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	<title>Social media &#8211; SingTeach | Education Research for Teachers | Research within Reach</title>
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		<title>Literacy as Communication</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-bigidea/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-bigidea</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:12:14 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[English language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classroom Perspectives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Multimodal literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Big Idea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8917</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[When it comes to new and social media in education, the big idea is really about how they [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p align="left"><em><strong>When it comes to new and social media in education, the big idea is really about how they shape and change our literacy practices. An NIE Research Scientist explains why.</strong></em></p>
<p align="left">What was life like before the Internet? During those days, anyone who could read and write would be considered literate.</p>
<p align="left">“Now, it’s the screen that has central importance,” says <a href="https://www.nie.edu.sg/profile/towndrow-phillip-alexander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr Phillip Towndrow</a>, a Senior Research Scientist from NIE. “The ‘reading’ of images and other graphics require new skills that take us beyond what we used to know as literacy.”</p>
<p align="left">“Literacy is now measured, in part, by how easily we can find the things we want on the Internet,” he continues. “But some people tend to get lost in navigating websites immediately!”</p>
<p align="left">This calls for a different way of getting things done. “Not only do students need to learn how to read and write on the printed page, they also need to be able to read and create graphical representations of knowledge.”</p>
<p align="left"><img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-8961 size-full" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Big-Idea_Philip_01_for_web.jpg" alt="" width="334" height="331" /></p>
<h1 align="left">Literacy 2.0</h1>
<p align="left">“The fact of the matter is that the outside world has changed so much, and the inside world of the classroom has to reflect that reality,” says Phil.</p>
<p align="left">Children and today’s youth are exposed to different media. Most of the time, they are not only consumers, but also producers of content, especially on social media. They are now “prosumers” who can publish content to the masses by just hitting the “Enter” button.</p>
<p align="left">“Their literacy experiences outside of school may not always match what they learn in school,” notes Phil.</p>
<p align="left">To prepare students for life after graduation, schools will have to work on helping them learn how to communicate effectively across a range of different media, and not just with pen and paper.</p>
<p align="left">Because of this belief, Phil thinks that in using new and social media for educational purposes, the big – and ultimate – idea is literacy for communication that is fundamentally multimodal.</p>
<h1 align="left">Designing a Message</h1>
<p align="left">Communication now consists of different modes, such as written texts, images, movies and animations, and students need to start thinking like designers or architects to effectively achieve their desired purposes.</p>
<p align="left">“As a multimodal author, I have to bear many things in mind. It’s not just a question of having texts and graphics together like that,” says Phil. “It’s that when we pull these elements together, we have to do so very purposefully and with specific meanings in mind.”</p>
<p align="left">For example, a teacher may instruct a class to create a website with intuitive navigations. Or students may be tasked to think about how they can give directions via social media to a friend who needs to get to a particular restaurant. Would they point their friend to an online map, or type out step-by-step instructions on how to get there?</p>
<p align="left">“Students need to learn how to put texts and images and other representations together in a certain way. It’s certainly not a random process,” explains Phil. “Design underpins what we see and how we experience or understand the intended ‘message’.”<b></b></p>
<p align="left">
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-right" style="color:#999999">
<p align="left">Students need to learn how to put texts and images and other representations together in a certain way. It’s certainly not a random process.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong><em>Phillip Towndrow</em></strong> on multimodal literacy</p>
</div>
<h1 align="left">A Designer–author’s Perspective</h1>
<p align="left">When students create content using new media, it is common for teachers to use certain rubrics to assess them in media production from a technical point of view, such as their animation skills or their use of music and sound.</p>
<p align="left">Seen in the light of multimodal communication, the students’ intentions as producers and the effects of their messages matter too. These aspects are “intangible, shapeless, personal and highly subjective,” says Phil.</p>
<p align="left">Teachers can find out more by probing students with questions such as: “What would you like your listeners to feel after hearing your story?” or “How do you feel after writing this blog entry?”</p>
<p align="left">“I think it’s important for learners to describe, explain and justify their work from a designer–author’s perspective when they are producing content for others,” Phil notes.</p>
<h1 align="left">“The Real Me”</h1>
<p align="left">Students often welcome the opportunity to use new or social media to create content for their peers. Perhaps they see such use of their literacy skills as being closer to what they enjoy doing in their daily lives.</p>
<p align="left">“In my own research on the use of laptop computers in English Language learning, when I ask students what their intention was and what story they were trying to tell, they’ll say, ‘I’ve a real opportunity to express myself and how I feel about something. This is the real me. This is my world and I can express it in ways that are really personal to me.’”</p>
<p align="left">This process of creation is not a one-way traffic, says Phil. “Using all these mediating technologies and media changes who you are and the way you think. That’s what I’m interested in, that is, how the use of such technology changes who we are as people and our literacy practices.”</p>
<p align="left">There are many other questions that both educators and researchers are asking about the use of new and social media in the classroom.</p>
<p align="left"><em>Would students benefit from learning with such media? How? What can we do with new and social media that we cannot do with other forms of communication? How do we encourage the participatory spirit of such media and reconcile it with the established classroom culture at the same time?</em></p>
<p align="left">Researchers like Phil who are searching for these answers have a busy time ahead of them. And as he says, “Stay tuned!”</p>
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		<title>Learning Ethics with Social Media</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-research01/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-research01</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:12:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[English language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Values education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research in Action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8915</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Can English Language teachers make use of social media to teach not just language skills but also important [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p align="left"><em><strong>Can English Language teachers make use of social media to teach not just language skills but also important lessons about ethics? Researchers from NIE certainly think so!</strong></em></p>
<div id="attachment_8963" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8963" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-8963 size-full" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Research_Csilla_02_for_web-e1415867982388.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="301" /><p id="caption-attachment-8963" class="wp-caption-text">Csilla (second from right) and her team (from left: Suzanne Choo, Katy Kan, Hu Guangwei and Patrick Williams) find that social media can be used to inculcate ethics in learners.</p></div>
<h1>Linking Literacy to Social Media</h1>
<p align="left">Media literacy is now part of the English Language curriculum in Singapore. But the funny thing is, even though <a href="https://www.nie.edu.sg/profile/weninger-csilla" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr Csilla Weninger </a>and her research team found that visiting social network sites tops students’ media use outside the classroom, teachers refer to social media texts the <em>least </em>in the classroom.</p>
<p align="left">“Both teachers and students need to see the use of social media as an act of literacy,&#8221; Csilla notes.</p>
<p align="left">To foster the kind of media literacy that is relevant to students’ daily lives, Csilla and her research team developed a framework with four components: functional, critical, ethical and aesthetic (See box story to find out more about the different components). In particular, the ethical part is something she feels needs more attention in the English classroom.</p>
<p align="left">“From the classroom observations we made, we saw a lot of the functional and critical components being taught,” shares Csilla. “However, the ethical or aesthetic aspects were barely touched on. So we wanted to develop something where the students are required to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.”</p>
<p align="left">
<div class="message-box-wrapper yellow">
<div class="message-box-title">A Media-literacy Framework</div>
<div class="message-box-content">
