Parents who are new to Internet world...read this

This blog is dedicated to my dear 3rd sister. She is ready to venture into Internet World with her new notebook this year. Since She is not aware to many things about PC & Internet, I think it is better for me to provide her some basic guide for a good start. Internet is like a tropical jungle there, without a good "guide", people will get lost and may get engulf into different troubles. :)

About PC, here are the links to provide you the info

1. PC Basic


2. Computer Software Basic by Wikipedia.com

About Internet, here are the links will get you started

1. Internet 1o1 : This site show you how the Internet works. Show you where to get great software, reveal secrets of search engines and have your questions answered and problems solved. It claims to be the world’s most popular guide to the Internet and currently read in 96 countries! Must read.


2. Parents Guide to the Internet: This booklet is designed by US Department of Education to provide parents with basic information about how to use the computer to find information and communicate with others in Internet. A bit old but never outdated :)


3. A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety by US FBI. If FBI can't provide u with the best tips, who else? Maybe should go through this together with your children.


4. Internet safety: What parents need to know: Some key information to be safe at Internet by MSNBC.com. But, it seems that not much detail on "how-to". If u really want to follow all the steps, let me know, I can provide the detail "how-to" like which/how spyware & anti-virus application to install.


5. Child Safety on the Information Highway by safekids.com


6. Google's Tips for Online Safety : must read bec this is prepared by Our Internet Juggernaut. The SafeSearch feature is good but remember, if u know it, so do your children. :)

I call this Parent101 v1.0. Enjoy!

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Introducing Intel Education Initiative (IEI)

Intel Education Initiative site brings you very rich technology teaching techniques & resources that you can deploy in your school. I have compiled the site info into presentation slide so that I can share this with teachers when needed. It is a definitely a great site to start with for any school. The material suits students from Primary to Secondary and even into University.

I just want to draw your attention to some of the highlights of teaching materials/methods that deserved your attention, for now.

(1) Thinking tools designed for teachers to use are Visual Ranking (Identify and refine criteria for assigning ranking to a list; and then debate differences, reach consensus, and organize ideas), Seeing Reason (Investigate relationships in complex systems, creating maps that communicate understanding) and Showing Evidence (Construct well-reasoned arguments that are supported by evidence, using a visual framework). These tools lure students of all ages into thinking odyssey when participating in activities that require ranking choices, reasoning with cause and effect mindset and arguing with facts/data. You only need to adjust your topic/theme relevant and suitable to each age groups and the tool is there ready for you and your students. Most importantly, Intel has compiled a good set of examples to kick start your teaching journey.

(2) You will be spoilt with excellent 21st century teaching resources to use like "Designing Effective Projects", "An Innovation Odyssey (contains more than 350 stories of technology enriched projects from classrooms around the world) and "It's a Wild Ride" (an interdisciplinary project uses roller coaster design to engage students in math, science, and language arts).

(3) As a teacher you also find these student learning resources are useful to make you technology literate:
Technology Literacy ›Cultivate technology literacy and digital citizenship for students ages 11-15 with learning that is active, creative, exploratory, and collaborative.
Design and Discovery ›Interest youth in design and engineering with this free curriculum; it provides a hands-on, inquiry-based experience with identifying and designing creative solutions to everyday problems.
The Journey InsideSM ›Take an interactive journey to learn about what is inside your computer.
The Intel manufacturing process ›Resources for your students to learn about the science and process behind the microchips we use every day.
skoool* ›Media-rich resources free to students and teachers in Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Thailand, and Turkey, emphasizing math and science.

(4) Science & Math : It is a must try for teachers specializing in these subjects. Design Squad: An Intel sponsored PBS reality series for kids, parents, and educators. Discover how you can share your real-life excitement of engineering with your community through this program. Design and Discovery: A free curriculum that provides students with a hands-on, inquiry-based experience with identifying and designing creative solutions to everyday problems. Skoool.com : A free online resource designed to help secondary-level students understand and explore key science and mathematics concepts.

If you are still not convinced of the extensiveness of Intel commitment and contribution into education for the world. Check out Higher Education Program & Community Education too.

That's it. Have fun and remember to support Intel by buying their products :) :)

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Excellent Internet Education Sites by MNC

Before creating my training material and rolling out training in stages for teachers, it is good for teachers to start get their hands wet by toying around the resource in these education sites run by Multinational companies. They are free and of high quality:

1. Intel Skoool: It is a site sponsored by Intel Corp, leader in Processor/Chipset Design and Manufacturing business. This site provides an education framework focusing on Math & Science education only.
2. Oracle Education Foundation : It is a site sponsored by Oracle, leader in enterprise database applications/solutions. This site opens for School to register only to share the education resources. It covers all the posibble learning categories in the world. :)
3. Apple Education: It is a site sponsored by Apple. This site tries to create a framework around its iTunes Store for education. Stanford University is collaborating with Apple to leverage on this framework for Open Course project. You can download multimedia course material for free. Aside from Standford project, Apple itself also provide many free to affordable (US$1-US$9) education application for you. Check it out!
4. BBC Movie Making: It is a site sponsored by BBC for kid to learn making movie. It is called Me and My Movide. In fact, it is a fun site for all ages. On top of this, it has a mega link mother site http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/ that hooks you up with many high quality learning sites for almost everything that you can think of. Amazing!

