Announcement

Hello everyone!

Tomorrow is the last session of our Second Life meeting.

Date: 27 November 2012
Time - 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time)
         - 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)

Venue - Let's all gather at the VLC House first.

Hope to see you all! :D

20 November 2012 - Group 2

Elaine, Jimmy, Young and I were present for this session.
We talked more about bullying in schools.
Bullying situations can range from the obvious to the unseen ones.

Jimmy brought up the topic of organized gangs in schools and these gangs provide memberships and protection. Although school bullying and organized crimes by secondary school students are not prevalent in Singapore, we do have staring incidents leading to fights and deaths among teenagers.

Elaine mentioned that teen gangs do exist in secondary schools in Korea as well. These gangs do commit crimes like stealing others' money out of schools and may threaten or physically hurt others while doing so.

We feel that through campaigns and educational workshops on awareness of bullying, the acts of bullying can be reduced or prevented. Young mentioned that it is important for bystanders or victims to report school bullying to teachers or an adult, so that the problem can be resolved and handled.

Jimmy came up with an interesting question: Can someone be born a bully?
He feels that some people are born with a disposition that may be more aggressive and that nature makes up 60% of a person's character and 40% is due to nurture.

Elaine and I thought it will be the opposite as we feel that no one is born to be a bully as their actions can be prevented, and I  personally feel that one is guided by moral values that act as gatekeeper for one's actions.

The discussion ended at this point as the time was up.

Hope to see you all for the final session next Tuesday! :D

2012.11.20 Tuesday

2012.11.20.Tuesday

Today there were Liz, ebkim, adrianna (jaehoo), Helen (hailunhong), Moonhee, and KB (gblee0907) in group 1.

We had 3 things to do today.

1) Reviewing our respective group report posted on Google doc

2) Identifying the issues that need further discussion and resolve them collaboratively

3) Within our groups, we will decide who will contribute to the specific parts of the report

- in the report, there are sub-areas (e.g., problems, solutions)

We had a hard time getting into the document.:(

 But as soon as we got in, we started editing the document.

 Since we had little time left, we decided on which parts to take at the end of today’s meeting.

Moonhee – part 1

KB & Eunbi – part 2

Adrianna – part 3

Next meeting is going to be the last one for this semester so I hope everybody to come!

See you all next tuesday ! :)

Announcement

Second Life Meeting Schedule
 

Date: 20 November 2012
Time - 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time)
         - 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)

Venue - Let's all gather at the VLC House first.

See you all! :D

Hi, all

We had great time to decide our questions and discuss them in the Second Life :)

Based on our discussions, two group reports were made in Google Docs.

Group1: https://goo.gl/XGieS

Group2: https://goo.gl/R57Yp

We have two more sessions (20 and 27 Nov). It would be great if we collaboratively make group reports and share them at the last meeting. 

The Google documents are like MS-Word or Hangul, but you do not need to click on a save button because your writing will be automatically saved. You can revise the reports in the Internet. Please feel free to add your thoughts and put your name and date at the end of a paragraph or a sentence. You can also add pictures and videos. However, you may not want to delete what others have written in the shared document. 

We will talk about the group report and revise it together next week :) 

Young

Announcement

Hello everyone!

This is a reminder that there is no Second Life meeting this Tuesday (13 November 2012) as it is a public holiday in Singapore for the celebration of Deepavali.

Thank you!

30/10/12 session

Group members: Liz, Adrianna, KB, Yjaylol, Wove

Topic:
1) Identify and define a problem or a question about classroom practices, which you would want to investigate more (what problem or question does your group want to specifically explore?).  The problem should be important in both Korea and Singapore, and it should be related to classroom practices.
2) Discuss the reasons, consequences, relevant conditions, pedagogical interventions, etc. about the selected problem or question.

The session focus follows up with the previous session. As we have discussed on the topic “group work” during the previous session, Liz mention on how to form groups in a classroom settings. Kb mentions that usually in Korea, students are grouped according to number or where they sit. Adrianna agrees with KB and that teachers often get students to turn around and just form a group with the peers around them. Yjaylol follow on by saying that sometimes they group the class into the ‘boys’ group and ‘girls’ group. Wove then mentions that in Singapore, usually groupings are arranged according to their learning abilities with the stronger peers guiding the weaker peers. Different ability learners are present in each group which eliminates the possibility of them having low self-esteem. The teacher usually plans the groupings beforehand and their seats are allocated according to their grouping. Groupings may change every 3 to 4 months or each year depending on the respective teacher. Kb further question on how ability is measured in Singapore, Liz explained that it is usually measured by the student’s grades which lead to another question on what if no data of students are present. Wove thinks that it will be based on the teacher’s judgement for such cases and primary 1 is taken by the senior/experienced teachers.

