voyeurism

"Design of Interactive Learning Environments" talk on An Introduction to Second Life, National Institute of Education, Singapore (part II)

this is the concluding part of episode 142, which is a recording of the discussion which ensued after an introductory talk i gave to a class of Masters candidates at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

it is a 20.3 MB download.

Show notes:
- ease of implementation in schools
- knowledge acquisition versus application
- the role and relationships of corporations in education
- learning environment design

Technorati Tags: education, learning, podcast, Second Life, Singapore, TLLM

"Design of Interactive Learning Environments" talk on An Introduction to Second Life, National Institute of Education, Singapore (part I)

the one-hundred-and-forty-second episode of ventriloquy is a recording of a talk i gave to Masters candidates at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, here in Singapore.

i was invited to talk about Second Life, by my friend and colleague Ast/P Steven Zuiker, who runs the course (MLT 808 Design of Interactive Learning Environments) with Ast/P Beaumie Kim.

because of the duration of the talk, i have broken it into two parts.

this first part is the talk itself, and is 21.2 MB in size.

Show notes:
- outline of talk
- Second Life basics
- the story of my (avatar's) birth
- chronology of significant events in Second Life
- types of learning environments
- resources for educators

Additional reading:
- Eric Langhorst's 8 May 2007 entry (Second Life Skeptic - Am I Just Not Seeing the Potential?) Speaking of History

Technorati Tags: education, learning, podcast, Second Life, Singapore, TLLM

sharing session on podcasts, at MOE's geography coordinators' meeting

the ninetieth episode of ventriloquy is a recording of a talk i gave to geography teachers, during their annual coordinators' meeting organized by the Ministry of Education (MOE), here in Singapore.

it's essentially a combination of two earlier conference sessions - represented by episodes 58 and 80 - in which i share my thoughts on how podcasts might be used as pedagogical tools in general, and in geography education in particular (referring to a project that my colleague William Yeo and i undertook last year at the Nanyang Junior College (NYJC)). it's a 16.9 MB download :-)

on a side note, yesterday was also the launch of the serious game Peacemaker, which is a simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. as for the game that my colleagues at the National Institute of Education's Learning Sciences Lab, and i, have been developing - Space Station Leonis - will be piloted in three secondary schools in Singapore starting this month. over the past week, i've been busy conducting briefings with the students, as well as training sessions for the teachers, to familiarize them with how the game might be used in citizenship education.

Show notes:
- the views of NYJC students who took part in the podcast project
- the teacher's perspective on the project and sample audio extracts of students' work
- Peacemaker

Technorati Tags: education, games, geography, globalization, learning, media, multiliteracies, podcast, quantum classroom®, Singapore, TLLM

podcasts as a tool for alternative assessment

the eightieth episode of ventriloquy is a recording of a presentation on some preliminary findings from research into podcasting as a means of alternative assessment.

specifically, between July and August this year, my friend and colleague - William Yeo - used the production and subsequent critique of student-authored podcasts in his geography lessons on demography, with his students at the Nanyang Junior College.

he shared our findings today, at the conference of the Southeast Asian Geography Association. here's the PDF of our presentation.

if you enjoy this 12.2 MB download and would like to hear from some of the students who were involved in the project themselves, do also check out episode 68 :-)

Show notes:
- Opening remarks
- Lao Tzu and podcasting
- Presentation outline
- Introduction to the intervention
- Introduction to podcasts
- Objective of the intervention
- Methodology
- Part A: podcast production
- Audio samples
- Part B: podcast critique
- Sample critiques
- Preliminary discussion

Technorati Tags: assessment, education, geography, globalization, learning, media, multiliteracies, podcast, quantum classroom®, SEAGA2006, Singapore, TLLM

Bridge, reflected

some truly deep points were made by one of my geography teacher-trainees - Peng Kaixing - in his blog entry today.

the deceptively simple Bridge merits our time and contemplation.

