voyeurism

partnering with meriSTEM@NIE and the Temasek Foundation to help teachers in Indonesia build digital literacy

my team and i have been afforded the wonderful privilege of working together with the Multi-centric Education, Research and Industry STEM Centre at the National Institute of Education (meriSTEM@NIE) to help teachers in Indonesia build digital literacy among their students over the next three years.

meriSTEM@NIE has - in turn - been afforded a mandate by the Temasek Foundation to partner with Prestasi Junior International to build professional capacity among 200 teachers in West Java in STEM curriculum design and implementation, with a focus on digital literacy.

our team's role is primarily to work alongside friends from Amazon Web Services to bring in their DeepRacer project, with a view to introduce coding and computational thinking through playing with DeepRacer.

this opportunity is a singular privilege which we are so proud and happy to receive.

all thanks be to God for this blessing.

sharing a Computer Vision / Machine Learning project at EDUtech Asia 2021

my team is responding to an invitation extended by the organisers of EDUtech Asia 2021 to faculty of member institutions of the Association of Southeast Asian Teacher Education (AsTEN) to share work.

EDUtech Asia runs from the 9th till the 11th of November 2021.

the team has decided to share early work in Computer Vision / Machine Learning, which was conceptualised by a pair of students whom we mentor. Our sharing is titled Investigating aquatic ecosystems with Computer Vision, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things. It is an inquiry-driven project catalysed by their observations of a school pond.

recognition of the effort of my student intern at the Global Undergraduate Awards 2021

I am thankful to God to share that this year, my student intern responsible for the initial transposition of the code-base of the Socially Responsible Behaviour through Embodied Thinking (SORBET) Project from desktops to tablets / smartphones - Tan Boon Hing - has won the highest award he was eligible for - 'Highly Commended' in the Education category - in the Global Undergraduate Awards 2021.

Boon Hing has worked tirelessly over the past year on this, under the auspices of the Nanyang Technological University's Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus (URECA) programme.

The Global Undergraduate Awards are a non-profit organisation founded in Ireland in 2008. It is the world’s leading undergraduate awards programme which recognises top undergraduate work, shares this work with a global audience and connects students across cultures and disciplines.

Each year, work submitted by undergraduates is anonymously assessed by a panel of international academics and industry leaders.

The best 10% of work is shortlisted as Highly Commended.

I am so very pleased that Boon Hing's efforts have been recognised in this way.

:-)

opportunity to have contributed to a teacher education textbook :-)

exactly a year ago, Assoc Prof Gwendoline Quek of the Learning Sciences and Assessment Academic Group of the National Institute of Education, Singapore graciously extended an invitation to me to co-author a chapter in a teacher education textbook.

needless to say, i jumped at the chance. 

over these several months, we worked together on a chapter on e-pedagogy and practice in Singapore, and the textbook now retails for SGD $35 at the bookshop at the North Spine of the Nanyang Technological University :-)

the SORBET Project: published in Computers and Education Open

a year ago, the learning intervention my team designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was enacted for the first time in schools.

we remain very grateful to teachers and school leaders whom we have worked alongside this past year.

today, i am very pleased to share that a paper describing everyone's efforts towards the Socially Responsible Behaviour through Embodied Thinking (SORBET) Project has been published in the Gold Open Access Elsevier journal Computers and Education Open.

all thanks be to God for His provision along this journey.

invited to the Editorial Board of 'Computers and Education Open'

i am truly humbled today to be invited as a member of the Editorial Board of the Elsevier journal Computers and Education Open.

Computers and Education Open is the Gold Open Access companion journal to Computers and Education. Both are focused on the ways in which digital technology can enhance education.

i am grateful to members of the Board for the trust extended to me. it is a privilege to bring representation from a Singapore-based institution to the journal Board.

thanks be to God for this opportunity to serve the wider community. :-)

Effectiveness of VR-augmented feedback for effective oral presentation

through God’s grace alone,

my team and i received the news today that - as Co-Principal Investigator - i have been awarded a grant from the Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore.

a year ago, we were invited by our Principal Investigator - A/P Gwendoline Quek - to be a part of the grant application. A/P Quek is from the Learning Sciences and Assessment Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

titled “Do you know how you present?” Effectiveness of VR-augmented feedback for effective oral presentation, the quantum of the grant is US$180000.

this grant represents our third VR-related grant, following one which we were awarded just last week, and our first such grant which we were awarded in 2018.

our fellow Co-Principal Investigator is A/P Tan Seng Chee. Together, we were the only team from the NIE to be awarded during this Call.

The main objectives of this project are:

- to develop presenters’ information skills for engaging the adult audience in a virtual training environment; and

- to investigate the effectiveness of the VR-based environment in improving presenters’ oral presentation skills.

it looks to be a wonderfully exciting and meaningful journey ahead of us.

all thanks be to God.

forthcoming Special Issue of 'Sustainability' on STEM education and ESD

i am privileged to be an invited Co-Editor for a coming Special Issue of the Gold Open Access, SSCI-indexed Sustainability, themed on Aspirations within Interdisciplinary STEM / STEAM Education under Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

if you have an idea for an academic paper, please do consider this opportunity :-)

awarded grant to develop VR simulation for Surgical Airway Training

five months' ago, our team was introduced to a Consultant in Upper GI, Bariatric Surgery and Trauma who trains junior and senior residents of the Emergency, General Surgery, and Otorhinolaryngology Department, and to a Consultant in Otolaryngology, both from the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore. 

together, we identified a need for the development of a Virtual Reality (VR) simulation for Surgical Airway Training - specifically the procedure of cricothyrotomy - which was particularly pressing due to the protocols of safe interaction obliged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

today, we received the humbling news that we have been awarded US$30000 to proceed with the project Virtual Reality Surgical Airway Training (VSaT) in COVID-19 Pandemic over the next two years. the grant has been awarded by the Games for Health Innovation Centre, which is a collaboration between the National Healthcare Group, Singapore and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at the Nanyang Technological University.

this is an exciting and very meaningful area of learning for our team. my father charted his career path as a medical practitioner, and i had the privilege of undergoing medical orderly training during my National Service. the grant represents our third VR-related grant since 2018 (and my first in the capacity of Principal Investigator).

we give thanks and praise to God alone.

part of my PhD student's thesis published as 'Maker-centred Learning In An Undergraduate Elective Course'

over the past three and a half years i have had the singular privilege of co-supervising the PhD candidature of Koh Hon Jia. His thesis is titled A study of the development of interest in learning in a maker-centered learning environment through the lens of Cultural Historical Activity Theory.

i am very pleased to share that Hon Jia's candidature is at the stage where his oral examination is presently being arranged. 

just in time has been the heartening news that he has had his first publication, in Volume 11 No 1, the June issue of the Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.