Lesson101 Overview

This is dedicated to my niece Ke Yun. I plan to create a series of Internet lesson to bring her into the best the world ever give us... .INTERNET.

There are 3 key lessons planned

1. Communication
2. Collaboration
3. Search

With these 3 skillsets, she will start her journey with ease, hopefully :)

Welcome to Internet World!!

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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 A bit old but never outdated :)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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Unique Physics Class by MIT Professor

Just come across this 70 year old Physics Professor Walter Lewin youtube.com training video. He brings the experiment to the class to illustrate Physics Laws seamlessly. A very interesting and unique way of teaching Physics. He shares his passion of "performing" the experiment in class; rehearse seriously 3 times for each experiment, 10 days before the class. He has many fans watching his video around the world. More than 1,800 classes recorded to-date. I recommend you to start with "Wonder and Beauty of Teaching Physics", an hour long video. Enjoy, you will not regret! Pls also recommend to any young soul in Malaysia who likes Physics. They will not want to sit in any local University Physics lecture any more after watching Walter Lewin. :)

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Books online by Google

Another great contribution back to Society by Google. This is a scanned book collection online site. Do not miss this free online book service (not whole book though) and hope this can last forever. Recent Google's groundbreak agreement with authors/publishers shows sign of hope for global free books vision! But, US Justice Dept seems will not want to let go... So, grab it before it disappears.. ;-)

Students can use this site to look for old books that are good at explaining subject theory & principle. Take note that Maths/Physic/Biology/Chemistry basic theory & principle will never change and old books will still rock! Fiction collections are good for leisure time too.

Enjoy this site

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Entrepreneurial worker for 21st Century

I am taking this Hari Raya holidays to re-read my favorite Management book of "The Essential Drucker". One interesteing topic that I would like to bring up for discussion is about Entrepreneurial workers in 21st century defined by Drucker. It is amazing that he has started talking about Entrepreneurial Worker (after Knowledge Worker) during 2001 time frame. Knowledge worker is the one who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace. Specialization is the key attribute. Here is a good intro about Knowledge Worker for your reading pleasure. Whereas the Enterpreneurial worker is about one who having the ability to re-learn new skill/knowledge every 5-10 years.

I believe Malaysia Education ministry is matching towards building knowledge workforce but will realize the skillsets are obsolete and irrelevant by the time it is fully rolled out (2010-Developed Nation Vision?). In fact, current curriculum is still exam oriented with a small flavor of IT learning (limit to searching info via Internet for school project & learning PC tools usage only). It is even far from achieving Knowledge society! Knowledge society is like 20th century kind of buzz word but we need to prepare our next generation to face the challenge in 21st century. I believe that Entrepreneurial workforce wave is already arriving now. Internet & Mobile/Wireless & Electronic Appliance trends/technologies are driving the change faster than we can imagine. We should super charge our education curriculum to Entrepreneurial Education instead of still aiming at Knowledge Education. School is no more for kid & young children, it should open for adults too.

Imagine what will happen to our country when we are running out of lucrative income of Nature Oil and we are low productivity on Agriculture due to primitive Techniques and Methods. Imagine further with a workforce that are not able to re-learn and use new skills/knowledge to survive. Yeah, you see the BIG picture now. So, my dear Education Minister, pls work hard and make a bold change for a better next generation future now. Yes, NOW.

To role model, I will start changing my Internet Education for school student plan to encapsule the re-learning principle. For a start, I just need to change my site catchy theme to LRL Learn to Re-Learn. :)

Have a nice Hari Raya Holidays!!

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Removing English for Science & Math - who win now?

Though this government MOE decision does not really related to our Internet Education discussion, but I just like to write a few lines to share my view as a Malaysian. The vision of using English to teach Science/Math is always right. Maybe the timing of doing it is not right. Maybe the English teaching resource is not sufficient. Maybe... a lot of maybe but this is one policy rolled out by Dr Mahathir that has my full support.

English medium books/publication/magazine/etc in Science/Math is extensive and easily available in shops and internet. US/Euro are still the key driver of science/technology trend/direction. You need to know english to tap into this mega information source else you will be out-dated and left out. Our future generation focus will be Innovation, Innovation & Innovation. That is why, Dr M says that reversal of this policy will make Malaysian stupid... more stupid to be exact. Frankly speaking, the execution is flaw and nothing to do with policy.