Technorati Tags: education, landmarks, place, Vygotsky

God's grace :-) #10 (a.k.a. viva voce) (part II)

here is the concluding part of this morning's recording of the oral defence of my doctoral thesis.

it brings you the question- and answer-session which followed my presentation to the panel of examiners.

this part of the episode is 16.1 MB in size and 34 minutes in duration.

Technorati Tags: cognition, constructivism, discourse, education, gender, geography, landmarks, learning, maps, multiliteracies, navigation, place, podcast, semiotics, Singapore, technology, TLLM, viva, Vygotsky, wayfinding

God's grace :-) #10 (a.k.a. viva voce) (part I)

the sixty-ninth episode of ventriloquy is one which i have been working towards for many years - it brings you a recording of the oral defence of my doctoral thesis in adolescent spatial cognition, here at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

by His grace alone, the defence was successful and my thesis was accepted in full, without amendments being necessary.

i would like to thank the following people, who comprised the members of the panel today:
Professor David Hogan, Dean, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice (CRPP), National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University
Professor S Gopinathan, Vice Dean (Policy), CRPP
Associate Professor Tan Seng Chee, Deputy Head, Learning Sciences and Technologies Academic Group (LST), NIE
Associate Professor Michael Jacobson, LST (my Chief Examiner)
Associate Professor Augustine Tan, Associate Dean, Academic Research, Graduate Programmes and Research Office, NIE

i would also like to thank my supervisor Professor Allan Luke for his many critical insights.

my gratitude also goes to my two research assistants - Teo Jie Hua and Jason Wang, as well as to Low Hock Siang for helping me this morning.

with a research endeavour of this magnitude, there are many others whose contributions were crucial. i acknowledge them in the wiki - voxpopuli - which is crafted around the thesis.

because of its duration, i have split the episode into two. this first part is 29.6 MB in size and 46 minutes in duration. it is the recording of my presentation to the panel.

Show notes:
- Introduction
- Significance of study
- Theoretical framework
- Research questions
- Related work by others
- Methodology
- Scope, limitations and critique
- About the research subjects
- Types of data collected
- Analysis of results
- Contributions

Technorati Tags: cognition, constructivism, discourse, education, gender, geography, landmarks, learning, maps, multiliteracies, navigation, place, podcast, semiotics, Singapore, technology, TLLM, viva, Vygotsky, wayfinding

"testing... testing... is this thing on?"

(deep breath)

okie! i've decided to take the plunge with skypecasts :-)

i can think of no better excuse to commemorate this endeavour with skypecast-hosting than to allow you to listen in, live, to the oral defence of my PhD research on adolescent spatial cognition.

long-time readers of this blog will know that my initial forays into my doctoral research were driven by my interests in social software (only later did i realise that what i was researching was not actually the software side of things, but the heartware). so, once again, as with the blog voyeurism, as with the wiki voxpopuli, there's no better way to talk about social software than to get one's hands dirty by actually using it.

thus i will attempt to bring you what might well be the very first PhD oral defence skypecast ever :-P

God willing, this will take place at the following time (please try your best not to get confused by the time zones)
- Singapore time (Thursday 21 September 9 am)
- Greenwich Mean Time (Thursday 21 September 1 am)
- US Eastern Daylight Time (Wednesday 20 September 9 pm)
- US Pacific Daylight Time (Wednesday 20 September 6 pm)

don't fret if you won't be free at this time - i'm hoping to record the session too and upload it as an enhanced podcast, together with the slides that i'll be using in my presentation.

now, because i am such a control freak (and also because i don't wish to disappoint you), i'm going to do a rehearsal (of sorts) for this, by also presenting my class this coming Tuesday (or Monday, depending on which part of the world you're listening in from) as a skypecast.

