voyeurism

recording of keynote from opening of East Zone Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning

as promised, here's the recording of the full keynote delivered by Professor David Hung and myself, on the occasion of the opening of the East Zone Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning, at the Dunman High School on the 27th of April.

it's a 36.6 MB download, and the presentation slides are sync-ed with the speech :-)

Teaching and Learning in 3D Immersive Worlds (a little more detail)

the one-hundred-and-ninetieth episode of ventriloquy is an extract of a rehearsal of an address to be delivered on Wednesday the 27th of April, at the Dunman High School, on the occasion of the opening of the Singapore schools' East Zone Centre of Excellence.

the complete address will be delivered by a team of my colleagues (led by Professor David Hung, Associate Dean, Office of Education Research at the National Institute of Education), and the extract i'm sharing here is just my contribution. you've heard most of it before :-)

on a related note, my copy of Cheney's and Sanders's edited book Teaching and Learning in 3D Immersive Worlds: Pedagogical Models and Constructivist Approaches was delivered today :-)

i've contributed a chapter entitled What are Avatars made of? Fictive Worlds and the Zone of Regulatory Development. It's positioned in the final section of the book - New Models for Constructivist Learning. To quote the editors, this section "includes three chapters offering new ways of thinking about constructivist pedagogy in 3D virtual worlds. The first suggests a new learning theory, Ecology of Culturally Competent Design. This is followed by a chapter that discusses new ways in which the Zone of Regulatory Development can be applied to virtual learning environments. Finally, the last chapter suggests a model of constructivist learning based on a Katamari-style learning environment."

Do join me in this 9 MB download :-)

QuickTime VR panorama of Masada

here's a QuickTime VR panorama i took of the ruins of Masada.

QuickTime VR panorama of Jerusalem

here's a multi-node QuickTime VR panorama i took of Jerusalem.

the first view is from the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley. Find the hotspot in the Old City that will take you to a rooftop in the Armenian Quarter!

QuickTime VR panorama of the Sea of Galilee

here's a QuickTime VR panorama i took overlooking the Sea of Galilee, from the Golan Heights, at sunset.

QuickTime VR panorama of Tel Aviv beach

here's a QuickTime VR panorama i took along Tel Aviv beach :-)

Study Tour of Israel - the map

my study tour of Israel is sadly coming to an end.

it's been an unforgettable week - both a dream come true, a personal pilgrimage, and much else.

here's a map of the places we visited, courtesy of the great people at the MOFET Institute.

the bestest little school in the whole wide world

over the course of my career, i've had the privilege of visiting many schools - not only in Singapore, but also in the Philippines and in the United States.

too often, the school-in-question tends to put on a special show, in the hope of impressing the visitor(s).

there's a great quotation from Steve Martin's 1992 Leap of Faith which sums something up for me right now.

i'm still in Israel, so i can't reference the exact words, but it goes something like this:

Martin, in his character of Jonas Nightingale, tells young Boyd (who is crippled), "you - my friend - are the real deal".

yesterday, i had the tremendous privilege of visiting a school which is the real deal.

of all the schools i've ever visited in my 21-year-career, nowhere else have i come away with the overwhelming impression that children are learning - not only about academic studies, but about life.

shukran, El Bayader Elementary School :-)