6 years of bad implementation with many reasons and under a lot of clan/society pressure to change. So, MOH has to change to reflect they listen to people now. How about using mother tongue language in Primary for Science/Math, Malay in Secondary and then English in University? Everyone happy? No, not us. I believe our kids will have difficulty to cope with it especially with current batch of primary/secondary students (affect most). And also believe that this kind of education system is going to be the first in the world. Yeah, first of the worst one. I bet, this will change again in coming 6 years.....

Visit our Mr-M site collecting people vote.
Visit Malaysian Insider news on this topic
I am having difficulty to find out official MOH English news on this....... most likely they have not ready to interact with Internet Users yet... Try this You will be impressed on the quality of this site.
Pls join in the fun for my blog POLL too!!

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Taiwan Nobel Winner's view on Education

Mr Lee Yuan Ze, Taiwan 1986 Chemistry Nobel Winner, pointed out his education belief in Sin Chew news paper 9th Jun recently. As a successful scientist, his view is worth as reference for Malaysia Education Ministry to reflect on. Education can not be equated to Training. Training is about repeatedly learning/practice by student till perfect. Education is about nurturing student the ability to solve problems. Obviously student with exploring/query nature will encounter setback to grow in our current school setup. Our school is providing Training curriculum system and not Education curriculum system!

What do you think? Do you think our next generation can make it in 21st Century? Check out IKIM views by Nik Roskiman Abdul Samad This proves that our education system has flaws. We just do not have enough leadership to make the change.....

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Learning about International School Education Vision/Goal

On 19 Jun 2009, I have an opportunity to help my Russian Colleague to register with 1 of the best International Schools in Penang, Uplands. This International School deploys UK curriculum for foreign children whose parents are working in Penang. They teach kids Life Values and essential softskills like Inquiry, Thinking & Communication.
I am lucky to have a chance to visit this school and talk to 1 of their UK teachers. Inside a small class room (max student of 15), it is pasted with many posters of softskill projects and value descriptions. Below is an introduction into its Primary Years of Program (PYP) which has designed a transdisciplinary curriculum which draws the individual disciplines together into a coherent whole, while preserving the essence of each subject. Children will:
•develop a deep understanding of important concepts
•conduct research into knowledge which has local and global significance
•acquire and practice a range of essential skills
•be encouraged to develop positive attitudes towards learning, the environment and other people.
•have the opportunity for involvement in responsible action and social service.

The most impressive to me is the Programme of Inquiry at Uplands which seeks to produce learners with the following profile: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-minded, Caring, Risk-takers, Balanced & Reflective. It customizes learning experience for all profile of students.


Just to make this sharing complete, I also have done a google search of another International School in Penang, Dalat which deploys US curriculum. It uses Christian Bible to teach values as well as imparting other key essential soft skills. Thinking skill is one of the focus. Below is highlight of its vision/goals

EDUCATION FOR LIFE - Dalat International School seeks to teach children in areas that go beyond books and academics. Education for Life is the pursuit of training the next generation to be people of good character, integrity and care for others that will prepare them to make a positive impact on the world in any area they choose to work and live in.

Dalat educational goals are:

• to call students to Christian discipleship through the systematic teaching of the Bible within a Christcentered learning community and through the modeling and personal involvement of staff members,
• to provide students with the skills and experiences they will need, within the context of an American college preparatory education, for pursuing the vocation into which God will lead them,
• to enable students to think logically, independently, and creatively and to see learning as a lifelong process that transcends cultural bounds, and
• to encourage students toward a life focus of offering their best efforts to God in all that they do in response to His unceasing love and personal concern for each individual. Through this process, biblical leadership principles and skills will be developed for service in a multicultural world.

I believe what Malaysians miss out in our education system is the practice of INQUIRY, THINKING & COMMUNICATION soft skills via subject learning. Over here, it is over emphasize of repeat practice to gain great score for each subjects. It denies the student from the opportunity of exploring, inquiring, thinking and expressing it out/loud. Maybe we should build a voluntary teaching task force to supplement our education system. By doing so, our next generation has better hope to compete at a global stage. Do u agree?

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Let's your kid Imagination Blossoms....

There are a few good and free sites that your kids can rely on to build their ARTistic Creativity and Innovation .