<p align="left">To help foster media literacy, Assistant Professor Csilla Weninger and her team developed a framework to be implemented in the English classroom.</p>
<p align="left">“The first component is <em>functional. </em>You need to be able to read, write and create multimodal content to be a media-literate person.</p>
<p align="left">“The second is the <em>critical </em>component, which has to do with higher order thinking skills, such as asking students how they infer meaning from a blog or an online <a href="https://www.facebook.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> post.</p>
<p align="left">“When students are using social media, to what extent are they aware that their online actions have consequences on people’s lives? This is the third component – the <em>ethical</em> part. It has to do with the participatory culture of social media and not only taking the perspective of others, but also to be able to act upon it.</p>
<p align="left">“The last component is<em> aesthetics</em>.  It looks at the aesthetics of media use and media production, which doesn’t always get taught. This could include elements of design or playfulness in language, both when you produce something and when you consume media or texts of a different nature.”</p>
<p align="left"></div>
</div>
<h1 align="left">Understanding the “Other”</h1>
<p align="left">In a virtual world where people can hide behind a pseudonym, cases of cyberbullying are rampant among youth.</p>
<p align="left">The ethics component of the media-literacy framework by Csilla’s team asks that students acknowledge and act upon the recognition of the perspective of the other, and take responsibility for their actions.</p>
<p align="left">“If you develop this idea where you have to be able to look at things from a different perspective, then you’re working towards reducing instances of cyberbullying,” Csilla adds.</p>
<p align="left">It may also help students avoid the trap of becoming more and more polarized in their views when they are online. Online discussions sometimes become heated because people care deeply about certain issues, says Csilla.</p>
<p align="left">It may not always be possible for everyone to come to an agreement. The key, she explains, is to “learn to live with and accept differences, which is only possible if you try to step into the shoes of the other”.</p>
<h1 align="left">Creating Personas</h1>
<p align="left">Cultivating students who care about others while simultaneously covering the English Language syllabus is definitely possible, says Csilla. While teachers usually focus on specific skills, for this project they decided to focus on a theme.</p>
<p align="left">Csilla’s project team worked closely with English teachers from a school on the theme of SG50 (Singapore 50). They developed an idea that groups of students would each represent a social group in Singapore, such as foreign workers, National Servicemen and families with young children.</p>
<p align="left">Keeping in mind that the English teachers have their own set goals, Csilla’s team used the theme to foster students’ ethical perspective while developing their language skills as required by the syllabus.</p>
<p align="left">For the project, students researched on their respective groups, and read materials such as a blog published by a taxi driver. This helps them understand the concerns and contributions of the group.</p>
<p align="left">To weave in the skill of report writing, they were asked to write a report to their Member of Parliament about a problem their social group is facing. “It is really important that the students understand that the things they are learning have a real connection to their lives outside school,” Csilla emphasizes. “Literacy is a social practice. It’s not something you do in the classroom, examine, and then forget about.”</p>
<p align="left">Csilla notes that in the end, the teachers were able to meet all their set goals. “That’s the wonderful thing – it’s possible to meet all those requirements and everybody’s learning objectives, but have it done in a way that’s more meaningful than just a unit on report writing!” she enthuses.</p>
<p align="left">Moreover, she found out that it was not just the two teachers she worked with that used the materials—all the other teachers teaching the same level joined in because they thought it was interesting for their students.</p>
<h1 align="left">Being Relevant versus Being Intrusive</h1>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-8991 alignleft" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Research_Csilla_01_for_web-400x264.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="264" />Csilla suggests that teachers keep themselves updated about social-media happenings and talk about them in the classroom. “Things like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ALS Ice Bucket Challenge </a>– have discussions about them, ask students for their reactions, and how they participate in social media,” she says.</p>
<p align="left">However, she cautions that while it is important to establish relevance and connections, teachers should be careful not to intrude students’ privacy to a life outside school.</p>
<p align="left">“It’s a delicate balance,” she notes. “It’s important to prepare students for what they encounter online and empower them to be active media users. But it’s also critical that we leave them the social space where they can enact agency and talk about issues they don’t want their teachers to talk about.”</p>
<p align="left">Striking that balance is not easy, but Csilla believes that it is especially important for a holistic education.</p>
<p align="left">“Our students are human beings with emotions, and they have agency, desires and plans. As educators, we should pay attention to those other parts of our students as well, to develop them as a whole person. And this is where media literacy is important in this current age.”</p>
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		<title>Affinity Space for the Youth</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-research02/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-research02</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:11:45 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ICT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arts education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research in Action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Affinity space]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8913</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[People who share common interests are interacting, socializing and learning in online communities. Would such an “interest-driven” community [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><em>People who share common interests are interacting, socializing and learning in online communities. Would such an “interest-driven” community work in a classroom too?</em></strong></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignright size-large wp-image-8927" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Research_MingFong_02_for_web-294x400.jpg" alt="" width="294" height="400" />As a photographer,<a href="https://lsl.nie.edu.sg/people/researchers/jan-mingfong" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Dr Mingfong Jan </a>finds his online learning experience inspiring and revealing. He is a member of several online photography forums and communities such as those in <a href="https://www.flickr.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Flickr</a>, a popular website where people share images and discuss photography.</p>
<p>There is evidence that engaged and deep learning often takes place in such “affinity spaces” – spaces where people who share common interests gather on their own accord and learn with each other.</p>
<p>Being the consummate education researcher that he is, Mingfong’s own experience in such communities got him thinking: Might this concept take off in a classroom too?</p>
<p>“There are many good lessons that we can learn from these online learning spaces. We see a culture where people critically consume and produce images while they are socializing and having fun together. We want to investigate how such a learning model can be designed and enacted in schools,” says Mingfong, a Research Scientist from <a href="https://www.nie.edu.sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NIE</a>.</p>
<h1>Get Interested First, Learn Later</h1>
<p>There are at least two ways to learn photography, according to Mingfong. The first one is reading up on how a camera works and the technical aspects of photography, such as composition. This is a content-mastery model of learning.</p>
<p>The second, and more organic, way is to grab a camera and start taking photos. “You take photos, share them with other people, and take more photos. In this personally meaningful process, you build your relationship with images before the technical know-hows kicks in.” Learning photography is viewed as learning to express yourself through the world of light, colours, time and activities via cameras. This is a situated-learning model.</p>
<p>Through the comments of others, budding photographers will gradually pick up technical know-hows and skills essential for telling stories with images. They can also read photography-related books with more understanding.</p>
<p>“You develop an interest in doing something and you will naturally feel the urge to know more about it,” explains Mingfong.</p>
<p>This is exactly the kind of learning culture that he and his team of researchers want to create in a classroom. They worked with <a href="https://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ashsseah" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Professor Seah Hock Soon</a> and Associate <a href="https://www.sirca.org.sg/margaret-tan-dr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Professor Margaret Tan</a> from <a href="https://www.ntu.edu.sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nanyang Technological University</a>, and Art teachers to design an online social platform and authoring tools for secondary students.</p>
<p>VisuaPedia, the online social platform and the authoring tool that they created, provides drawing, animation and other art production tools for students. They can also collaborate on art pieces together. With the social platform integrated with authoring tools, students can view and comment on each other’s works with a click.</p>
