Tag: Tablet
[19 Jan 16] “Learning Business Smarts” – Skylace featured in Straits Times
COMPETING with over 2,000 tuition and language schools across Singapore, Skylace Language School had to think out of the box to stay ahead of the pack.
In 2004, it created a learning aid called Wisdom Cards — a set of flash cards to help its students recognise Chinese words and enhance their oral skills.
“Our students often don’t have time to revise their work, so we decided to come up with an easy way for them to learn quickly,” says Ms Amy Tan, who co-founded Skylace in 1989.
To expand its footprint beyond the tuition market, Skylace then approached local schools.
Impressed with Wisdom Cards, one primary school principal decided to use them for all Chinese lessons in her school.
“Our Wisdom Cards are now adopted by over 60 primary and pre-schools in Singapore,” says Ms Tan, who has taught the Chinese language for over 20 years.
Such out-of-the-box thinking would not have been possible without the dedication and experience of its pool of 12 teachers, many of whom are Singaporeans who believe in integrating the element of play into their classes to keep students engaged.
Today, Skylace is profitable and runs four centres in Singapore and one in Malaysia.
But like many small and medium-sized enterprises, the school has been facing challenges in retaining staff, who often have to take on administrative tasks on top of their teaching workload.
“This posed many obstacles to our growth plans,” says Ms Tan.
Faced with this challenge, Skylace approached the SME Centre at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2013 for guidance.
Following the advice from Ms Lee Lay See, the centre’s principal business consultative adviser, Skylace tapped Spring Singapore’s Innovation & Capability Voucher (ICV) scheme to conduct an overall business diagnosis on its management and key business operations.
The recommendation: More innovation was needed to enhance its work processes.
Acting on this recommendation, it implemented a tablet-based, e-learning app that offers students a flexible learning experience that matches their own pace, while enabling Skylace to automate tedious, paper-based assessment processes.
“Previously, we had to manually print, distribute and mark assignments. But with this app, assignments are automatically graded, giving teachers more time to coach the weaker students,” says Ms Tan, adding that with the app, processing assignments take 15 per cent less time.
Recognising that Skylace relies on a multi-generational workforce, Ms Lee also recommended the school to tap the Age Management Grant under the Workforce Development Agency’s WorkPro scheme.
Skylace has since completed this project, which includes building capabilities in age management practices such as having junior teachers sit in during lessons delivered by more experienced teachers.
“Once the junior teachers have picked up the skills over a period of time, they will be assigned their own classes, with some guidance from their senior colleagues,” says Ms Tan.
As a result of such initiatives, Skylace has been able to retain 99 per cent of its staff over the last two years, and now spends less time recruiting and training new employees.
The school has also picked up new skills to improve its financial management processes.
“We’re a passionate group of teachers, but we’re not good with running a business, so the help we’ve received from Spring Singapore was really helpful,” says Ms Tan.
The company is now undertaking a brand upgrading project to improve its marketing and branding capabilities.
“We hope to help more students improve their Chinese language skills,” she says.
By Aaron Tan
(Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Picture and article copied from this website: Learning Business Smarts )
[心得分享] 利用科技产品学习华文(天磊在最新一期 Pop Club 中的文章)
~ ~ ~ 跟上时代的脚步,学习华文其实可以很有趣! ~ ~ ~
21世纪的年代,学生总认为华文是枯燥、乏味的语文,学习只是为了应付考试的无可奈何,于是总在高喊“吃力、艰辛”,就如提着千斤重的担子在奔走。
随着资讯科技的发达与普及,智能手机、电脑等资讯科技产品对学生来说是非常熟悉的工具。他们已经习惯利用各类资讯科技产品和亲友交换资讯、分享自己的生活近况、接触异国的流行文化、玩电子游戏等等。但是一上课,他们可能就会觉得无聊、缺乏学习动力。
这个世纪的孩子,该如何引导?
1 在对的时候,用对的方法
让学生在相互讨论和思考的过程中发现学习的乐趣,从而了解学习的价值,知识的意义。
一周复一周的活动式教学,使每一个学生都能积极参与学习的过程,让他们体验到学习的乐趣,即使是整体学习成绩尚未达标的学生,也能够按照自己的步伐,朝着最高的教育目标前进。
2 连接知识与生活——打造趣味的学习环境
以平板电脑为工具、辅以翻转教室的教育理论,使每一堂课就像是一场竞技,同学们积极为自己的组别争取分数,以赢得课堂胜利组别的荣誉。
3 翻转教学方向
即便家里很少讲华语,害羞、内向的学生也可以在活跃的氛围中,慢慢被带动,渐渐变得敢于发言。与此同时,也渐进式地培养学生认真学习的态度、深入思考的习惯、敢于表达的自信,并且学会如何与个性、想法不同的组员达到共识,这些教学目标不再是遥不可及。
4 强调自学 • 自动 • 自发的精神
学生每周可阅读及赏析一篇好文章,从中学习各种人生道理、写作方法等。在师长的引导下,逐段分析篇章内容、词义,并轮流回答提问。同学们也可利用平板电脑,自行完成一篇作文或是理解问答的习作。经师长批改,附上正确答案,让学生能剖析自己答题表现的优劣,或是互评,从中提升自己的语文水平和鉴定能力。
使用平板电脑做功课 Use of Tablet in Class
距开始使用平板电脑已经好几个星期了,从一开始的不适应,到现在的渐渐得心应手,同学们真是进步良多!看到他们打字速度的进步,身为旁观者的笔者也甚为高兴。
It has been a few weeks since the students started to use tablets for their works. They had met with some technical glitches in the beginning, but now they have already gotten used to it. There is an obvious improvement in terms of the speed and efficiency with which they key in their answers.
第一次用平板电脑写作文!
(English version of the text for this blog entry is at the end of the post.)
今天中学一年级的学生第一次用平板电脑写作文,创作前先看看书、阅读感人的故事。
同学们都跃跃欲试。
可以用手写输入法输入文字。
也可以用全拼输入法输入文字。
作文题目:《一份珍贵的礼物》。笔者认为,第一次用平板电脑写作文的珍贵体验,也是一种珍贵的礼物!
This is the first time our Secondary 1 students use Tablets to write Chinese Compositions. They can put their knowledge of Hanyu Pinyin and word-recognition to use, by inserting Chinese words through Quanpin Shuru (using Hanyu Pinyin to type Chinese words) or through hand-written input.
The title for today’s composition is significantly apt for the novel experience: “A Precious Gift”.