Archive for July 2009
Why blog?
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 31, 2009
Different people blog for different reasons.
I started blogging in March 2004, a few months before the birth of my son, as a record of what it was like to grow up. That’s right, I blogged as my son and I still do. I also maintain other blogs as the real me and each blog represents [...]
Obsolete textbooks and approaches
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 30, 2009
Textbooks are out of date as soon as they get printed. So why do we still rely on them so much?
My guess is that most of us know no other way or we place a false sense of security on their reliability. I’ve blogged about what I think of textbooks before so I shan’t elaborate [...]
Ground up
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 28, 2009
I have been assigned as a facilitator for next semester’s Group Endeavours for Service Learning (GESL) in NIE. This will be the third time I am doing this.
I blog about this because some things have changed since I first facilitated a service learning group three years ago. For one thing, GESL has a subscription to [...]
Multitouch gameplay
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 27, 2009
Video source
It was only a matter of time for someone to come up with a proper multitouch game.
Holographic gesturing
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 25, 2009
When Samsung made a product announcement recently, they decided to use the latest eye candy.
Video source
I would love to see students using this technology to create presentations, interactive works of art or music, or anything else for that matter in the not too distant future!
What do you see?
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 24, 2009
Video source
I’ll admit that I did not know what this year’s National Day Parade theme song (above) was because I don’t watch MediaCrap/MediocreCorp TV. I listened to and watched mrbrown’s remix first as soon as it was released (below) and then decided to look for the original.
[...]
Chris Lehmann
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 23, 2009
Video source
Some of my favourite quotes from the video:
We teach kids, not subjects.
School is real life, not preparation for real life.
Technology needs to be like oxygen: Ubiquitous, necessary and invisible.
Other Lehmann presentations via SlideShare are here. I’m certain he has moved past the rhetoric and got into gear. How about the rest of us?
Schools kill creativity
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 22, 2009
[Video source][Original TED talk]
I hate IWBs
Posted by: ashleytan on: July 20, 2009
… because they are not truly interactive white boards.
Normally the only one interacting with them is the teacher. More often than not, the type of interaction is limited to the vain attempt to deliver information (the same information that is often better learned by other means) in a flashy manner. I think that IWBs promote [...]