<p>To motivate students to participate, Mingfong “gamified” things a little so that they can earn points and badges if they complete certain activities, just like in an online game.</p>
<div id="attachment_9061" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9061" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9061 size-full" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ST51_research_mingfong_visuapedia2-e1415785008158.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="375" /><p id="caption-attachment-9061" class="wp-caption-text">A screen-capture of Visuapedia, an online social platform and authoring tool for students.</p></div>
<h1>Ownership of Learning</h1>
<p>From the teachers, the researchers got to know that many students feel obligated to create art pieces for teachers instead of for themselves.</p>
<p>“The teachers working with us shared similar beliefs. They really want to promote arts as a way to express, to communicate and create <em>–</em> a sense of ownership,” says Mingfong.</p>
<p>“What we want to do is for students to create and share art works and see this process as a meaningful and creative activity. When they develop a passion for it, they will become artists in their own minds.”</p>
<p>Because of this, the teachers and researchers decided to step back and not impose common school rules on how students should use VisuaPedia. The teachers also refrained from posting and commenting on the platform.</p>
<p>“We wanted to have a chance to understand how youth perceive the affordances of this online community,” explains Mingfong.</p>
<h1>“Facebook” in the Classroom</h1>
<p>So, how did the students take to VisuaPedia?</p>
<p>“Students were very interested in the drawing tools, and they also posted their artworks online for their classmates and themselves,” Mingfong says. The teachers found that their students took pride in their own creations. They were eager to share their own imagination.</p>
<p>But one thing that did not go as planned was the way students interacted with each other within the platform. There was a lot of chatter going on initially, but most of the talk was “friendship-driven” instead of on the art pieces.</p>
<p>“For the students, it was like, ‘Fantastic! Now we have a safe Facebook in the classroom!’ While the researchers expected more conversations about their art works eventually, students zoomed in to the social part of VisuaPedia,” explains Mingfong. “Perhaps socialization is a crucial part of talking about arts, at least that is what we found.”</p>
<p>Also, as students could access VisuaPedia via computers but not mobile devices, participation dwindled after a while as they, as digital natives, seemed to have little patience for asynchronous interactions.</p>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-center" style="color:#999999">
<p>Teachers need to be very attentive and thoughtful about how they run this community and how students will see themselves in this community.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong><em>Mingfong Jan</em></strong> on how teachers should approach online spaces</p>
</div>
<h1>Lessons Gained</h1>
<p>From this experience of designing an affinity space within a classroom, Mingfong learned a few valuable lessons which he wants to share with those who want to do something similar.</p>
<p>“Don’t start from scratch,” he advises. Instead, look out for online platforms that are already freely available, and participate in it for a while. Get your hands dirty at being a community organizer first, as the role is quite different from that of a classroom teacher. From there, you can think of how to customize the space for your class.</p>
<p>Something else to think about is the learning culture you want to foster in that affinity space. Rules and activity structures are still needed to maintain the community, but it should not just be an extension of the classroom to an online space if you are thinking about affinity space.</p>
<p>“In an online space, teacher shouldn&#8217;t be playing the same role as in the classroom,” says Mingfong. “They need to be very attentive and thoughtful about how they run this community and how students will see themselves in this community.”</p>
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		<title>Liberating Learning</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-research03/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-research03</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:11:27 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critical thinking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research in Action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Creativity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Informal learning]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8911</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[When social media is introduced in the classroom – do we simply mean that teachers should use it [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><strong>When social media is introduced in the classroom – do we simply mean that teachers should use it as a teaching tool? Not so, apparently!</strong> </em></p>
<h1>Students’ Online Usage</h1>
<p>It started out as a research study to understand how local youth use social media. The results came as a surprise to researcher and social-media enthusiast Dr Victor Chen. Unlike American youth, our local youth spend one-third of their time online for school work.</p>
<p>“In the US, students are friendship-driven 70% of the time and interest-driven for 30% when they use social media,” Victor says. “But in Singapore, our study shows that our students are also school-driven!”</p>
<p>Victors feels that it could be due to <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2008/08/moe-launches-third-masterplan.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ministry Of Education’s Masterplan 3</a>, which encourage schools to integrate the use of information technology into  lessons.</p>
<p>Most students in his study used social media for coordination, information collection and collaboration for projects. While many may feel that the results of Victor’s research study is a sign that we are on the right track, he feels that we need to look deeper into how social media is really being used.</p>
<h1>Learning versus Schooling</h1>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-8928 size-large" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Research_Victor_01_for_web-400x333.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="333" />“There is a distinction between learning and schooling,” Victor says.</p>
<p>“Learning is about the transformation of children into learners who are inquisitive to the unknown, whereas schooling is institutionalization of children into students who are confirmative to the known.”</p>
<p>While the latter means studying a certain subject or topic based on a pre-defined set of rules and learning outcomes, learning is a generic reference to acquiring knowledge – <em>any</em> knowledge with no boundaries.</p>
<p>And one of the best ways to learn is via social media; it’s an open portal for knowledge seekers. The tricky part, however, only emerge when a set of “rules” is introduced during the use of this platform.</p>
<p>Victor feels that the existence of “rules” will create a schooling culture, rather than a learning culture. This, in turn, creates students who are school-driven when they use social media. To him, this dilutes the essence of social media.</p>
<p>To liberate learning is the ideology of social media. “It is about the democratization of learning,” Victor explains.</p>
<p>This simply means that students are given the liberty to choose what they like to learn and how they wish to learn it. “In the new media space, you can excel in photography if you want to,” he adds, “even if you are a 10-year-old. There are no pre-defined rules.”</p>
<p>The online world offers users an array of opportunities and possibilities. But are we using it to its full potential?</p>
<h1>Realizing the Potential of Social Media</h1>
<p>Imagine social media as a computer. In the early days when the computer was introduced in schools, it was used mostly as a reading tool. “They scan a book and put it on the computer so students can read on them,” Victor shares. “But there is no difference with reading on paper itself.”</p>
<p>It is only much later that people start to realize that they can also use the computer to connect with others.</p>
<p>The same goes for social media – it is mostly used as a teaching or classroom management tool. However, Victor feels that social media has much more to offer.</p>
<p>“You can use, for example, Facebook, to share a project but that isn’t considered social media because you are not using it in a ‘social-media’ way. Rather, it is used in a technological way, as a tool.”</p>
<p>“The use of social media comes with free choice,” he explains further. “If students are not given the free choice (to learn what they want), then we are missing the point.”</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-8929 size-large" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Research_Victor_02_for_web-400x224.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="224" /></p>
<h1>Democratizing Learning</h1>
<p>The main thing teachers can do is to encourage creativity and criticality among the students, shares Victor. “Give them some direction and encourage them to spend some time in that big space.”</p>
<p>Apart from the democratization of learning, social media also put the users in an “experimental space” where one can learn from mistakes. Victor feels that the online world is more forgiving compared to the real world. “You need the kind of safe environment and culture that allow students to make mistakes and experience the consequences,” he says.</p>
<p>For example, an online social media user can close his or her account, create a new one, and have a new identity – something not possible in real life.</p>
<p>And it is in that very big, experimental space where students will have a chance to learn what they are truly passionate about!</p>