Liz continues the discussion by mentioning if there is any pedagogical direction for group work and if these theories are relevant to group work in primary school. The group then decided that a possible problem is how can group work be carried out in the primary school classroom? Adrianna and Yjaylol think that students should be grouped according to their learning abilities and a variety kind of practices is needed to do group work with young children. As time was running out, the discussion became the homework of the session and a further discussion will continue in the following week. 

Announcement

Second Life Meeting Schedule
Date: 6 November 2012
Time - 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time)
         - 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)

Venue - Let's all gather at the VLC House first.

See you all! :D 

School Bullying in Korea

In our group, we posed a question, "How can teachers reduce school bullying in a classroom?" I found a video clip that shows how much school bullying is serious in Korea.

Elementary school students shared their thoughts about school bullying.

This video shows school bullying situations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJTy4ciH4mo&feature=related

Announcement

 

Hello!

This is a reminder for the Second Life meeting tomorrow.

Date: 30 October 2012
Time - 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time)
         - 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)

Venue - Let's all gather at the VLC House first.

See you all! :D

Tuesday Group 2 23/10

Group 2: NIE teacher/Amanda/ Jesslynlsf- Note taker/Elaine-moderator/ SooKyung0507/Young Seok/ Christine/ Unagem/ Florence

Today’s topic: What teachers and students do in a classroom?

The meeting started with both Korean and Singaporean Student teachers saying that the education scenes have changed much over the years. In Korea, both Elaine and Unagem mentioned that Teachers do most of the talking and students are generally quiet. In Singapore, students used to do rote learning and but it has changed over the years and teachers are encouraged to incorporate IT into their lessons. After which, Young Seok mentioned that if one-way education is more effective, it can be useful too. Christine also agreed that education is Korea is passive. In Singapore, students are encouraged to speak up and ask questions. Unagem mentioned that Korean teachers also uses IT and Elaine said that IT can motivate students at the initial stages.

Young Seok then went on to elaborate on why he thinks that one-way education is more effective. Young Seok mentioned that it is important for teachers to understand the exact level of education of students. Many of us agreed that teacher directed teaching can be beneficial to students. Christine also agreed but she felt that it’s too idealistic and students need to be more active. In Singapore, It is difficult to carry out one way teaching because students are brought up to be outspoken. In Korea, students are afraid of making mistakes and they would not raise their hands if they are not 100% certain that they have the correct answer. Jesslynlsf went on to mention that it is important on the teacher’s part to respond correctly to the students answer.

Elaine also mentioned that teachers are facilitators, but students have a fear of speaking up. Jesslynlsf then mentioned that it is important to create a safe environment for the students to speak up. Elaine said that we can give positive compliments to the students ( Good Job, Well Done) and at the same time reassure students that it is perfectly fine to make mistakes. Students need to be comfortable with making mistakes. All of us agreed that teachers play an important role in creating a safe environment and students need to cooperate with teachers. We also mentioned that there is a lack of respect for teachers nowadays as students scold vulgarities openly in class.

 I think we had a very in depth discussion this week. Good job everyone!=)

2012.10.23 Tue. Group 1

Today Youngcho came to GINUE, Korea.
We said hi to each other with Skype.

Group 1:
Liz / ebkim / yjaylol - moderator / adrianna (jaehoo) - note taker / Helen (hailunhong) /
 Shu Rong (wove) / Moonhee / KB (gblee0907)
Teleport link for Group 1: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland%209/159/213/39

Today's topic was 'What are some of the important teaching issues in primary school classroom in Singapore and Korea?'
and we discussed classroom practices in Korea and Singapore.
*Classroom practice means how teachers teach and students learn in class
At the end of discussion, we identified important educational issues in two countries

First, we talked about students who sleep during the class.
yjaylol thinks that students all over the world sleep during the class.
moonhee said, usually but not  in upper grade.
But KB said he has never seen students fall asleep in their classes in primary school.

