Lim, Kenneth Yang Teck

This paper reports on the pilot study of a doctoral thesis which focuses on how the social software of the mobile internet, such as text messaging and picture messaging, is used by teenagers in the process of constructing negotiated and shared understandings of unfamiliar environments in which they find themselves. To this end, the study was constructed such that students were given opportunities to collaboratively explore and navigate unfamiliar environments using the technologies of the mobile internet, as well as to engage in debate, and use multimedia evidence recorded in the field to defend their positions both to peers in the field and in the classroom, regarding various issues of concern to these environments, with specific links being made to their studies in geography

This study describes data that was gathered in 2004 from fieldwork conducted by students from four schools in Singapore, around tasks of wayfinding and debate. The fieldwork tasks were designed specifically to permit participants to exercise their powers of observation, as opposed to more traditional tasks of collection of empirical data.

To this end, the study was constructed such that students were given opportunities to collaboratively explore and navigate unfamiliar environments using text- and picture-messaging, as well as to engage in debate, and use multimedia evidence recorded in the field to defend their positions both to peers in the field and in the classroom, regarding various issues of concern to these environments, with specific links being made to their studies in geography.

The data was used to shed light on those elements in urban and suburban environments which adolescents in Singapore find geographically meaningful, as well as to determine the extent to which such interventions might augment students’ spatial intelligence, with a view to informing a more effective geography education programme in schools. The nature of the collaborative discourse which emerged as participants engaged in the intervention was also investigated, using a proprietary taxonomy of discourse types.

This thesis is grounded in neo-Vygotskyian socio-cultural activity theory. Primary findings include the suggestion that key elements in adolescents’ local environments used to orientate and to convey spatial information are axial lines and buildings. The data also reveals differences between the genders in their preference for text over pictures in conveying such information. Adolescents who are more successful in participating in and applying spatial discourse also tend to exhibit certain habits of mind, such as perseverance, as well as to scaffold their exchanges more. Finally, the study suggests that certain fieldwork interventions can indeed augment spatial intelligence and mapping skills.

This article provides an overview of research in the Learning Sciences from a Design Research perspective, as it has been framed in Singapore by the National Institute of Education (NIE). The initial research agenda is considered in the light of challenges and the subsequent re-casting of objectives, based on the working out of a tripartite relationship between the NIE, the Ministry of Education, and local schools. A conceptual model is proposed as an attempt to provide structure for new research interventions going forward.

This paper presents an initial analysis of data obtained from an implementation of citizenship education using the videogame Space Station Leonis in two Singapore classrooms. The paper highlights the importance of citizenship education today and describes how game environments can be used to foster identity construction as part of the broader agenda of citizenship education in Singapore. The data presented comprises a series of t-tests which were run between pre- and post-test questionnaires on attitudes related to civic consciousness and citizehsnhip administered to seventy-seven students who participated in the design intervention. Analysis of the results suggests that such participation can result in significant and positive changes in attitudes of relevance to various aspects of citizenship.

The Structured Academic Controversy was developed in the United States by Johnson and Johnson as a way of developing in students an appreciation of multiple perspectives of an issue. Much of the time, the exercise is conducted in a face-to-face group setting in a classroom. This paper explores Structured Academic Controversy in an out-of-class situation and is used in enhancing fieldwork in social studies. It describes a pilot study involving a class of secondary school students in Singapore, in which they were required to use the strategy of the Structured Academic Controversy to analyse socio-economic issues pertaining to several field sites. Pairs of students conducted their collaborative investigations in real-time while still in the field, using modem technologies of text- and picture-messaging.

In this paper, a framework for facilitating effective and targeted planning and design of learning environments within Second Life and other similar virtual worlds and environments will be shared. A possible scenario faced by school-leaders and teachers, with respect to thinking about incorporating virtual worlds as a complementary pedagogical strategy alongside traditional classroom environments is first described and then the Six Learnings framework will then be elaborated upon, including its use discussed as a metric against which such learning interventions can be planned and subsequently evaluated.

This project describes the trialling of a new form of cooperative learning strategy, in the form of a game known as EcoRangers. EcoRangers is a multi‐player game designed to run on mobile phones, written specifically for education. EcoRangers is one of the first, if not the world's first, instances of this totally new genre of pedagogical tools (i.e. collaborative handheld educational games). In its current iteration EcoRangers is designed to help students practise skills of relevance to the social studies syllabus for Grades 9 and 10 in Singapore's education system, specifically through the pedagogical strategy known as the ‘structured academic controversy’, in which learners debate an open‐ended problem from a variety of perspectives. The trialling was done in three secondary schools, among 50 Grade 9 students. These students were taken through two distinct fieldwork tasks in March–July 2004, with the game being introduced as part of a post‐fieldwork activity.

This project describes the trialling of a new form of cooperative learning strategy, in the form of a game known as EcoRangers. EcoRangers is a multi-player game, designed to run on handphones, written specifically for education. EcoRangers is one of the first, if not the world’s first, instances of this totally new genre of pedagogical tools (ie, collaborative handheld educational games). In its current iteration, EcoRangers is designed to help pupils practise skills of relevance to the Upper Secondary Social Studies syllabus, specifically through the pedagogical strategy known as the Structured Academic Controversy, in which learners debate an open-ended problem from a variety of perspectives. The trialling was done in Fuchun Secondary School, among twenty Secondary Three pupils from the Express stream. These pupils were taken through two distinct fieldwork tasks in March and April 2004, with the game being introduced as part of a post-fieldwork activity.

This paper describes the results of a study involving about a hundred adolescents from various Secondary Schools in Singapore in 2004. Subjects were tasked with two complementary tasks in the field, and they worked in pairs to navigate a given route, and also to subsequently engage in a debate about an issue pertaining to the same neighbourhood, using text - and picture-messaging technologies. The paper references an earlier pilot study carried out that same year with a separate, smaller, group of students. The results of the study are analysed with a view to informing more effective classroom practice, specifically when teaching map-reading, and, more generally, in collaborative learning environments as a whole.