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		<title>Why Use Social Media?</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-classroom01/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-classroom01</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Informal learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humanities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secondary school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Studies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classroom Perspectives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8909</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Social media are increasingly being designed into the curriculum to make classroom learning more relevant for students. We [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p align="left"><em><strong>Social media are increasingly being designed into the curriculum to make classroom learning more relevant for students. We talk to a few teachers who took the leap and included social media in their lessons.</strong></em></p>
<p align="left">After asking his History students to create a photo montage about the Cold War for a project, Mr Lloyd Yeo faced a question: Where should he showcase their projects so that the students can appreciate each other’s work?</p>
<p align="left">The Lead Teacher from <a href="https://www.stgabrielssec.moe.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St. Gabriel’s Secondary School </a>asked his students to upload their photo montages on <a href="https://www.edmodo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edmodo</a>, a social learning network, where he had created a closed group for his class. There, his students can share, view and comment on each other’s work at their own convenience to help the creators improve the subsequent versions.</p>
<p align="left">Lloyd points out that this is just one of the many ways social media come in handy in the classroom.</p>
<div id="attachment_8964" style="width: 550px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8964" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-8964" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/School_SocialMedia_02_for_web.jpg" alt="" width="540" height="278" /><p id="caption-attachment-8964" class="wp-caption-text">(From left) Chew Ee, Lloyd and Ezal believe that social media lend itself very well to learning in the Humanities classroom.</p></div>
<h1>Leveraging Technological Affordances</h1>
<p align="left">Social media have many functions, and the ways they support teaching and learning are termed as technological affordances.</p>
<p align="left">To enhance his lessons, Lloyd uses the mobile app version of Edmodo. With the app, he can upload resources and notes for students to access anytime, create discussion boards to engage them, create quizzes to check their understanding, and allow the students to post and share content.</p>
<p align="left">Mr Chew Ee, a Senior Teacher from <a href="https://www.standrewssec.moe.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St. Andrew’s Secondary School</a>, adds that social media not only allow students discuss anywhere and anytime, but more importantly, they make their thinking visible.</p>
<p align="left">“When you deliver the lesson, do you really know whether the students are paying attention?” Chew Ee points out. ”Even if you ask them to contribute answers, only a few might put up their hands, and you just don’t have the time to call out every single student.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, social media act as a <em>cordon sanitaire</em>, according to Lloyd. &#8220;It&#8217;s a closed, sanitized environment for students to work in and share.”</p>
<p align="left">For students, a safe environment is important. When they feel comfortable, they will not mind contributing and the platform becomes conducive for their learning. In fact, Mr Ezal Sani, a Senior Teacher from <a href="https://www.fairfieldmethodistsec.moe.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fairfield Secondary School</a>, notes that social media can give a voice to the voiceless.</p>
<p align="left">“It’s interesting to see how students who are quieter in the classroom become more forthcoming online,” Ezal adds. “We also have students who suddenly develop a keen interest in the subject because they can explore it in a different manner!”</p>
<div class="message-box-wrapper yellow">
<div class="message-box-title">Planning for Social Media in the Classroom</div>
<div class="message-box-content">
<p align="left">Introducing social media into the classroom requires planning for any challenges that might arise. Mr Lloyd Yeo shares some points for consideration.</p>
<p align="left">“Student safety and security is number one. Keep in mind that your activities are for students, so create a closed and safe environment for them so they would want to participate.</p>
<p align="left">“Secondly, social media should not be used in isolation. In the curriculum design, they should be an add-on to enhance the class.</p>
<p align="left">“Teacher presence is important. You can’t set up a social-media platform for the class and be absent half the time. Feedback should be constantly given.</p>
<p align="left">“Clarity of the purpose is important <span class="st">– </span>be clear why you’re using social media. If you’re going to use it to assess discussion, tell the students on Day One that you’re assessing their discussion.</p>
<p align="left">“Finally, the choice of social media is important. Choose a platform that is appropriate because social media are useful only as long as the teacher and student are comfortable!&#8221;</p>
</div>
</div>
<h1 align="left">Developing Confident Students</h1>
<p align="left">Part of education is grooming students to be confident individuals with a sense of self-worth, and social media lend itself to that.</p>
<p align="left">Students who create outstanding content within closed groups can have their works uploaded on YouTube, where people outside of their school and even beyond Singapore can comment on.</p>
<p align="left">“This motivates students to do well,” explains Lloyd. “When they know their work is good enough to be shared, they feel that their work is being appreciated. So, their creation brings some level of extrinsic rewards as well as intrinsic joy.”</p>
<h1 align="left">Giving Social Media a Try</h1>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-8992 size-large alignleft" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/School_SocialMedia_01_for_web-400x264.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="264" />Lloyd believes teachers simply cannot ignore social media’s growing prominence.</p>
<p>By introducing social media into their classrooms, teachers also get the opportunity to educate students about their usage of such media.</p>
<p align="left">“I get to socialize the students to have the right etiquette and values when they’re on social media,” he says.</p>
<p align="left">However, teachers might be hesitant about incorporating technology in the classroom because of potential logistical hiccups. Chew Ee recalls with a laugh, “Forgotten password, spoilt screen, missing mouse…something always goes wrong in the computer lab! But with smartphones, it’s now much easier and more intuitive for both students and teachers.”</p>
<p align="left">But it is not just the students who benefit from using social media. Ezal shares that because he gets feedback directly from students in Edmodo, he tweaks his pedagogy accordingly. Edmodo then becomes a tool he uses for reflection.</p>
<p align="left">While not all teachers are digital natives who take to social media easily, Ezal advises teachers not to give up. “When you invest your time in it, it’ll really be worthwhile.”</p>
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		<title>Bringing Literature to Life</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-classroom02/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-classroom02</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:10:51 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Informal learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Literature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secondary school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Self-directed learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[English language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classroom Perspectives]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8907</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[What better way to make Literature digestible for lower secondary students than to use social media? A group [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><em>What better way to make Literature digestible for lower secondary students than to use social media? A group of 4 teachers from Nan Hua High School share how they keep their students interested in the subject.</em></strong></p>
<h1>Learning and Having Fun</h1>
<p>“The acts of learning and having fun don&#8217;t have to be exclusive,” English Literature and Music teacher Ms Chin Ying Fen says. “It is possible.”</p>
<p>She shares that bringing social media into the classroom helps engage her students and blurs the line between learning and fun.</p>
<p>“I also think knowing how to use social media is part of lifelong learning,” she adds. “It inculcates a habit in the students to live their life engaging in educational activities via social media.”</p>
<p>With that mind-set, she and a group of English Language and Literature teachers from <a href="https://www.nanhuahigh.moe.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nan Hua High School </a>worked together to use social media in their lessons.</p>
<div id="attachment_8930" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8930" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-8930 size-full" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/School_NanHua_01_for_web.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="331" /><p id="caption-attachment-8930" class="wp-caption-text">(From left) Serene, Ying Fen, Kali and Tessa believe that knowing how to use social media is part of lifelong learning.</p></div>
<h1>Bringing Characters to Life</h1>
<p>For 3 months, a group of Secondary 1 students lived out the lives of the main characters in their Literature text <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sky_in_the_Morning" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Red Sky in the Morning</a></em>, albeit only on <a href="https://www.edmodo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edmodo</a>, an educational social media platform.</p>