Second, we moved on to how teachers run classes.
Wove's opinion was, in the past Singapore is more teacher-centered so the teacher talk most of the time.
 But for now, It is moving towards student-centered.
*TLLM : Teach Less Learn More.
So is more student-centered forcusing more on group work and peer learning.
yjaylol said, students in Korea participate in class as groups.

Next, we discussed parents' reactions and complains over small matters.
yjaylol mentioned an example of small matter as a trouble between students.
on the other hand wove' idea was student losing their spelling list, Not scoring the desire grades that the parent wants etc.
moonhee said korean parents usually think that their child is always good. and everything is not their fault.
when small conflicts happen, they usually think that the other part is wrong.
And Liz agreed.
ebkim knows a teacher in primary school and she said that she got a long long letter from a mother in which her complaint was written

Lastly, we talked about how to punish students.
yjaylol said the standard of punishment is different from person to person
and  wove said, In Singapore, corporate punishment is not allowed
so they don't have physical punishment in Singapore.
KB, moonhee and me agreed that Korea has no more coporate punishment (officially)
Because there' no more physical punishment, some kind of problems come out
such as some rude students ignoring their teacher.
moonhee suggested talking and counselling as one of solutions.
we all think detention at recess and after school could be another good way.


We talked a lot today so it was a bit harder than the other days to take note :)
See you next week! ^.^

Announcement

Dear All

We will be resuming our regular Tuesday meeting from tomorrow, 23 October 2012.

Time - 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time)
         - 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)

Venue - Let's all gather at the VLC House first.

See you all there!!! :D

Announcement

Hello! :D

The meeting scheduled on 16 October 2012 (Tuesday) is cancelled, as Korean members are having their practicum.

Do note that meeting will resume on 23 October 2012 (Tuesday).
Time - 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time)
         - 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)
Venue - Let's all gather at the VLC House first.

Thank you!

If you did not manage to attend the session on 9 October 2012, you can refer to Youngseok's summary of the session on the blog post below. :)

9 Oct Meeting

Youngseok sent me the following summary!! Thank you.

We dicussed two questions.
1) Why do you want to be a teacher?
2) How can you become a teacher? Singapore and Korea have a different training system for student teachers.

1)
First, Elaine want to be a teacher because she want to have good influence to kids. For example, She want to be a facilitator and find their own potential. That is one of best thing to be teacher. and then Christine said herself love children and then living as teacher makes her life more worthwhile she think. and after that, Young seok said that he want to give young student the love and trust which he didn't get.

2)
In singapore, There is only one institute for teacher education. and so primary school teacher can move easily to secondary school to teach student. And not all teacher have a university degree. But in that case, They have to get at least a educational diploma from the university instead. on the other hand it has entirely different two course to teach in primary and secondary school in Korea. and the person who want to be a teacher in any school have to get a degree in certain university or major. and then They have to pass the teacher certification examination.

Announcement

Hello everyone!

Meeting today (9 October 2012)
Time – 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time), 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)
Venue – VLC House (click on the link for teleport address)

Discussion topic/question:

1) Why do you want to be a teacher?
2) How can you become a teacher? Singapore and Korea have a different training system for student teachers.

Hope you will enjoy today's session. ^^

Wearing the HUD

You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrfZJuaaF8 

Survey

Welcome to VLCT (Virtual Learning Community for Teachers) !!!

I would like to know more about what you want to do in this community. Could you go to http://goo.gl/qCYFu and fill in the survey?   

In addition, researchers in NIE (National Institute of Education) and GINUE (Gyeongin National University of Education) would like to investigate how VLCT develops and how you think of VLCT. If you agree to participate in the study, please fill in the consent form at the end of the survey. Thank you. 

Announcement

 

Hello everyone!

There will be a meeting coming up soon, the details are as followed:

                Date – 25 September 2012

                Time – 12:00nn to 1:00pm (Singapore Time), 1:00pm to 2:00pm (Korea Time)

                Venue – VLC House (click on the link for teleport address)

You can expect yourself to meet student teachers, teacher educators and researchers as avatars in Second Life :)

Looking forward to seeing your avatar in Second Life ^^

안녕하세요!

예비교사, 교사, 그리고 연구자 여러분 반갑습니다. 이 세컨드 라이프 모임은 한국과 싱가포르의 교육문제를 토론하고 그 해결 방안을 함께 고민하는 모임입니다.
첫 번째 모임은 9월 25일 한국시간으로 오후 1시에 있습니다. 장소는 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland%209/43/201/22 입니다.

