Put away e-devices in class? No way!

09 Jan 2017

The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2017 - Article featured the new initiatives among the polys to make lessons fun and engaging. SP’s 3D food printer at the Food Innovation and Resource Centre was featured in the article. The machine squeezes food out, layer by layer, to form custom shapes. SP’s Diploma in Food Science and Technology student Danielle Wong, shared that food printing allows her to formulate customised food and recipes for each target consumer. Danielle has used the machine to print soya pulp cookies and mentioned that the printer makes food fun and allows her to experiment. At TP, students taking the Diploma in Game Design and Development uses “gamification” – the use of gaming elements in non-game scenarios - in their lessons. The aim is to get students to be more actively engaged in their own learning, rather than passively consuming content. After a year of research funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE), gamification will be officially re-launched in April and TP hopes to implement it in all classrooms by the end of this year. At RP, a Swivl robot, used to help take video recordings of lecturers and student presenters in classrooms, has been turning heads. It received the Silver Innergy Award from MOE in 2015. The robot - which has a round rotating base capable of propping up a tablet device - swivels so the tablet faces and takes video recordings of the person who is speaking. A Diploma in Sports Coaching said that the robot has helped him improve his presentation skills. Over at NYP, more diploma courses have been incorporating virtual reality technology into their curriculum. Its engineering students, for instance, can use a 3D immersive virtual reality software to simulate airport operations such as maintenance checks on aircraft. From April, NP’s School of InfoComm Technology classrooms in the new Smart Learning Spaces @ NP will boast facial recognition sensors to track students' attendance. Interactive whiteboards will also allow lecture notes to be transferred directly to students' tablets.