specifically, it's my QCG521 class with postgraduate pre-service teacher-trainees, which is about teaching Social Studies in secondary schools in Singapore. as this is only our class's third session, i'll be talking in very general terms about the rationale behind the subject and its syllabus, as well as giving them some background as to how the syllabus was implemented, and (time permitting) go on to an overview of source-usage in Social Studies.

the timing of this earlier skypecast will be as follows:
- Singapore time (Tuesday 19 September 12:30 pm)
- Greenwich Mean Time (Tuesday 19 September 4:30 am)
- US Eastern Daylight Time (Tuesday 19 September 12:30 am)
- US Pacific Daylight Time (Monday 18 September 9:30 pm)
this session will be two hours in duration, and will not be recorded for podcast.

if you can make either skypecast, or if you have any queries on the topics, please feel free to leave me a comment and i'll try my best to clarify things :-)

please note that for both skypecasts, i will be using my MacBook Pro's built-in microphone, so please do not expect stunning sound quality.

more importantly, please also note that i'll be configuring both skypecasts such that listeners will not have speaking privileges. this is because for the oral defence itself (for which the earlier skypecast is technically a rehearsal for), i am only supposed to be questioned by my examiners - even the physically assembled guests in the audience are not supposed to speak. i do apologise for this, and, if i feel that the skypecasts are feasible and worth exploring further, i will likely consider making them more interactive subsequently.

for now, however, mum's the word.

:-)

Technorati Tags: cognition, constructivism, discourse, education, geography, globalization, landmarks, learning, maps, multiliteracies, navigation, place, quantum classroom®, semiotics, Singapore, skypecast, TLLM, viva, Vygotsky, wayfinding

from the people who matter most #2 (a.k.a. the quantum classroom® in action)

this sixty-eighth episode of ventriloquy features the voices of students from Nanyang Junior College in Singapore, who had participated in a first-in-the-world blend of podcasts and assessment.

specifically, last month, two classes of First Year Geography students (sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds) were tasked by their teacher - William Yeo (who deserves full credit for designing the project task so originally and elegantly) - to break into smaller groups and author a series of podcasts on selected topics in population geography, such as population policies and the population-resources relationship. technical training of the students was ably carried out by the good people over at the Whoopcast Network. the students subsequently subscribed to some of their peers' podcasts and set about critiquing them, and these various learner-produced outcomes were assessed by William for the understanding performances which they demonstrated.

really, if you stop to think about it, there are so many points worthy of comment on this imaginative pedagogical design that i don't know where to begin. i love the fact that the students decide what they want to investigate, and that they get to share their investigations with their peers, in extremely creative ways (alas, the student-produced podcast episodes are not publicly accessible). it's also terrific that they get to negotiate and defend the learning points, through the critiquing process. the result is a ZPD which extends across space and time, and exemplifies almost perfectly the kind of learning environment which i term the quantum classroom®.

the students whose voices we have the privilege to hear in the recording make some really good points about their thoughts on podcasts as pedagogical tools, and as a means of alternative assessment. they also have insights into divisions of labour and motivation theory.

this episode may be 10.2 MB in size, but i assure you it is worth every minute of your download time, should you have even the most passing interest in Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.

speaking personally, it's one that i shall keep returning to time and again, just to remind myself of why i'm a teacher.

Technorati Tags: assessment, constructivism, education, expert, geography, globalization, learning, media, multiliteracies, podcast, quantum classroom®, Singapore, technology, TLLM, Vygotsky, Web 2.0

from the people who matter most

this episode of ventriloquy features excerpts of interviews with four Singaporean students, on their views on podcasting, their preferred learning environments, and their listening habits.

it contains quite a few insights and thoughtful revelations, which remind us that all the best laid pedagogical plans are likely to go awry, if we do not consider the learner.

the interviews were conducted as part of an aborted research project.

go get the sixty-first episode - it's an 8.4 MB download :-)

Technorati Tags: education, expert, learning, multiliteracies, podcast, quantum classroom®, Singapore, TLLM, Vygotsky