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Mr Kwan 

__ICT__- Information and Communication Technology __LMS__- Learning Management System __Web 2.0__- A term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. __Cyberwellness__- A holistic term which encompasses not only concerns around safety and security online, but also considers people's psychological and emotional well being, along with stage of development with specific regard to the range of issues that may affect children and young people in their use of new mobile and internet technologies 1. I use the Internet to search for information and details of my research and projects. I, too, use handphones and telephones to communicate with my friends and my family. Technology can improve on some aspects of education, such as watching videos and presentations to express some facts. Technology can also make learning more interesting and enjoyable. However, we must remain focused when learning. 2. Microsoft Office programmes such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint and the Internet are some of the applications and softwares that I use frequently in school. I am not really proficient in some complicated uses of the Microsoft Office, but I do know the basics on how to use it. 3. Teachers can teach the pupils more clearly and easily through LMS, and it benefits students like me too. Teachers also have more control in monitoring and managing training of the pupils as well. The platform is useful for asynchronous learning as it aids pupils with slow learning ability and when we need help, it is easy to solve problems for pupils with difficulties. 4. Computer gaming are starting to get more and more appealing. Due to impressive graphics and sound, motion controllers which make game play very realistic and the rare opportunity to compete with other players online compared to the past, gaming is very addictive. Gaming online is more dangerous as computers are more prone to viruses and spy ware. Nefarious beings would do harm to people on the Internet, especially online games which include chat rooms. However, there is a wide range of online games, compared to a limited amount of games one can play off line. Some online games are more violent than offline ones, but maybe others are much more interesting than the off line games. Educational online games have a wider range of subjects tested and sometimes have a lot more of them coming up in the future. Thus there would be more and more educational online games coming up for kids. Some of the addictive online games would do much more harn than in helping a kid improve his studies. Thus not all online games are appropriate for all ages, especially younger children. 5. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and its hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. Thus, Web 2.0 allows me to do more than to retrieve information from Web2.0 websites. I can own the data and exercise control over it. Web 2.0 websites offer a rich, user-friendly interface for users just like me. 6. I can communicate with my fellow project mates on the Internet itself without having us need to meet up somewhere. Not only can we communicate with each other through the phone, we can also use applications like MSN and other chat rooms. This facilitates instant communication. Softwares like Microsoft Powerpoint, Web design and video editing helps me to improve on my use of technology and I can actually learn more from the tutorials of the softwares. 7. Technology advancement nowadays is getting better. Robotics is a good way to start if one wants to know and learn technology and its uses through Robotics. Learning that what some sensors and parts for and their structures helps one in education. Learning Robotics is tedious, but fun too. People from all walks of life can come together to compete. Cooperating with friends also adds fun to the learning of Robotics. 8. I understand quite a lot on cyberwellness through handbooks given out to raise the awareness of it. People who spend so much time online have a social life with their virtual characters that they seem to be absolutely impervious to the real world around them. Excessive gaming and Internet relationships may go out of hand and even parents cannot control their children. A lot of people surrounding the 'victim' would be affected seriously if Cyberwellness is not empathized and taken note of. We should embrace the inspirational use of the Internet as technology can improve the society, only when used appropriately. 9. Technology would be so advanced that textbooks would be wiped out and replaced by mini laptops, engaging in learning. Current future schools in Singapore is definitely better than older ones, but the expenditure for such schools are really high, thus there are still many schools not as advanced in terms of technology than others. Technology now is a bit of education, but however due to more upgrades and softwares, technology may be everything in education in the next 50 years. The availability of the latest and fastest computers and hardwares are important for learning to take place, but the percentile is not really too high for now. 10. 21st Century skills are such as Life and Career skills, Learning and Innovative skills and Information, Media and technology skills. Yes, because these skills are important when the pupils come out to the society to work in the later part of their lives and triumph in the global skills race.

By Jarrett Yeo Shan Wei, 6R

Message from Mr Kwan: Thanks Jarrett! Your thoughts are very insightful. We will discuss again next Monday :) 

By Naomi Shirlyn & Jaclyn Chong 6U

1) ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology. First of all, we use the internet to complete our E-learning tasks assigned by our respective teachers. We also use the internet as a tool for research of any sort. Not to forget, now, since being the period after the PSLE, we will surf the internet and play online games to de-stress and wind down. Occasionally, we will make use of the internet to check our messages on our emails. The mobile phone has become an essential part of our daily lives judging the fact that both of us have a handphone each. Communication has become much more convenient with the help of them. Our take on the relationship between technology and education: The advanced technology these days has helped teachers to be able to assign homework to us students more conveniently using E-learning on the internet. We can easily do the tasks on the Internet and at the same time it saves paper too. Moreover, we do not need reference books now, as we can easily get the information that we need on the Internet. This saves the much time that we need from flipping through the thick reference books to find only a specific information that we need. Thus, we feel that technology is quite useful in our education.