1. Kerpoof Studio: This website is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company. Kerpoof is all about having fun, discovering things, and being creative. Here are just a few ways that you can use Kerpoof: Make artwork, Make an animated movie, Make a printed card, t-shirt, or mug & etc. The site is designed with many library set to make your movie creation fun and easy. Enjoy!
2. Adobe Photoshop Express: This is a free online photoshop version that your kid should try out their photo creativity. If it is Adobe, you can trust the quality of photo editing features. What more? New 2GB home for your photo absolutely FREE!
3. more to come ....

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Data Privacy Day ... 28 Jan....

Intel, the main sponsor of Data Privacy Day, is promoting privacy awareness and education among teens across the United States. Data Privacy Day also serves the important purpose of furthering international collaboration and cooperation around privacy issues. If you have teen between 12-17 who surf internet regularly and enjoy social networking services (Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc), you should educate them about how to protect the privacy of their personal information online. Please visit this site to check out useful information from "Educational Material" and "Links and Resource" sections.


Share the video clips available at this site and below quick privacy tips with kids and help them make smart choices in using the Internet:

1. Think before you post. Just about anyone can access, use, and forward the information you share online.


2. Respect the privacy of others. Don’t post photos or information that you wouldn’t post about yourself.


3. Use privacy settings to control access to your information online.


4. Don’t share your personal information—including passwords—with anyone.


5. Don’t accept “friends” you don’t know in the real world, and NEVER agree to meet anyone in person you have only “met” online

You may like to check out Wired Safety with your kids as well to learn about Internet Safety. Have fun!

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Xpert Technologies Virtual Classroom

An online teaching & learning resource designed for the needs of primary school teachers and children is now available in Malaysia. Xpert Technologies brings in @School system designed by Andrew Whiteman in 2000. The benefit of @School is that the education resource library is reliable and rich. The site design is reasonably easy to navigate and content claimed to be eye catching and interactive (only subscriber can access the content and I am not :) ).

It is worth checking out for teachers who just want to focus on teaching online and leave the content creation to the expert. Most importantly, the cost is low RM83 per month for school and RM17 a month for home use.

http://xpertech.my/
http://www.atschool.co.uk/

If you are the subscriber, let me know if they are as good as claimed.

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Malaysia MOE is deploying Intel Teach Programme

Based on 24 Nov 2008 Star newspaper news, Intel Teach programme was introduced in Malaysia in 2000, about 50,000 local teachers have been trained under this programme todate. Since 2005, MOE has been working with companies like Intel to help provide training and equipment to teachers and schools. Intel is hoping that this programme will help teachers enhance their educating skills by integrating technology into their lesson plan. Teachers are taught how to engage their students more effectively and to help them develop creative and critical thinking skills. This is achieved through project-based and problem-based approaches with the help of technology.

The only concern after reading this news is that after 8 years of rolling out this programme, how successful has this programme been implemented so far? MOE has not provided any detail info/result of this programme at all. I do not hear any of such programmes roll out in schools in Penang either. Maybe only for selected few and do it quietly. :) If we are talking about creative and critical thinking skills, it has to be extensive, involve all schools and must start from young.

Anyway, this pretty inline with what I intend to do for Malaysia. I may have to find out how I can help to fill the remaining gap from Intel contact then. Stay tuned... I will be back!

For detail, please read Star news.
For detail, please read Intel Teach programme

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Free Edutainment Software - want or not?

It is time for year end school holiday in Malaysia. It is also the time of high inflation, bad economy and for us to be cautious in our spending. I believe parents need to save $$ on games for kids. You can burn these free edutainment games for them as a gift in coming Christmas & New Year. A bit cheap right? What to do, tell the kids life is tough in coming years and take the opportunity to explain some economic concepts to them... :)

My 10 year old daughter and I take up the challenge and go around scouting out some free and best software for your reference. I select and she plays. Check it out!

Here are our favorite great/free Educatainment games.

