded. Given the diversity and creativity of the awarded initiatives, UNESCO is planning to document them, present on the Prize webpage and include in the publication on best practices in ICT in education.

Purpose
The purpose of this survey is to collect primary data on the winning programmes. It will consist of quantitative and qualitative questions related to programmes’ impact on the beneficiaries/learners, achievement, changes occurred after winning the Prize, lessons learned, recommendations, further scaling up and evolution. 

Intended use of the collected information: 
Please note that unless you indicate that you do not want to make the provided information publicly available, your responses may be used for the above-mentioned purposes.   
Brief guide for filling in the survey:  
  • Please kindly fill in the survey below. There is no word limitations. Please feel free to add extra sheets of paper and attach relevant documents.   
  • Thank you for providing us with the documents of major importance such as publications, reports, statistics 
  • Thank you for providing us with photos with the beneficiaries/learners, videos or other multimedia materials related to your project/programme
  • Upon completion, please return the survey to: i.kharkova@unesco.org .  We would be most grateful if you could send the complete questionnaire by 15 September 2019. 
  1. Background Information
  1. Name of prizewinning organization: Ministry of Education, Singapore
  2. Name of prizewinning programme/project: 2015 Open Source Physics at Singapore (OSP@SG)
  3. Current name if different:
  4. Specific region(s)/country(ies) of implementation: Singapore
  5. Programme duration: 2012- present
  7. Social media channels: Facebook, and other social media (Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Flickr, Google+) https://www.facebook.com/OpenSourcePhysicsSG https://twitter.com/lookang , https://www.linkedin.com/in/loo-kang-lawrence-wee-22442010/ , https://www.youtube.com/user/lookang/ , 
  8. Contact Person (Name, Title or Positions):  Lawrence Loo Kang WEE , Lead Specialist
  9. Full address (country, telephone, email): Singapore, Ministry of Education • 1 North Buona Vista Drive, Singapore 138675 • http://www.moe.gov.sg, contact@moe.gov.sg 

  1. Programme summary   
  
  1. Summarize the programme’s outline, methodology, key results and further evolution. Please include all important information in a structured way.

OSP@SG provides teachers and students with access to affordable and customisable open-source educational resources so that the teaching and learning of Physics can be enhanced. These includes simulations and Tracker video models that can serve as powerful inquiry tools augmenting real-life experiments.
OSP@SG leverages progressive mathematical model building process using Easy JavaScript Simulations (EJSS) to allow students to propose their own initial ideas that can be modelled into a simulation. The closeness of the model versus the simulated or real world data (based on their worldview and scientific view such as displacement versus time) gives students the evidence to refine and improve their initial models. This iterative modeling building process is repeated until the students can achieve a mathematical equation that is close enough ‘fit’ to the simulated or real world data.
Evolution of the Programme:
The project has subsequently evolved to 3 trajectories 
  1. Teacher Created Games for Learning - Teachers can now modify existing simulations to create games for learning. 
  2. Mobile Ready Apps - The simulations have been re-packaged as hybrid apps for use in mobile devices (iOS and Android). All the simulations can be repackaged as Android and iOS apps when school teachers request for it. The process is also shared openly here
  3. Analytics of Use - We can now monitor in real time and analyse students’ use of the simulations through a plugin in a Moodle LMS. Here are screenshots of the analytics developed.
Figure 1: Moodle with EJSS plugin with data log of simple analytics on Who used the simulation

Figure 2: Moodle with EJSS plugin with simple real time display of Who is online and using the simulation showing the last action of the user.


Professional Development of Teachers:
The resources are spread through teacher-led workshops  and teacher work attachments. 
In 2019, MOE organised a hackathon where teachers can modify existing simulations to create games for learning that can be used in the Singapore Student Learning Space (SLS) The response from teachers were positive and the event was a resounding success. 

Spread across Subjects and Levels:
While Open Source Physics at Singapore core strength is in Physics simulations and virtual laboratories, the programme has allowed working with teachers to produce working other subjects. Currently, there is a small library of Mathematics, Biology Chemistry, Chinese, English games/interactives prototyped co-developed with teachers to be used in Singapore Student Learning Space. 
Figure 3: Screenshot of the digital library of mathematics games
Figure 4: screenshot of 6 games in English usually co-designed with teachers during SLS Hackathon event

Figure 5: A simple catch the falling apples game with simple data analytics  (top right corner) showing correct ticks, incorrect crosses and blanks question marks for inaction.

 




  1. Describe the current status of the programme/organization.

The program is currently sustained via a lead specialist from MOE Singapore. There is now an informal group of tracker video models and simulation/games developers made up of teachers who contributes to the open-source Physics repository. We also have an increasing user base that more than 300 teachers.

  1. Impact and Achievements

  1. Did you conduct any impact evaluation on the programme? 
If yes, describe / link to reports.

No

  1. Provide evidence of achievements and the impact that the programme has had so far, using concrete information such as number and type of individuals or organizations trained, material or publications produced, results of external or internal evaluation, press coverage, previous awards received, feedback or quotes by participants, number of views of the programme website. 

Number of views of programme website  = 15 000 per month globally
Number of views of programme website  = 9 000 per month Singapore only.