<p>The students posted status updates on Edmodo as those characters. “We gave them reflective questions,” Ying Fen says. “These questions were supposed to prompt their personal responses so that they can take the perspectives of the characters.”</p>
<p>For example, a question for the book’s young protagonist Anna Peacock was: “Your baby brother has just been born. How do you feel?” And a question for Anna’s little sister Katy Peacock was: “Your parents are spending all their time taking care of Baby Ben. How do you feel?”</p>
<p>Students have to put themselves in the shoes of the characters before they could come up with relevant status updates. This helps inculcate a deep sense of empathy in them. As the story progressed, their status updates had to reflect the change and growth of the characters.</p>
<p>Ms Tessa Khew, an English Language and Literature teacher, feels that Edmodo made her students more enthusiastic and self-directed during lessons. Her students also developed the ability to link their understanding of the fictional characters to their personal, real-world experiences.</p>
<p>To help them understand and remember literature terms better, the teachers also used <a href="https://lms.asknlearn.com/LMS/LMSSSO_new.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AskNLearn</a>, an educational social media platform where students blog (see box story).</p>
<div class="message-box-wrapper yellow">
<div class="message-box-title">Blogging for Literature</div>
<div class="message-box-content">
<p>Personification, metaphor, simile, symbolism: These are some common terms in Literature. Their definitions are not easy to memorize though, especially for Secondary 1 students studying the subject for the first time. The team of teachers got their students to blog to remember them better.</p>
<p>“We have a project called the Picture Perfect Poetry Project,” Ying Fen says. “This project introduces students to literary devices when they first study Literature.”</p>
<p><strong><em>Personification</em></strong></p>
<p>Students imagine themselves as an object such as a dustbin. To personify themselves, they describe their feelings and thoughts as the said object through their writings.</p>
<p><strong><em>Metaphor</em></strong></p>
<p>After selecting a dish that best describes them as a person, the students have to create relevant metaphors. For example, <em>I have different parts of me that people see, just like the ingredients in a salad</em>.</p>
<p><strong><em>Simile</em></strong></p>
<p>Students pretended that they were selling perfumes and had to create a marketing script and tagline for their product. A perfume name called <em>Swan</em>, for example, could use this tagline: <em>As graceful as a swan</em>.</p>
<p><strong><em>Symbolism</em></strong></p>
<p>After picking a country, the students discussed what the different symbols on its flag represent. They were also encouraged to come up with their own interpretations.</p>
<p>“It gave them practice in using these literary devices,” Ying Fen says. “This was an attempt for us to make Literature fun for students.”</p>
<p>English Language and Literature teacher Mrs Serene Chong feels that blogging is a good way for her students to also practise their descriptive-writing skills. “I get them to write a post about their holiday experience, for example, and remind them to use adjectives,” she says. “Their posts must involve the five senses.”</p>
<p>Other than practising their writing skills, publishing posts gives students a sense of ownership over their own blogs. Plus, they get to survey their friends’ work and learn from each other too. “Students are able to comment on each others’ work,” Tessa says. “Finally, teachers can also easily collate all their work at the end of the day.”</p>
</div>
</div>
<h1>Creating Opportunities for All</h1>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-8931 size-large" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/School_NanHua_02_for_web-400x264.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="264" /></p>
<p>Confidence is key in the classroom. However, the teachers found that in a big class, the less extroverted students tend to shy away from voicing out their opinions.</p>
<p>“They needed a lot of confidence to share their own opinions and they were not ready to do so,” Ms Kali Sri, also an English Literature and Language teacher, says. Going online gives everyone the opportunity to openly share their opinions and ideas.</p>
<p>Kali also builds confidence in her students by allowing them to take charge of their own learning. The upper secondary classes created a closed Facebook group where they discussed their literary opinions with their classmates. They also used this group as a platform for flipped classroom lessons where students read up on additional materials on issues and themes or watched video clips posted prior to poetry lessons.</p>
<p>“In class, you inevitably miss out on certain students who are quiet,” Ying Fen adds. “Social media helps teachers to reach out to everyone.” However, Serene advises that “the use of social media must also be purposeful and not just for the sake of using it!”</p>
<p>Tessa also feels that the online platform gives students the opportunity to exhibit certain talents, which they feel could not be showcased using pen and paper. While the latter may have worked for centuries, online learning definitely has its own benefits too!</p>
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		<title>Using Social Media in Learning</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-classroom03/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-classroom03</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Student engagement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Multimodal literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classroom engagement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[English language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classroom Perspectives]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8905</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Contributed by Marshall Cavendish Education The rise of social networking sites presents unique opportunities for language education, especially [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Contributed by <a href="https://www.mceducation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0066cc;">Marshall Cavendish Education </span></span></a></p>
<p><strong><em>The rise of social networking sites presents unique opportunities for language education, especially when</em></strong><em><strong> youth today are digital natives and prolific users of such multimodal social networking sites.</strong> </em></p>
<p>Social networking sites have become very much part of our lives. A survey done in 2009 indicated that the most common internet activity among young people between 15 to 24 years of age was the use of social networking sites. Our students are clearly into information and communication technology (ICT) tools. It would be counter-intuitive if educators do not use them to engage students in the classroom.</p>
<p>Teachers can and should creatively integrate ICT tools into their lessons to create a multimodal environment for their students. This can help nurture in them the key competencies and dispositions needed to succeed in our 21st-century, technology-driven world. My team of English teachers at the <a href="https://www.sst.edu.sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">School of Science and Technology, Singapore (SST)</a> are exploring how this could be done.</p>
<h1>Facebook for English Language Teaching</h1>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-8957 size-large" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/School_SST_01_for_web-266x400.jpg" alt="" width="266" height="400" />This year, the English department at SST started a closed Facebook group for all Secondary 4 students to teach language use and critical thinking, encourage social constructivism, and allow both self-directed and collaborative learning across classes.</p>
<p>The teachers posted tips on grammar and vocabulary use, discussed current affairs and language skills, and uploaded lesson materials in this Facebook group.</p>
<p>Central to the primary and secondary school English Language curriculum is the ability to listen, read, view, speak and write a variety of text types or genres. In addition to print sources, the <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/english-language-and-literature/files/english-primary-secondary-express-normal-academic.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ministry of Education (MOE) 2010 English Syllabus</a> incorporates a variety of multimodal non-print sources such as web-based texts (which includes online articles, blogs, wikis), CD-ROMs and DVDs, analogue resources such as films, television and radio broadcasts. Facebook lends itself very well to the incorporation of such multimodal sources and the promotion of multiliteracies.</p>
<p>Facebook also helps prepare our students to be active citizens in the future. There are plenty of opportunities for them to engage with politicians and various lobby groups with an online presence. Students need a platform to learn the etiquette for such engagement and to discern the information they receive online. A school Facebook group provides the perfect environment for such learning, which is guided by educators.</p>
<h1>Why Facebook?</h1>
<p>With so many social networking sites around, how did we arrive at the choice of Facebook? Several studies on the use of Facebook among university students have pointed to its potential use for educational purposes.</p>
<p>Using naturally occurring exchanges on students’ Facebook pages, Selwyn (2009) noted how social networking sites can be used educationally to support discussion between students and also for teacher-learner dialogue in the UK. Similarly, Bosch (2009) found in his study that students in South Africa used Facebook for academic purposes to share ideas about projects and lecture or study notes.</p>
<h1>Facebook versus “Chalk and Talk”</h1>
<p>How does Facebook measure up to traditional ways of learning? For one, it makes a classroom borderless. Learning can now continue even after the school bell goes off. Compared to other educational ICT tools such as blogs or <a href="https://www.pbworks.com">PBworks</a>, Facebook has a huge advantage. Almost all students have a Facebook account, and they already frequent Facebook for social reasons.</p>