2) We use Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, etc, in the school computer laboratory. We are not very proficient in Microsoft Office applications but we are receptive in learning more about it. However, we do know the fundamentals in these Microsoft Office applications.

3) LMS stands for Learning Management System. We use the school's LMS to do the E-learning tasks assigned by our teachers conveniently. We believe that it is a useful platform to do asynchronous learning as we can learn at our own pace if we are self-disciplined enough to do so. It can also increase our knowledge and skills easily.

4) If a person with the right attitude and discipline plays games, it is a good way to de-stress and wind down. However, gaming can be addictive and if the person plays impulsive and violent games, it will affect the social and emotional development of the person and it may even be hazardous to the person's health. Instead we should play educational, or simply not violent games to de-stress and wind down after a brainstorming day at school. Playing violent and impulsive games can impact our learning in the sense that the person will become recessive, and will always be in his or hers own world of games, and will not pay attention in class. Thus, his or hers grades will drop drastically. When we play educational games however, it can improve our thinking, problem-solving skills and hand-to-eye coordination.

5) Definition of Web 2.0 : a term describing changing trends in the use of world wide web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity,secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 applications are very attractive for teachers and learners as wikis, blogs and social bookmarking are now commonly used in learning. Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information. Users can exercise control over the data.

6) Infomation and Communication Technology has helped us a lot especially when faced with problems in Project Work such as IPW. The Internet has really made our job easier as we can access the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia to do our research. In addition to that we can chat on Hotmail or Gmail so that we do not need to meet up at each others homes to do our project work just like what we have been doing all this while. As for the PowerPoint, Web design and Video editing, it has really helped us. In our few years in Rulang Primary School, the school has worked tirelessly, inculcating in us the positive values of IT. There was once that the school invited an external vendor to teach us some fundamentals on video editing where we gained a lot of experience. We really thank our teachers for allowing us to have this opportunity to learn these skills, as presenting our Project Work has been much easier.Not to forget, when each of us participated in the National Junior Robotics Competition we used these skills to present our research too!

7) As both of us were in the CCA, Robotics, we feel that Robotics in education has been very meaningful and useful. We have learned how to program the robot and design it. This is very tedious, especially designing the robot, as we have to design the robot in such a way that it will be able to meet the requirements and complete the tasks that it needs to do during the competitions. However, this has improved our thinking and problem-solving skills. Robotics has indeed added much fun and value to learning. Through Robotics, we have made many new friends or it has simply strengthened our bonds with our friends, just like the both of us. You could say we were not very close friends before the NJRC competition, and even more, we were in different teams, but when both of our teams had any problems, we would inquire one another. That's how the both of us became close friends. Within our own teams, we have gone through hardship, the joy when we get rewarded with a prize, and so on. All in all, Robotics sure does add value and fun to learning!  8)Well, in our point of view, Cyberwellness is about the youth being a major concern in society today with the emergence of Internet related crimes such as theft, piracy, etc. In our opinion, the social impacts will most probably be youngsters ending up mixing with improper company or maybe ending up shoplifting or being addicted to drugs. For the moral impacts, we think that these group of youngsters will be detached from the family and act strangely towards family members. They maybe feel indifferent towards family problems and not be obedient towards their parents commands.

9) We have the vision that the future primary schools will have long eradicated the process of handing out homework in the form of papers but instead they will assign us all our homework for the day through the E-learning portal. In addition to that, maybe we would not need to come to school as the lessons would be held even though we would be able to attend it in the comfort of our homes as the lesson would be held via a web camera. Should that ever happen, we must have the correct attitude and discipline to attend the lesson readily in our own comfort zone. Our view on the current future schools in Singapore: We hope that the new, upcoming future schools will be entirely based on IT and would make use of laptops as textbooks. This would encourage us to go to the pupils of that school as their school satchel would not be so heavy. We do not agree to the fact that technology is EVERYTHINHG in education. Some people who are not as fortunate as we are and those who come from low-income families are doing very well in terms of education. This tells us that even the use of other resources help us in in our education. We may not retrieve the needed information as fast as when we use the computer but we must admit that using references such as encyclopedias and britanicas, the information retrieved would be of higher quality. It does not depend on what the brand of the computer or laptop is, nonetheless, we would still retrieve the very same quality of information. Of course, we must admit that we are extremely greedy for the computer which when we use, delivers our information at the highest velocity possible.