Total number of app  installations since 2017 
  • Android = 200,000 
  • iOS = 162,000  

Number of participants trained per year to modify or develop simulations = 53

Number of teachers per year who attended sharing sessions = 200

Educational games created by teachers during SLS Hackathon = 18


Publications:
Clemente, F. J. G., Esquembre, F., & Wee, L. K. (2017). Deployment of physics simulation apps using Easy JavaScript Simulations. arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.00778.


  1. Does the programme considers gender norms, roles and relations for women and men, as well as promote gender equality? If yes, please describe how.

NA


  1. Is there a theory of change underpinning the programme or digital solution/innovative pedagogy? If yes, please describe.
Figure 6: Open Source Physics 3P’s scaling-up framework or Theory of Change (Spreading), a free and solid product, process that supports adoption and adaption and passionate people who believe in open education of all.

The theory of change is titled Open Source Physics (OSP) 3P’s scaling-up framework 
  1.  Product - EJSS does a great job to produce free download and use accurate scientific models that can be traced from the open source codes, remixed, and reused. Users do not need to login or server setup. It only requires Java run-time (for EJS models) or a modern browser (for EJSS JavaScripts models).
  2. Process - Aligning to existing practice of laboratory, many of the EJSS models can be used as a virtual laboratory to support experiential learning . 
  3. People - Passionate educators can adapt or create finer customized computer models to suit their technology, pedagogy, content, and context knowledge to better mold the learning experiences of their students. The key people in the OSP Learning Community keep creating more computer models to suit their fellow teachers and students learning needs and release these computer models with activity worksheets and other resources for the benefit of all, which is the real motivation that drives our collaborative work using EJSS.



  1. Sustainability

  1. What measures was the programme taking to ensure it was sustainable and able to achieve the lasting impact?

Refer to Qn 15

  1. Further scaling up 

  1. What were the activities that you undertook after the Prize to build on what has already been produced?

Refer to evolution of programme in Qn 10

  1. Was your activity developed at a larger scale? Did you add new features or upgrade existing digital solution/innovative pedagogy?  If yes, thank you for providing concrete examples (number of newly attracted beneficiaries/community members/educators, development of new activities, expansion at regional/nation/international levels).

Refer to evolution of programme in Qn 10



  1. Lessons learned and recommendations
  1. What key lesson(s) have you learned?
We realize that there are always people out there who are willing to extend a helping hand. While there might be challenges in this project, with perseverance and with help from the larger community,  we can always find a way forward. 
The open source community is one where we have benefited much from. To bring the idea to fruition in the form of a working prototype, we had to bring together passionate people from different disciplines (Physics and Computing) with complementary skill sets (data analytics, PHP and Javascript coding) to develop the software that was needed to move the programme forward.  
The thrill of iteratively improving our ideas and eventually seeing our concrete prototypes making an impact on teachers and students was a major motivation for us to continue this work together despite the challenges.

  1. Do you have any recommendation(s)? 

Nil

  1. Impact of the Prize on your programme

Incentives

  1. What was your incentive to apply for the Prize?

    • Monetary award
    • Fundraising
    • Broadening your professional network
    • Recognition at international level
    • Awareness raising on the theme
    • Other: Spread the work MOE has been doing on Open Source Physics at Singapore and give back to the world.

Additional investment

  1. Did the Award help you to leverage additional funds/allocations?

  • Yes, Please specify from which sources:
  • No
  • Not certain, Please specify why:

  1. How did you use the additional funds?

  • Development of new content or digital resources 
  • Translation of the content into other languages
  • Capacity building for teachers/educators/community members
  • Development of new partnerships
  • Improvement of management/administration system
  • New equipment purchasing
  • Monitoring and evaluation
  • Advocacy and awareness raising 
  • Other: Please specify


Political attention and institutional support

  1. Did you receive any institutional support or reinforcement due to the Award?

  • Yes, Please specify: 
  • No
  • Not certain, Please specify:

  1. Did your project/programme or the issued you work on attract additional political attention due to the award? 
  • Yes, Please specify: 
  • No
  • Not certain, Please specify:


Visibility and outreach
We would be grateful if you could attach all relevant materials, reports or share web links.

  1. Did the award brought greater visibility to your project/programme? If yes, please indicate at which level (local, national, international).

Yes. 
Local, teachers are more willing to use the simulations made.
National, invited to speak to teachers about the programme and how the can get the artifacts (worksheets and simulation etc)
International, UNESCO has been promoting the programme.

  1. Please describe the type of media coverage (printed, TV/radio, social media) you received when you won the Prize and indicate the number of press releases/news articles/website visitors, etc.

Press releases/news 
  1. https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-releases/singapore-s-ict-pedagogical-innovation-recognised-by-unesco - Singapore has been awarded the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education. The award was presented to the Ministry of Education for the project – Open Source Physics at Singapore (OSP@SG).
  2. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-wins-unesco/2428572.html the fastest Media post, by Singapore wins UNESCO award for physics programme An open-source physics modelling programme developed by the Ministry of Education was recognised for its use of Information and Communications Technologies in education. 

TV/radio - Nil

Social 

Other

  1. Has there been any unintended impact of the Prize in the wider context or in the longer term?

Nil.





Reference:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lJbtZ2nnJzddncy26kMCeCqGoIHyO3cCtxOT9i-DGOU/edit
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