1. My Wonderful World : It is a National Geographic-led campaign—backed by a coalition of national business and non-profit organizations to expand geographic learning in school, at home, and in communities. Their vision is to give kids the power of global knowledge. It is a great site for kids that like Geography and curious about our world. Online games teach them about Languages, Art, Music, Adventure and more. Best of all, this site has a simple 10 steps guide for parents and educators to bridge our kids' geography gap. From convincing your kids why Geography is important in daily life to exploring the world with online Atlas/Map and 2D/3D earth view tools. From getting to know the world by playing games to connecting your kids with oversea kids via collaborative projects. You will feel that World is So Small! My 5 stars site.
2. Kaboose Fun School: It needs ShockWave player to play. Full of many fun educational games for kids. "Globe rider" category brings you the fun of exploring our world and outer space. I personally like the hot air ballon game for learning about the countries around the globe with their wonderful land mark . Other categories like "Time Warp", "Formula Fusion" & "Fun Blaster Arcade" are worth checking it out. One unique feature of this site is that it has Interactive Quiz at some of the categories helping your kids to revise their encyclopedia knowledge. Even parents find it difficult to score full points. :) Should challenge your kid to try it out and reward them for getting good result. On top of this great stuff, there is a section for parents/educators. There are some guides on building your kids brain power, praise honesty and more. You should not miss it. Others like "Family Activities Games" and "FunSchool Printable" are worth trying out together with your kids too. My and my dauther 5 stars site,
3. Gcompris: You can download the software for Window and Linux OS. Window version will have less games to play. The reason is that it is promoting Open Source and expecting usage is on Linux OS instead of Window OS. You have to pay to play all the games for Window version. The package contains more than 100 games. Suitable for kids Age 2-10. and it is available in 40 languages. Glad to note that it has Indonesia version which is Malay Language suitable for Malay Kids. Frankly, I feel that Gcompris games are more suitable for Nursery and Kindergarden kids instead of Schooling ones. You judge it yourself!
4. Jumpstart: You need to register to play. This is a very establish company in edutainment software, worth trying out.
5. Yahoo Game: It is a mega site for kids. Also including Music, Movies, Horoscope, etc for kids. Good quality of games, especially those from Arcade & Movie/TV category. Even parents can enjoy it. Must try.
6. Sesame Street: Some of us grow up with this TV program as well. Great for pre-school kids. Guarantee educational.
7. Barbie for Girls It is a fast and rich in content and multimedia effect site for girl. A pretty site for pretty girl. Your girl will sure learn a lot about how to get prettier here. :)
8. Disney Playhouse for Asia : It is a professional multimedia site for kids, but sometimes I do find that it is too flashy and distracting. It also slows down the access a lot. No good for low broadband connection though. It is suitable for small kids of age 3-8.
9. .....Enough for now. Will add in new stuff from time to time. Do let me know if your favourite edutainment sites are not listed here.

MegaLinks (not really edutainment):

1. John Rice 10 Free Edutainment Software : Has a good compilation of educational games for you to check it out.
2. SchoolForge Edutainment Collection : Free downloadable software links. Great for those like to play offline.
3. Wikiepedia on Educational Games
4. Google Directory for Games: Mega directory linking to games avaialbe in the internet. It will take your life time to try out all the games here. Not worth wasting your life! Just zoom into your favourite categoy and stick to some of the great ones. For kids/teenagers, please check this out.
5. HotBeam Encyclopedia: Aside from providing online encyclopedia, it also provide in depth search about anything in the world that you want to know. No kidding. Picture and video are also available to enrich your learning experience. My 5 star Learning Reference.

Just in case, this is your first time hear about Edutainment. Here is the definition from Wikipedia. Have fun.

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Tips on social networking with your school-age kids

I am republishing an interesting blog written by Becky Emmett for Malaysian parents here. She is sharing with us ways to connect with our kids in this internet era. Some parents may disagree and still prefer the traditional way of face to face communication. Anyhow, I feel that both ways are as important and are mutually inclusive. Feel free to comment or add more ways you seem necessary :)

BTW, you can also retrieve this full blog from here. Enjoy your reading!
Kids all over the world are back in school now and spending more and more time on their PCs, mobile devices, and cell phones communicating with their friends.
If you’re a parent, you might wonder if you’ll see much of your kids between now and the next summer break. A recent study showed that 93% of teens are online daily and 34% visit the Internet multiple times each day.
Obviously there is no substitute for interacting with your kids face-to-face. I happen to believe that no piece of gadgetry or software or social networking can possibly take the place of meals together or family activities.
But to help parents stay connected with their kids in additional ways, I’ve put together some tips. Do you have other ideas? Please use the comments box below to share your thoughts.
Social networking: I see this as a chance to learn—in a different way—about your child’s life outside of the home. What movies, music, or books are they talking about? Who are their friends? If you haven’t already, you can create your own personal page and share it with your kids. You may have more in common than you thought!