10) The 21st Century skills are: The Partnership for the 21st Century Skills has developed a unified, collective vision for 21st century learning that can be used to strengthen the education system here. In our opinion, some schools are applying these skills to their students with different methods of teaching while other schools are not. However, our school has taught us very well in this area. We are really very thankful to them for allowing us to have this opportunity. Message from Mr Kwan: Thanks girls  ! Great stuff. We will discuss again next Monday :) 
 * Creativity and innovation
 * Critical thinking and problem solving
 * Communication
 * Collaboration
 * Information literacy
 * Media literacy
 * ICT literacy
 * Flexibility and adaptability
 * Initiative and self-direction
 * Social and cross-cultural skills
 * Productivity and accountability
 * Leadership and responsibility

1. I use the Internet to play, chat, do tasks from our teachers on the E-Learning. I also use the Internet for do research for my projects and my work. The technology has made learning more interesting by improving the aspects of education, such as using presentations to express some facts to help pupils learn better. Technology also helped teachers to assign homework to us more conveniently using E-learning on the Internet. This way, it can save the time and paper which are important to us. We can use the Internet to search for more detailed and updated information for our work, study and research. Thus, I feel that technology is useful and helpful for our education.

2. I used Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, etc, in the school computer laboratory. I am not very proficient at all Microsoft Office applications but i still know the basics for most of them.

3. I make use of the school's LMS to do the E-learning tasks assigned by my teachers. LMS can also help teachers to teach the pupils more clearly and easily. The platform is useful for asynchronous learning as we can learn at our own pace thus pupils can increase their knowledge and skills.

4. According to studies by scientists, people who play games are normally more alert and more clever. But, playing too much games will make us addictive thus decreasing our health. We can play games to destress ourselves but not for addictive purpose. Only educational games are good for learning as they increase our knowledge and skills for our education.

5. I don't know what is Web 2.0 as i have never heard about it before. The Internet can give us detailed information for our studies. We can receive tasks by our teachers through the Internet thus the Internet is a learning tool.

6. It can help me to discuss my project work with my teammates online. It can also help to give information on the topic i want. It can make my project more presentable and better. They can also help me improve my skills for this softwares.

7. Robotics is good for our education as we can learn science through Robotics. The robots also make the pupils more interested thus making the pupils learn science through it.

8. Handbooks given out by my school allowed me to understand Cyberwellness. People who spend so much time online will become so addicted that they are oblivious to the world around them. Too much gaming may go out of hand that even parents cannot control their children. This may cause the people around the child to be affected if Cyberwellness is not emphasized.

9. Every pupil will have a mini laptop thus saving paper by reducing the use of textbooks and worksheets. The classrooms will also have a better and faster Internet so that the pupils and teachers can receive items from each other faster. As future schools are expensive to build, there may not be as many future schools to normal schools. Technology is not everything in education but after many improvements, technology will be everything in education. The availability of the latest and fastest computers and hardware is important for learning to take place.  10. The 21st Century skills are Life and Career skills, Learning and Innovative skills and Information, Media and technology skills, etc.. I think schools are teaching these skills to students as when we go out to society, these skills are extremely important. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">By: Glen Lye 6L

= = 1. The Internet is an essential source of information and has became an important part in the lives of everybody, including me. The Internet helped me to complete my project and assignments efficiently and I am able to source for informations easily. Be it searching for musics, downloading games or chatting with friends around the world, I am able to do it with a click of a button. Handphones and the e-mail has also helped us to communicate with people around the world in a matter of a few secoonds. It is definitely better than writing letters. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Education, it no longer gives the impression of books and worksheets. But, it actually involves the Internet and the computer. Technology has improve the education tremendously. Pupils will be able to learn presentation skills and researching skills through technology. teachers could ask students to look for information themselves in the Internet as pupils will usually be curious and excied to use the computer. there is also a greater source of information.

2. I use the Microsoft Office application such as the Internet, Excel, Powerpoint and more. I am not very proficient in these applications but I do know how to use the basic functions.

3.I made use of the school's LMS to do my e-learning assigned by my teahers. Teachers could also use it as a guide to teach the pupils so as they can understand clearly. I believe that it is a useful platform.

