W6 ICT Committee Professional Development Seminar 2015 – 24 April 2015

This year’s W6 Cluster Schools ICT Committee Professional Development Seminar was held at Jurong Secondary School from 2:00 to 5:00 pm on 24 April 2015, Friday. The seminar was open to cluster schools.  The seminar is an annual event which sought to achieve the following objectives: (a) Develop reflective practitioners who are informed by good practices; (b) Provide a structured platform for practitioners to share their insights and experiences; & (c) Create opportunities for innovative use of ICT in education. 

The keynote address, entitled “Application of Gamification to Improve Student Engagement”, to be delivered by A/P Ben Leong from National University of Singapore. Currently he is also the Director of Experimental Systems & Technology Laboratory, MOE.  He shared how gamification was first successfully employed a few years ago to significantly improve the engagement of students for a programming class. Subsequently, a gamified learning management platform called Coursemology. Thiswas developed by NUS and currently in use at NUS and several local schools.  He also shared the design considerations and some examples of Coursemology being used in class.

Teachers from the W6 Cluster Schools were invited to present their ICT practices and findings in the concurrent presentation sessions.  Teachers from Beacon Primary, Assumption English, Greenridge Secondary, Jurong Secondary, Zhenghua Secondary, and Nanyang Girls’ High also presented and shared their innovative teaching practices at the seminar.  In total, there were 10 concurrent sessions. 

More than 200 teachers from the cluster schools attended the seminar.  The seminar also received much good and positive feedback. 

 

 

Microsoft Excel and OneNote Workshop for Teachers from the Cluster Schools

The committee also organised a series of 3 Microsoft workshops – Microsoft Excel Intermediate and Advanced and Microsoft OneNote Advanced from April to May 2015. The workshops attracted more than 60 participants. The workshops were conducted at Beacon Primary School, Jurong Junior College and Zhenghua Secondary School.