1. Social networking sites also help teach kids the importance of weighing what you share publicly. Kids should think twice about posting things (or, obviously, doing things!) that would make a parent flip—or scare off a potential boss. Facebook and MySpace are among the most widely used social networking sites.
2. Texting and instant messaging: LOL, OMG, BRB. Do you know what these acronyms mean? Texting on a cell phone or instant messaging on your PC is an easy way to keep in touch real time–when your student is at the library, in the dorm room, or walking to and from class. Some of the most common text services are AIM and MSN.
3. Blogging: Set up your own blog. I think this is a great way to let your kids learn more about what you’re thinking about and interested in. You can also suggest a blog to your child. And don’t just read it: Respond. Give feedback. Dispense your friendly parental wisdom. But remember, of course, that blog comments are not always private. To create your own blog, visit www.blogger.com/start or blog.com/.
4. Micro blogging: Set up a Twitter or Plurk account to give and receive real-time updates in 120 words or less on your PC, cell phone, or mobile Internet device. This can sometimes be quicker and easier than e-mail or a phone call. Twitter, Plurk, and similar services allow instant communication. Most sites let you decide who can receive your updates so you don’t have to share them with the world. To sign up for a Twitter account, visit https://twitter.com/signup. To sign up for a Plurk account, visit www.plurk.com/Users/showRegister.
5. Home cooking: Is your child cooking for him- or herself for the first time? Give your college student a break from Top Ramen. E-mail or scan recipes, and then post them to your blog, send them via e-mail or enter them onto an online cookbook, such as My Cookbook. To sign up for a My Cookbook account, visit www.mycookbook.com/
6. Video sharing: If your kids are heading off to college, consider posting your home videos online on sites such as YouTube.com. A variety of video hosting sites are available—just search the Internet to find the site that you prefer. And of course it works both ways—your youngster can post his or her school videos for you to watch. To sign up for a YouTube account, visit www.youtube.com/signup?next=/.
7. Free calls: Skype is a great deal. It lets you keep in touch with your college student via free PC-to-PC calling. If you both have laptops with webcams, you can see your student and his or her surroundings in real time as you chat. To sign up for a Skype account, visit www.skype.com/welcomeback/.

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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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Where are the Open Source Courses?

This concept of Open Course is not new and started 6-8 years back in US. Famous university like MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has lead the effort of creating free online courses for everyone 6 years back. Enabling the free learning for those not affordable/qualified to study in these famous oversea universities. It is the open sharing of quality knowledge with the world that is admirable. Open Course concept is pretty similar to Open Source in the software world. And, it is the trend that we Malaysian can embrace and tap into. You do not even need to spend single $ to get your child to learn from the best. Pls catch this Open Course train fast! :)

I manage to scout some Open Course sites for your reference. Use them wisely! Share with anyone you know!

(1) MIT Open Courseware (OCW) :

First OCW site that I use many years back. I like the vision of "Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds". It is so touching, holy and admirable. Letting everyone to access freely to MIT IP. I can't believe it when I first encounter with this site recently!

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT. They disclaims the followings:

• OCW is not an MIT education.
• OCW does not grant degrees or certificates.
• OCW does not provide access to MIT faculty.
• Materials may not reflect entire content of the course.

Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration required. MIT OCW contains University and High School courses. High School courses cover Biology, Chemistry, Computers and Electronics, Engineering, Foreign Languages, Math, Media, Music and The Arts, Physical Education, Physics and Social Sciences and Writing and Literature. As for University courses, it consists of standard univerisity classes in departments like Architecture, Engineering, Science, Art, Management, etc. It has total 1800 courses and still growing. You can find each course's Syllabus, Calendar, Lecture Notes, Assignments, Exams, Vidoe Lectures and Course Material just like attending classroom training.

One key strength of this open course is that the lectures/trainers are very experience expert in their own field and well known around the globe. The course material is FREE and of highest standard. What else can we ask for?

You need to dowload Real Player & Adobe Reader to access to its course material. Have fun.

Other University OCW URL available at OCW Consortium

(2) Open Stanford on iTunes University

Standard iTunes University's vision is Stanford to go. In your home, In your car. In your pocket. Bring the learning experience to your convenience, anytime anywhere. COOL!