<p>In Facebook, students are able to initiate discussions beyond the traditional classroom to include multimodal materials such as videos, pictures, comic strips and links to other sites. They also think they learn best from both text and videos, which is also observed by Cisco (2008).</p>
<p>Teachers can also share articles quickly and easily by just clicking on the Facebook button at the bottom of newspaper and magazine articles. Reading has been changed by how electronic text types are organized to let readers choose their reading path. Most of the time, it will be non-linear. The speed of such frequent updates and non-linear reading are similar to what students usually encounter in their daily reading practices.</p>
<p>For the typical Asian learner, expressing one’s opinion on the Facebook group is definitely less intimidating than articulating one’s view in a traditional classroom. Students who are more reserved can now actively participate in the closed Facebook group by posting their comments.</p>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-right" style="color:#999999">
<p>There are plenty of opportunities for students to engage with politicians and various lobby groups with an online presence.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong><em>Chin Meng</em></strong> on how Facebook prepares students to be active citizens in the future</p>
</div>
<h1>Challenges</h1>
<p>The way students used Facebook did not always go the way the teachers had envisioned. Their participation was limited to commenting on teachers’ posts. It was difficult to get them to initiate a new discussion of their own.</p>
<p>We were not able to accurately measure the kind and amount of learning that takes place on Facebook. It is still unclear how it will translate into real-life outcomes and pen-and-paper assessment.</p>
<p>To overcome the above, my team is exploring several ideas, such as organizing competitions to entice students to post and developing a team of student writers under the school’s Talent Development Programme to become active contributors. The team has also surveyed the students to obtain feedback on how we can improve the Facebook group.</p>
<p>Facebook was created primarily for social purposes, and it presents information in a chronological fashion. As a pedagogical tool, this is a limitation as it is difficult for users to search for discussion topics or use the group for revision purposes. This, however, can be overcome by syncing the Facebook group with a blog for topic tagging.</p>
<p>Now that they have gotten the hang of using Facebook as a learning tool, my team hopes to explore collaboration across schools, both locally and with partner schools in other countries. Language learning is not strictly bound by the syllabus or traditional methods, so there are certainly more possibilities in harnessing social media for educational purposes.</p>
<p><strong>References</strong></p>
<p>Bosch, T. E. (2009). Using online social networking for teaching and learning: Facebook use at the University of Cape Town. <em>South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research</em> 35(2), 185–200.</p>
<p>Cisco, Global Lead Education. (2008). Multimodal learning through media: What the research says. Retrieved from <a href="https://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multimodal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf">https://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multimodal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf</a></p>
<p>Selwyn, N. (2009). Faceworking: Exploring students’ education-related use of Facebook. <em>Learning, Media and Technology</em>, <em>34</em>(2), 157–174.</p>
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		<title>Welcome to the Online World</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/11/10/issue51-people/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue51-people</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 08:03:54 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 51 nov / dec 2014]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[People]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parental involvement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Online gaming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cyberwellness]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=8903</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Parents tend to worry that their children spend too much time on online gaming and the Internet. An [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p align="left"><em><strong>Parents tend to worry that their children spend too much time on online gaming and the Internet. An NIE researcher cum online-gaming enthusiast tells us that the online world is not all bad.</strong></em></p>
<p>The world of online gaming and new media has always intrigued researcher and <a href="https://www.nie.edu.sg/profile/khoo-angeline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associate Professor Angeline Khoo</a>. To her, the online world can help develop certain life skills in individuals, but only if they are used correctly and in moderation. We talk to Angeline about her views on online gaming and how parents can better understand their children’s involvement in this form of new media.</p>
<h1 align="left">Q: How did you becoming involved in online gaming?</h1>
<p align="left"><img loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-8962" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/People_Angeline_01_for_web-300x283.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="283" />I was involved in a gaming project which I enjoyed very much. I realized that to be authentic, I had to be a gamer myself, and help parents who do not understand online gaming actually understand their children better.</p>
<p align="left">My gaming experiences are rather outdated now, but what I have learned about the virtual environment still has relevance for those parents who are rarely in the online world.</p>
<p align="left">I think one of the reasons why I found this project so meaningful was because we could help foster better communication between parents and their children. The lack of understanding regarding the nature of online gaming can cause them to drift further apart. Parents are afraid of their children becoming addicted and try to remedy the situation but imposing restrictions but in doing so, they can make things worse. And this can be quite heart-wrenching.</p>
<p align="left">Many parents didn’t know that they have to understand their kids’ attraction to games first <span class="st">– </span>what motivates them to keep on playing, what benefits they derive and what challenges they face.</p>
<h1>Q: What is it that parents need to understand?</h1>
<p align="left">We find parents lagging way behind in terms of their experience and understanding of these issues but that’s not surprising. The gap is even wider now because of new technology. Some parents may be on social media but they may not understand how children are using it.</p>
<p align="left">Take for example the definition of privacy. You ask teenagers if they believe in privacy and they’ll say yes, they do believe in privacy of information. But when you ask them for the definition of privacy, it’s different from what the adults think. For adults, it means not sharing information with strangers. For teens, it means you don’t share information with your parents!</p>
<h1 align="left">Q: What can teachers and parents do in this kind of situation?</h1>
<p align="left">Teachers and parents need better understanding of the online world in order to communicate with children, and with each other.</p>
<p align="left">Some counsellors we interviewed found that generally, parents are not sure what to do about the gaming habits of their children.</p>
<p align="left">For example, a father may believe that switching off the computer would solve the problem of excessive gaming, so he may say, “I’ve given you sufficient warning. If you’re still online after I count to 3, I’ll just pull out the plug!” So he pulls the plug while his son is in the middle of a game, or having a discussion with his friends. Of course, the boy will get very angry. In fact, some children may react violently. It’s not that they don’t respect their parents. They do, but at that moment, it’s an impulsive response.</p>
<p align="left">I think what teachers can do is to help parents understand these issues. And of course teachers must understand these issues themselves if they are to be a bridge between children and their parents.</p>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-center" style="color:#999999">
<p align="left">I think one of the reasons why I found this project so meaningful was because we could help foster better communication between parents and their children.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong>Angeline Khoo, </strong><i>Psychological Studies Academic Group</i></p>
</div>
<h1 align="left">Q: What kind of advice can you give to teachers and parents whose students and children are addicted to online gaming?</h1>
<p align="left">Parents shouldn’t try to stop their children from playing games. They must understand what motivates gamers, and what needs are being met through playing these games. I’m motivated to play because I have enjoyable experiences in the game. There’s a lot of social interaction, and I make new online friends. We may not meet face to face but the depth of our conversations show that such friendships are not inferior to real-life friendships. Only our avatars meet, but our avatars have taken on our identities. So if you think an avatar is just a pixelated character, you’re wrong!</p>
<p align="left">Not many parents understand that and think games are bad and try to stop their children from playing. Of course kids will rebel because they cannot give up what they enjoy, like friendship, teamwork, and the thrill of defeating a challenging enemy. Yes, games fulfil their need for social relationships as well as sense of accomplishment. Adults can learn a lot from games too. They can put into practice their leadership, conflict-management and problem-solving skills.</p>
