Singapore schools participate in first national inter-school blogging competition
and 20 secondary schools entered the final round of this competition
where their blogs were evaluated in terms of the depth and clarity of
thought as well as the creativity of presentation by a panel.
Some 18,00 unique votes were cast by online readers for the school blogs.
This is the good part. The Ministry of Education said, “It
is also an excellent example of how mobile and Internet technology can
connect various groups of people. We believe teachers, students and
online readers of the school blogs have all gained from the
perspectives of the student bloggers on a myriad of issues.” It was jointly organized by the Education Ministry and Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), the country’s biggest player in the telecoms market.
Good quote from Dr Tan Seng Chee, Assistant Director, MOE Educational Technology Division. He said: “When
we blog, we write to a real audience, to someone out there who might be
reading and, most importantly, responding to our blogs. Through this we learn new ideas, gain new perspectives, and learn to appreciate alternative views.”
“I
hope our participants have also learnt that because we are writing to a
real audience, what we say has a real impact. We have to be sensitive
to the feelings of others and be responsible. If not, we could hurt others unknowingly. Even in the face of new technologies, our moral judgments should still be key.”
Victoria Junior College and Nanyang Girls’ High School emerged as the champions. The school blogs can be read at Campus MoBlog.
Take some time and read through some of these blogs. These students are
really blogging their thinking and there are many intriguing reads. I will
be back to these blogs to read some more.
Check out Rage Against the Machine,
written by one of the high school students. (You’ll need to scroll down
the page to see the post.) Here’s her ending for the post:
“Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety
deserves neither liberty nor safety,” said Benjamin Franklin.
I think he’d have made a monster of a teenager.
Great ending to a really thoughtful post.
December 21st, 2005 at 8:35 am
Dean Shareski has just emailed me, following this post, suggesting an international Edublog Student Award - it’d be a great project to set up for this summer don’t you think? I would want you and Stephen on the advisory board!
December 21st, 2005 at 8:35 am
Dean Shareski has just emailed me, following this post, suggesting an international Edublog Student Award - it’d be a great project to set up for this summer don’t you think? I would want you and Stephen on the advisory board!