iCTLT '10 Pre-Conference Learning Journey Day 1

Hi all,

It was an interesting day. Taking a break from the daily routine of life is always great! I went for two different trails, one to Hort Part and the other to Sungei Buloh. These trails were developed by iDA together with their industry partners.

Hort Park

HP was the industry partner who helped iDA develop the learning trail in Hort Part. They used HP iPAQ and GPS system to enable learning. Each of us were equipped with an iPAQ each. Each time I reach a location, the iPAQ should detect my location and load the correct content.


Honestly,I was disappointed with the learning trail. I would never recommend this trail to anyone.

Firstly, the iPAQ's screen was hard to see under sunlight. GPS is really unstable. Half the time we were just waiting for the iPAQ to prompt us of our location. In the end, we just switched the GPS off and manually indicated our location just to see the content.

Now, the most important thing about any trail is the content and pedagogy and this was where the trail left me wanting. The content was too simple and it wasn't up-to-date at all. Reason given was that Hort Park is still updating its displays. The content wasn't appealing at all. Too little information was given, the activities were just a simple MCQ question for each location.

I felt that more have to be done to improve on the content and use another form of technology before we should seriously consider Hort Park as a place for learning trails using technology.


Sungei Buloh

iCELL was iDA's industry partner for this trail. This trail was a much better one, given also the fact that this trail was developed a few years ago and it has been tried and tested by numerous schools.

For this trail, they used Intel Classmate as the learning device, 2D barcodes and Wifi for content downloads.

It was interesting as the 2D barcodes work very well and it is almost like a personal tour guide who will explain what we see there.

The only drawback was the Wifi. It was good for the most part but there were certain locations where I lost the signal. Like what one participant said, "With technology, you always need a back-up plan". How true...

Reflections

Although the trails were rather disappointing. I gained a lot by talking to the other participants, especially those from other countries. Through them, I got a brief insight into how they use IT in their country for teaching and learning. I talked mainly with an Australian teacher, Martin, who teaches Geography and doubles up as an IT coordinator of some sorts in a girl's school. Their school recently went 1-to-1 and thus they needed to block facebook access. I also met a South African Maths teacher.

I realized that actually, we are all going through the same path. Most are starting to integrate ICT into their curriculum with the emphasis of using IT as a support to learning and not an add-on. Most have problems trying to get the buy-in from teachers, especially from older teachers. It's interesting to see how different school try and get the buy-in from their teachers.

All in all, it was a rewarding experience talking and getting to know the other participants well.

Here's Martin's blog for those who are interested.

That's all for now, stay tuned for Day 2!