<p align="left">Parents need to understand what the game means to their children and teachers can play a role in communicating this to parents. Help the kids exercise self-control. The key word is self-regulation. If you impose too many rules, they are all very external controls. The kids do not have ownership of the problem and will find it harder to take responsibility for their own actions.</p>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-right" style="color:#999999">
<p align="left">Parents need to understand what the game means to their children, and teachers can play a role in communicating this to parents.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong>Angeline </strong><i>on the role of teachers</i></p>
</div>
<p align="left">Help them exercise self-regulation, own the problem, and solve the issues themselves. This is not easy though. It takes a lot of time, patience and perseverance. Parents need to build rapport with their children because they will not want to listen to you if you do not have a warm relationship with them in the first place.</p>
<p align="left">The first step is for the kids to acknowledge that they have compromised some aspects of their lives because of too much online gaming. And you must have enough empathy before the children will acknowledge that their gaming habits are having detrimental effects on them.</p>
<p align="left">There needs to be a relationship that fosters negotiation and communication and this is possible only if there is an understanding and empathy. It’s all about parenting as every child is different. A lot depends on how much parents understand what works for their own kids.</p>
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		<title>21st Century Competencies: Learning to Learn</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2013/10/30/issue45-people/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue45-people</link>
					<comments>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2013/10/30/issue45-people/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Oct 2013 01:04:43 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[issue 45 nov / dec 2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[People]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Game-based learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teacher professionalism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=7707</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[That it’s crucial for our students to acquire 21st century competencies is something many teachers believe in. But [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><em>That it’s crucial for our students to acquire 21st century competencies is something many teachers believe in. But what can they do to help students acquire those competencies? What teaching strategies should they use?</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity: These four words were used by the Minister of Education Heng Swee Keat to describe the 21st century environment at the 2013 MOE Workplan Seminar.</p>
<p>The question of how schools and teachers can help students acquire the competencies to navigate this brave new world is being debated about not just in Singapore, but all over the world.</p>
<p>Representatives from 10 major cities in Asia and North America recently convened in Singapore to discuss this and other key issues in education. The meeting was organized by the <a href="https://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/global-cities-education-network" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Cities in Education Network (GCEN)</a> of the <a href="https://asiasociety.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Asia Society</a> (based in USA), and the <a href="https://moe.gov.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ministry of Education</a> and the <a href="https://www.nie.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Institute of Education</a> in Singapore.</p>
<p>As part of their activities in Singapore, GCEN invited renowned panelists to speak at the public symposium “Teaching and Assessing 21st CC: An International Perspective” on 9 October 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7652" alt="" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/People_GCEN1_for_web.jpg" width="400" height="203" /></p>
<p>The panelists are:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/ldh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Professor Linda Darling-Hammond</a>, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stanford University</a>, USA;</li>
<li>Ms Gen Ling Chang, Associate Director of the <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toronto District School Board</a>, Canada;</li>
<li>Mr Wong Siew Hoong, Deputy Director-General of Education (Curriculum) of the Ministry of Education, Singapore; and</li>
<li><a href="https://www.nie.edu.sg/profile/lee-sing-kong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Professor Lee Sing Kong</a>, Director of the National Institute of Education, Singapore.</li>
</ul>
<p>The audience of 370 educators and policymakers were treated to insightful discussions on how 21st century competencies should be taught and assessed. We bring you excerpts from the discussion on teaching strategies.</p>
<h1>Professor Linda Darling-Hammond</h1>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-right" style="color:#999999">
<p>There is knowledge that you need to master and understand, but yet, master it in a way aimed at using it to solve new problems, rather than to just forget at the end of the exam.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong><em>Linda Darling-Hammond</em></strong>, Charles E. Ducommun Professor, Stanford University</p>
</div>
<p>I think there is some consensus that more of certain strategies can be helpful. Engaging students in productive and well-designed collaborative work, using technologies for finding, analyzing and synthesizing information aimed at solving problems – that is, empowering the use of technology.</p>
<p>But I do think that there are competing ideas in practice. There’s a lot of furore over technology, about how some people are really using it like an electronic workbook, where the students are controlled by the technology. You see a lot of this, and it’s called 21st century learning because there’s a computer involved. But it’s actually not really about critical thinking and innovative skills. It’s the student being managed by the computer to fill out multiple choice questions, to master bits of information.</p>
<p>So we shouldn’t be confused by the presence of technology and whether it automatically means we’re pursuing 21st century skills, which should be the fluid ability to use tools, text resources, ideas to solve problems in a new space.</p>
<p>We’re learning to learn. I often quote two of my colleagues at Berkeley who have been studying the growth of knowledge. They found out that between 1999 and 2003, there was more new knowledge created around the world than in the entire history of the world. Human knowledge was doubling every 2 years at that time. It’s now doubling every year.</p>
<p>What that means is you can’t just take a curriculum and make sure the kids master a certain number of facts from there every year. Then, at the end of 12 years, we’d be done. They would be working with knowledge that hasn’t been invented yet, to solve problems that we can hardly envision, using technologies that don’t yet exist. These need 21st century skills.</p>
<p>Computers are a way to access information. If you can Google it, the real question becomes, do you need to memorize it then? That’s a good debate and we should engage in it. I’m not saying, throw away the facts. There is knowledge that you need to master and understand, but yet, master it in a way aimed at using it to solve new problems, rather than to just forget at the end of the exam. So I think that’s one of the areas where learning has to be continually focused on: the use of that knowledge.</p>
<h1>Ms Gen Ling Chang</h1>
<p>Technology is a fascinating thing. We look at the use of technology as a learning device. You can use it as a substitution tool or you can use it to augment learning capacity. It’s two very different concepts. When we begin to look at that, we see a “participation gap”. A student could use social media forum to engineer and influence debate and discourse, while another student uses Twitter to talk about what Lady Gaga wears. Two very different use of a learning device: that’s a participation gap.</p>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-left" style="color:#999999">
<p>Technology is a fascinating thing. We look at the use of technology as a learning device.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong><em>Gen Ling Chang</em></strong>, Associate Director, Toronto District School Board</p>
</div>
<p>
So what is the role of our schools? We begin to develop what we call the general learning skills for kids, where we teach them how to harvest information relative to their purpose, how to curate, archive and use them without plagiarizing. That is a whole new set of skills.</p>
<p>There are kids who sit at the computer for 2 hours and they don’t do their assignment because they’re navigating YouTube which is so fascinating to them. They listen to one speaker after another and when the next assignment comes up, they do the same thing because they’ve not learned the skills or capacities.</p>
<p>I’m just giving you an idea of how far more complex the work of a teacher is as we move forward in developing the 21st century competencies.</p>
<h1>Mr Wong Siew Hoong</h1>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-right" style="color:#999999">
<p>What I’m very sure of is that we need to move away from very traditional pedagogies.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong><em>Wong Siew Hoong</em></strong>, Deputy Director-General of Education (Curriculum), Ministry of Education</p>
</div>
<p>I echo Ms Chang’s view, which is that teaching has become a lot more complex.</p>
<p>What I’m very sure about pedagogy for 21st century competencies is that it can’t be didactic. The days of teachers standing in front and delivering a set of ideas and knowledge to students, that is no longer relevant. This is because of technology and also how knowledge is now freely available. So what I’m very sure of is that we need to move away from very traditional pedagogies.</p>