This Open Course is Stanford University pilot project with Apple, beginning in the spring of 2004, to deliver supplemental course content to registered students using iTunes. They realized that the same platform would be an elegant and cost-effective way to deliver Stanford content to alumni and the public as well. The project has proven to be a great fit between Stanford and Apple. Apple provides Standford with an intuitive and broadscale method for distribution, as well as the storage and bandwidth for our content. Standford focus on the content quality.

Standford not only covers standard U classes from department like Science and Technology, Arts and Humanities, Business, Law and Politics, Communication and Media, Health and Medicine, etc., it provides essential university info like Campus Life, Travel study, What's new and etc.. It is a real U on iTune.

Standford courses give you a different perspective in learning. You can choose to listen to it or view it or read the pdf presentation file. You can download them to your iTune player to play them anytime anywhere you like. They skip the detail traditional university curriculum study which emphasizes on curriculum, assignment, reference, exam and etc.. Pretty cool concept of giving the learning pleasure back to the student. Standford is working on Podcast subscription model now so that downloading the course material can be automatic, making the learning a breeze.

You need to download Apple iTune software to access to its course material. Have fun.

(3) Open Learning Initiative by Carnegie Mellon University
CMU called its OCW as Open learning. It does not register to OCW Consortium. I therefore mention it here as a separate university effort. OLI focuses on science, maths, statistic and engineering courses. The site UI is intuative, virtual lab for chemical class is unique and fun, Statistics course comes with StatTutor tool supporting your statistical problem solving, many more special course features enhancing your online learning experience. This site is worth take a look!

Accessing the site is pretty much web based but you may need to download QuickTime software to access some of its multimedia material.

(4) Open Yale Courses (just cut the introduction note from site....will add more comment if possible later :))

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.
Open Yale Courses reflects the values of a liberal arts education. Yale's philosophy of teaching and learning begins with the aim of training a broadly based, highly disciplined intellect without specifying in advance how that intellect will be used. This approach goes beyond the acquisition of facts and concepts to cultivate skills and habits of rigorous, independent thought: the ability to analyze, to ask the next question, and to begin the search for an answer.
We hope the lectures and other course materials on this site will be a resource for critical thinking, creative imagination, and intellectual exploration. All lectures were recorded in the Yale College classroom and are available in video, audio, and text transcript format. Registration is not required and no course credit is available.


Final Note:
So far only encounter a few different OCW presentations & approaches sites, will add more as I come across new and interesting OCW in the future. If you happen to know others, do let me know. Hope you enjoy this collection for you.

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Bookmark these Government Education Sites

I believe you may be interested to see the world ministry of education (MOE) sites consolidated in 1 single page. If you know any link that is not here yet, do sent it to me. Feel free to feedback how you feel about the site. Give me the star rating too; 1 star being the worst and 5 star is the best.

I hope we can take this opportunity to peek into a nation's education vision/culture/system/etc. via their official government site. We can learn from one another strengths, cultivate healthy competition and become much better from generation to generation. Enjoy!



DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (IMF Advanced Economy List)

1. Australia : Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
2. Germany : Increasing Germany's innovative power, creating secure jobs, enhancing the quality of education
3. Luxembourg : Not an English site, try to figure out yourself.
4. Slovenia
5. Austria
6. Greece : Guess this is greek official education site. Let me know if it is not.
7. Malta Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth & Sport
8. South Korea : Education for the future. Science and technology towards the future.
9. Belgium
10. Hong Kong : Education Bureau of the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR)
11. Netherlands : Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
12. Spain
13. Canada : Council of Ministers of Education in Canada.
14. Iceland
15. New Zealand : Building a world-leading education system that equips all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills, and values to be successful citizens in the 21st century.
16. Sweden
17. Cyprus : Not an English site.
18. Ireland
19. Norway : Another official Norway Education site in US
20. Switzerland : only can get to know Switzerland Education via Foreign Affair site. Interesting. Another Study in Switzerland info site that you may be of interest.
21. Denmark
22. Israel
23. Portugal
24. Taiwan
25. Finland : Ministry of Education is responsible for developing educational, science, cultural, sport and youth policies and international cooperation in these fields.
26. Italy : Not an English site. Closer that we can have are http://www.study-in-italy.it/ & http://www.euroeducation.net/prof/italco.htm
27. San Marino : Cann't find 1 official site....
28. United Kingdom : Building Brighter Futures. Please read their purpose. Hat's off for their kid friendly site and 1 of the grand vision (make children and young people happy and healthy). Many nations loose sight of the fundamental goal of education in competiting for world best nation. British Council, another world class english education site that most of us familiar or grow up with.
29. France : Not an English site. It is time to learn French Language.
30. Japan : Education, foundation, for better society and life
31. Singapore
32. United States : U.S. Department of Education (ED.gov) : Promoting educational excellence for all Americans