Related to Non MNC run sites:

1. Nortel LearnIT: It is an initiative of Nortel Community Relations, non profit organiation to prepare teachers, students and learners of all ages to develop 21st century skills that will provide a basis for their ongoing engagement in learning and personal achievement. This site integrates technology into teaching/learning process iwth a wide variety of resources & practival guidesheets and with best parctice models/bodies of knowledge to share.
2. ....more...

Let me find time next round to walk you through these site in next blog. Stay tuned.

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Future Schools in Singapore

Just get back from Jun vacation in Singapore and eager to share with you on a piece of latest news about future school deployment in Singapore. Jane Ng, NST reporter had reported on 6 June that Beacon Primary school students traded in pencil/paper for Table PC. Beacon Primary is 1 of 5 schools that pioneer the future IT Concept School in Singapore.


Picture this: Wireless access everyway. Table PC for every students. 7 years old kids is using Microsoft Powerpoint for story writing, packed with images and voice recording for on demand access online. Peer Assessment on Chinese Oral Exam, i.e. 1 student reads/records a chinese passage and others will playback and give accessment.

These kids are also looking forward to School Virtual Learning Environment setup by EOY where they will be able to have Avatars setup representing themselves in the Virtual world. The Virtual environments (e.g Science Lab, Debate, Broadcasting) exploration will stimulate interests/funs in learning as well as spark creativity/innovation in our future generation. I believe under a proper control environment, Teacher can also provide guidance on what is right/wrong practice to these kids in virtual world. The students will not be "lost" when start stepping into the real Virtual world in the future.

Looking back at Malaysia Schools, I am not too sure how efficient the deployment is then. At most, it is enforcing some education tools usage at school, some student projects deployed online and some school teachers given notebook to teach only. It is far behind from Singapore Future School implementation by blending IT flawlessly with Learning.

So, You, Teacher, feel free to add your comment about Malaysia IT School implementation/prospect.

See this news online (not full version though): http://digital.asiaone.com/print/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20080608-69526.html
Singapore Official sites on future school updates: http://www.ida.gov.sg/InSG/Jun08/sr.html & http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2008/05/next-generation-technologies-f.php

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MyIEVision Training Roadmap

I can't wait any longer to share my detail plan with you.
Basically, I can break the whole training program into 3 stages.

1. Theory Trainings - How does PC/Internet work? What are these Internet terminology (VoIP, Email, Chat, IM, SMS, XML/HTML, Conferencing, Server/Client, 3D, Virtual World, etc) mean? What are Hot now in Internet World?, Etc.
2. Practical Trainings - Use Free/Open Source Internet Tools/Services available to achieve Content Generation, Communication & Collaboration learning objectives. Teacher can work with School to setup their own server or DIY.
3. Train the Trainer - Select teacher volunteer to be next batch of trainers for other teachers. This will leap frog the training program to achieve 100,000 teacher trained goal.

The teacher needs to be equipped with 1 PC/Notebook + Web Cam installed. That is all they need to catch this Internet Learning train :)

I would like to listen to teachers on their opinion of this training program. Is this make sense to you? What else do you need? Feel free to comment.

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Malaysia Internet Education Vision - MyIEVision

After a long long thought and deep research, it seems to be the most effective way to get Malaysia Internet Education widespread out is via Teaching our teachers. Enable them to deliver subject teaching easily via Internet technologies and free content resources. Hoping by doing so, they will be able to directly nurture our next generation students to embrace the Internet World challenges more confidently and readily. I believe, currently they are not properly trained to perform this internet teaching. Malaysia Education Ministry will defintely want to prove me wrong :)
My Vision is simple: To Train Malaysia Teachers (For FREE) To Deliver Best INTERNET LEARNING Experience In SCHOOL.


I have 5 year roadmap to turn 100,000 Malaysia teachers into Internet Expert at the end of 2012. Start with 1,000 target in 2009 and then 5,000 in 2010, 10,000 in 2011, 50,000 in 2012 and 100,000 in 2013. Train the trainer deployment from 10,000 pool in 2011 will help to achieve the quantum leap into 2013. 2008 is the year to focus on Training Curriculum generation, Training Tool setup, Internet Expert volunteers forming and many blogs creation for teachers to spark the awareness and get them excited for the Internet Teaching!

Will talk more on detail plan in next blog.

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