By: Bill Lim 6L

1. My day to day use of ICT is mostly based on chatting with friends and relatives and searching for answers for the questions my family or myself have been thinking about. Sometimes i also use the internet to play games be it online or with myself and i also use the internet to complete tasks like assignments on the E-Learning portal my teacher gives us. My take on the relationship between technology and education is that technology helps us learn faster as there are information provided by professors or scientists whichcan give us extra information on the subject we are searching about.

2. I have used many softwares in the school like the microsoft office applications, lectora, movie maker and even animation softwares. I am not that proficient in the microsoft officr applications but i do know the basic functions.

3. I use the LMS to do my assignments on the E-Learning portal and teachers can also teach the subject more clearly and make the lessons more fun by making games but in certain levels of the game it has to do with either maths, english or even science. It is a very useful and important platform.

4. I think gaming online or offline is fun and stress-relieving. Although it is fun, we must have a limit if not we will get addicted and when we get addicted we would lose interest in our studies and our grades will drop.

5. No i do not know what Web 2.0 is. the internet provides us with more detailed information for our studies or questions we ourselves are curious about.

6. We can meet up with our friends online and chat about our ideas and use some of the best isdeas in our project work. These softwares improve my knowledge with technologie and it can make our projects better.

7. I think robotics in education is also a great idea. Pupils would be fascinated by the robot and have the interest in it and would pay more attention to the lesson.

8. I understand more or less about cyberwellness. The person would get so addicted that they are oblivious to the world around them and sonmetimes thier parents cannot even control them and this might also lead to cyber bullying.

9.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">By: Chan Yu Siang 6L

1. We call up our friends to check up on homework using the help of ICT. We also complete homework efficiently by checking up facts on the internet. Teachers assign homework to us using the e-learning portal too. Technology certainly facilitated learning tremendously. When researching for certain topics, instead of flipping the thick reference books page by page, the answer is just a click away.

2. Lectora, Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint etc. are some of the softwares I used in the school computer laboratory. Although I am not that proficient in Microsoft Excel, I am quite proficient in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Powerpoint.

3. School LMS platform is equipped with interactive personalised lessons which enables us to learn effectively. It is a useful platform to do asynchronous learning as it benefits pupils who like to use the computer to do their own learning.

4. Gaming could be spilt into both addicting and non-addicting. Addicting games could lead you astray and lure you into the world of games. In the world of games, homework is nothing, the most impoortant thing in life is games and only games. Non-addicting games is a better choice to addicting games, at least you would not neglect your studies.

5. I know what is Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. web 2.0 websites have a very user-friendly interface where we can own and excercise control over data.

6. We can not stay 24 hours in the school. Thus, there is only a limited time we can discuss our project. With the help of ICT, we can discuss the project at anytime, anywhere. There is no limit to it the time we can discuss on the project. PowerPoint, Web Design, Video Editing add value to our learning by equiping us with knowledge to be applied for different projects. I had applied my skills on web design during a web design competition. This is a good sign that shows that things we had learnt could be applied in our daily lives.

7. Being in the Robotics CCA gives me an upper hand in the newest technology. Robotics enhances our thinking and problem solving skills. Simultaneously, its strengthen bonds between friends or rather teamates. We are grouped in a group of mostly pupils from different classes. Thus, during the competition or even the process of preparing for it, we became good friends. Thus, robotics not only equips us with skills of programming the robot and building it, it also benefits us in the aspect of social networking.

8. Cyberwellness is a holistic term which encompasses not only concerns around safety and security online, but also considers people's psychological and emotional well being, along with stage of development with specific regard to the range of issues that may affect children and young people in their use of new mobile and internet technologies. If cyberwellness is being neglected, it could cause harm to young children. In cyber-world, children may feel ostracized or neglected when others type negative comments on their blogs etc.

9. I envisage a future primary school to be solely based on IT. A future school is supposed to be equipped with the newest hardware and software that would interest students to learn. Current future schools are just basics. Its a step out of the box. I believe that upcoming future schools would have better teaching modules that is based on IT only. The schools would also have newer equipment that is an essential to future schools. I do not believe that technology is EVERYTHING in education. But I believe that technology plays a key role in our education. The availability of the latest and fastest computers and hardware is not important for learning to take place. As when a latest computer or hardware is out in the market, there is still a lot of softwares that is not compatible with the new system. There is also some lapse in new systems that is just launched that requires the "guinea pigs" to test them out and feedback to them. Thus, instead of helping the students learn better, having the latest and fastest could not do any good to the students either.

10. 21st century skills comprises of leadership and responsibility etc. Yes, schools are teaching these skills to students. It is a must that schools teach students these skills as it is essential for the students to master them in order to survive in the global market.

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