<p>And that’s where the whole array of different pedagogies might then be applied. That’s where the complexities of teaching have begun to complicate our lives as teachers. Because as teachers we have to think, “Which pedagogy is the most relevant to my subject area?” And it’s not just about teaching a set of ideas, but a set of skills related to those ideas that can bring students forward in the 21st century.</p>
<p>My proposition is therefore that our teachers, all of us in teaching, must be ready to apply within the classroom a wider repertoire of pedagogies.</p>
<h1>Professor Lee Sing Kong</h1>
<p>Teaching in the 21st century is not easy, it’s a very challenging task! For professors teaching in universities, the moment they begin to speak about a certain topic, the students are way ahead of them because they’ve already Googled the topic. In fact, they’ll be asking the professor questions which may stump him or her.</p>
<p>I believe many children in our schools are also like that. I describe the students in our schools today as EPIC learners (who learn in ways that are experiential, participatory, image-driven and connected to the world).</p>
<p>I think the key is, teachers must capitalize on the learning profile of our children. Teachers must understand who our students are, and how they prefer to learn. That’s why I totally support the idea that NIE continues to inculcate in our teachers the belief that we must teach our students to learn how to learn.</p>
<p>Knowledge is freely available. What you think you have given them, they can find it in many other places. We must facilitate their learning so that they know what knowledge to look for. That’s why one of the outcomes we want to achieve is self-directed learning.</p>
<div class="shortcode-block-quote-center" style="color:#999999">
<p>I think the key is, teachers must capitalize on the learning profile of our children.</p>
<p>&#8211; <strong><em>Lee Sing Kong</em></strong>, Director, National Institute of Education</p>
</div>
<p>The other part is, students love to work as a group, either physically or virtually. So, in schools, we must learn to tolerate noise. In the past, when we talk about didactic teaching, the quieter the classroom is, the better it is. Today, I think it is the opposite. We must tolerate noise simply because we want to encourage our students to talk, to collaborate and in the process, to learn.</p>
<p>Teachers today are facing a very strong challenge when it comes to how to teach. But the greatest importance of a teacher today is to understand your students well. Different groups learn differently. Once you understand your students well, you can adopt an appropriate approach. It is really no more a one-model-fixes-all situation.</p>
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		<title>The World at Your Fingertips</title>
		<link>https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2013/08/30/issue44-classroom02/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=issue44-classroom02</link>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[singteach]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Aug 2013 01:43:20 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Issues]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[issue 44 sep / oct 2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classroom Perspectives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inquiry-based learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Self-directed learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geography]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humanities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classroom communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blended learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secondary school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critical thinking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Experiential learning]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://singteach.nie.edu.sg?p=7104</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[It was once almost impossible to study live volcanoes in the classroom, but students in Nan Hua High [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><i>It was once almost impossible to study live volcanoes in the classroom, but students in Nan Hua High School are doing it. Using the online 3D globe, Google Earth, they can now travel the world virtually during their Geography class in search of volcanoes and other natural landforms.</i></strong></p>
<p>“Where are you bringing us today?” is a question often heard during Geography lessons in <a href="https://www.nanhuahigh.moe.edu.sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nan Hua High School.</a> For teacher Mdm Wendy Lim, this question is music to her ears. It is a strong indicator that her students are excited to learn more. How does she pique their interest in Geography?</p>
<h1></h1>
<h1><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-7124 alignleft" alt="" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/GoogleEarth02_for_web.jpg" width="218" height="325" />Conceptual versus Real Understanding</h1>
<p>It all started when Wendy was in university. “I did a paper on how glaciers were formed and got an ‘A’ for it!”</p>
<p>But what she knew about glaciers was merely conceptual. It wasn’t till she encountered glaciers for the first time in New Zealand that she realized this.</p>
<p>“It was when I saw the glacier with my own eyes that I realized that knowing the theory does not provide the real understanding that actual experience brings,” she shares. “I couldn’t comprehend the immensity of it – I could actually walk on the glacier!”</p>
<p>In the classroom, students are far removed from the natural world. Wendy feels that this may limit their imagination, as well as their learning. “A lot of times, we have the concepts but only limited understanding,” she says.</p>
<p>Living in the urban city-state of Singapore, her students often have difficulty imagining the scale of certain landforms (such as volcanoes and mountains), and this sometimes leads them to have inaccurate ideas of these landforms.</p>
<p>To address this, Wendy and her three colleagues decided to create an integrated learning package, which introduces <a href="https://www.google.com/earth/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Earth</a> into their Geography lessons. They believe that the use of this virtual globe browser will enrich students’ learning and understanding of Geography.</p>
<div class="message-box-wrapper yellow">
<div class="message-box-title">What is Google Earth?</div>
<div class="message-box-content">
<p>Google Earth is a free Web application that features a 3D globe, map and geographical information that users can download onto their computer. With Google Earth, users can virtually transport themselves to any part of the world with just a click and view live images of the location, which are obtained from satellite and aerial photography.</p>
<p>You can download Google Earth at: <a href="https://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<h1>Overcoming Physical Constraints</h1>
<p>Through the application, Wendy can “transport” her Secondary 2 students to a natural landform in another country.</p>
<p>Students are taught how to use the application’s tools, such as the <i>ruler </i>tool, which lets them measure the length of a volcano crater, for example. The <i>historical image </i>tool<i> </i>allows users to see how a mountain has changed over the years by dragging the cursor along a timeline.</p>
<p>“They also study the interrelationship between the human and the physical environment – how human interact with the landform,” Wendy says. Students can even tour the landform. This can be done using the <i>street view </i>tool.</p>
<p>The students were amused when they discovered that they could even walk inside the crater itself. “This allows them to see how huge the volcano is and make observations on the landform.”</p>
<p>At the end of each lesson, students hand in their worksheets that are filled with their research findings from Google Earth.</p>
<p><a href="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/GoogleEarth01_for_web.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7123" alt="" src="https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/GoogleEarth01_for_web.jpg" width="400" height="274" /></a></p>
<h1>Technology for Learning</h1>
<p>To develop a culture of sharing, Wendy created a <a href="https://www.facebook.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> page for her Geography class where her students upload their class assignments.</p>
<p>“The objective for this learning package is to enhance students’ self-directed learning,” she adds. “Facebook allows a lot of sharing and collaboration.”</p>
<p>Students can offer suggestions or ask questions by commenting on their classmates’ posts about their research findings. They also share their findings by presenting in class using the Facebook group. This way, they can learn about other real-life landforms that their classmates have studied.</p>
<p>Both Google Earth and Facebook have opened up great learning possibilities for Wendy as well as for her students. “Technology has changed the way students learn and the way teachers teach.”</p>
<p>For research, she points her students to useful online resources. But to ensure that they understand what they are doing, she encourages her students to write and present their findings in their own words.</p>
<p>The students are also given inquiry questions which help guide them on what they should post on Facebook. “Students sometimes need to be taught how to post the right things and that is the challenging part.”</p>
<p>Wendy knows her students are on the right learning track when the number of questions they ask during lessons increases. “They ask good questions like: ‘Do all mountains only have one crater?’”</p>
<p>Through such an inquiry approach combined with technology, these students are well on their way to an endless discovery of the world beyond their classroom.</p>
<p><strong>Useful Resource<br />
</strong></p>
<p>She presented her paper “Bringing Earth into the Classroom” at the <a href="https://conference.nie.edu.sg/2013/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Redesigning Pedagogy Conference 2013</a>. For more articles about the conference, see <a href="https://singteach.nie.edu.sgcategory/issues/issue43-jul-aug2013/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Issue 43</a> of <i>SingTeach</i>.</p>
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