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (IMF World Economic Outlook Report 2008 - most of LDC is included here as well)

1. Afghanistan
2. Albania
3. Algeria
4. Angola
5. Antigua and Barbuda
6. Argentina
7. Armenia
8. Azerbaijan
9. Bahamas
10. Bahrain
11. Bangladesh
12. Barbados
13. Belarus
14. Belize
15. Benin
16. Bhutan
17. Bolivia
18. Botswana
19. Bosnia and Herzegovina
20. Brazil
21. Brunei Darussalam
22. Bulgaria
23. Burkina Faso
24. Burundi
25. Cambodia
26. Cameroon
27. Cape Verde
28. Central African Republic
29. Chad
30. Chile
31. China : One more related education & research site from China for your reference.
32. Colombia
33. Comoros
34. Democratic Republic of the Congo
35. Republic of the Congo
36. Costa Rica
37. Côte d'Ivoire
38. Croatia
39. Czech Republic
40. Djibouti
41. Dominica
42. Dominican Republic
43. Ecuador
44. Egypt
45. El Salvador
46. Equatorial Guinea
47. Estonia
48. Eritrea
49. Ethiopia
50. Fiji
51. Gabon
52. Gambia
53. Georgia
54. Ghana
55. Grenada
56. Guatemala
57. Guinea
58. Guinea-Bissau
59. Guyana
60. Haiti
61. Honduras
62. Hungary
63. India
64. Indonesia : Let me know if there is any English version around. Thank god that I learn Bahasa Malaysia during my school days in Malaysia. :)
65. Iran
66. Iraq
67. Jamaica
68. Jordan
69. Kazakhstan
70. Kenya
71. Kiribati
72. Kuwait
73. Kyrgyzstan
74. Laos
75. Latvia
76. Lebanon
77. Lesotho
78. Liberia
79. Libya
80. Lithuania
81. Republic of Macedonia
82. Madagascar
83. Malawi
84. Malaysia : Visit also World Education Indicator site, a project for Malaysia collects data from the various agencies involved in training and education.
85. Maldives
86. Mali
87. Mauritania
88. Mauritius
89. Mexico
90. Moldova
91. Mongolia
92. Montenegro
93. Morocco
94. Mozambique
95. Myanmar
96. Namibia
97. Nepal
98. Nicaragua
99. Niger
100. Nigeria
101. Oman
102. Pakistan
103. Panama
104. Papua New Guinea
105. Paraguay
106. Peru
107. Philippines
108. Poland
109. Qatar
110. Romania
111. Russia
112. Rwanda
113. Samoa
114. São Tomé and Príncipe
115. Saudi Arabia
116. Senegal
117. Serbia
118. Seychelles
119. Sierra Leone
120. Slovakia
121. Solomon Islands
122. Somalia
123. South Africa
124. Sri Lanka
125. Saint Kitts and Nevis
126. Saint Lucia
127. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
128. Sudan
129. Suriname
130. Swaziland
131. Syria
132. Tajikistan
133. Tanzania
134. Thailand
135. Timor-Leste
136. Togo
137. Tonga
138. Trinidad and Tobago
139. Tunisia
140. Turkey
141. Turkmenistan
142. Uganda
143. Ukraine
144. United Arab Emirates
145. Uruguay
146. Uzbekistan
147. Vanuatu
148. Venezuela
149. Vietnam
150. Yemen
151. Zambia
152. Zimbabwe

LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (Wiki - most of them appear in IMF Developing countries list above) : Angola, Benin , Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Yemen, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu & Haiti.

During the search, come across some interesting mega sites like

1. Europe Cultural Profile
2. Portal to the World
3. European Youth Portal : About Studying, Working, Volunteering & Travelling in Europe.
4. Wiki on Education : A MUST SEE site for anyone interested in Education business :)
5. more...

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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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