여러분을 빨리 만나고 싶습니다!!

Announcement

Hello everyone!

Due to the low participation last week for our scheduled meetings, we have decided to postpone our meetings to early September 2012.
Therefore, we will have another break before we resume our meetings early September :)

Further updates will be posted here, on the blog!

Announcement

Meeting Schedules

Meeting date: 24 July 2012, Tuesday

Time: 4.00pm (Singapore Time), 5.00pm (Korea Time)
 

Meeting date: 27 July 2012, Friday

Time: 3.30pm (Singapore Time), 4.30pm (Korea Time)

Meeting Location: New NIE House

*Do let us know if you cannot attend any of the sessions stated above by leaving a comment under this post.*

Meeting on 19 June 2012

The last meeting before the summer vacation (19 June 2012)

Cellina, Florence, Adrianna, Amanda, and I attended Today's meeting. We shared our perception on Second Life and discussed the use of Second Life in primary (elementary) schools. 

We discussed why Korean people do not use Second Life a lot and compared EBS lectures with our Second Life activities: "the reason for not many are using this program maybe

when we say we are having a distant meetings or classes like this

most Koreans think of lectures I guess?"

We also discussed whether Second Life is good for English education: "Student don't mind about there error in using english in virtual world."

Have a nice vacation and see you on 24th / 27th July!!

Announcement

 

 Meeting Schedules

Meeting date: 19 June 2012, Tuesday

Time: 4.00pm (Singapore Time), 5.00pm (Korea Time)

Location: New NIE House

* Korean members from the Friday session may join this session as they missed out their meeting last Friday due to a replacement class*

Vacation!!!

 

There will be a month of vacation in Second Life for our group from 20 June 2012 to 20 July 2012.

Do note that our meeting will resume from 24 July 2012 onwards :D

Updates will be posted on this blog :)

12 June 2012 Meeting

Hello everyone!

The meeting for today is unfortunately cancelled as the Korean student teachers are busy with their exams...and none of the Singaporean student teachers came :(

Hope to see you all the next session! :D

Take care!

Announcement

 

Meeting Schedules

Meeting date: 12 June 2012, Tuesday

Time: 4.00pm (Singapore Time), 5.00pm (Korea Time)
 

Meeting date: 15 June 2012, Friday

Time: 3.30pm (Singapore Time), 4.30pm (Korea Time)

Meeting Location: New NIE House

*Do let us know if you cannot attend any of the sessions stated above by leaving a comment under this post.*

Meeting on 8 June 2012

Today's meeting is cancelled as the Korean student teachers had to attend a school event and no Singaporean student teachers came :(

However, Liz appeared as a child avatar, and she looks totally cute!
Here is the picture of her...

hehehe!
Have a great weekend ahead and hope to see you all next week :D

One Hour's Group Meeting - 5 June 2012

Cellina, Hajiyoung, Hsiao-yun, and I participated in today's meeting in our SL house. We introduced each other, discussed what avatars mean to us, decided our group name, and shared ideas about furniture in our group room.

We had much different ideas about our avatars :) Cellina did not think that her avatar represents herself, but Hsiao-yun wanted to make her avatar more similar to herself. I want to make an ideal avatar (younger and handsome), and Hajiyoung felt to be more confident in interacting with other avatars after changing her avatar's outfit.

We also decided our group's name. It is ONE HOUR. The time zone of Korea is one hour faster than that of Singapore!!

Amanda, we want some furniture in our room: a sofa, a coffee table, TV, and a picture of Kaka or Big-Bang. Hajiyoung likes Kaka (a soccer player) :D  We agreed to rotate pictures.
Cheers!!

Announcement

Meeting Schedules

Meeting date: 5 June 2012, Tuesday

Time: 4.00pm (Singapore Time), 5.00pm (Korea Time)
 

Meeting date: 8 June 2012, Friday

Time: 3.30pm (Singapore Time), 4.30pm (Korea Time)

Meeting Location: New NIE House

*Do let us know if you cannot attend any of the sessions stated above by leaving a comment under this post.*

Meeting on 1 June 2012

Hello!
I just exited from SL after the scheduled meeting today :) Many people came today and I thought it was a fun and fulfilling session.

We did an introduction session today, whereby everyone introduced themselves :) I managed to know other members better as we shared about out hobbies, where we are studying and many more other than just our names.

BTW, this meeting is held in our new house, and the new sofas in the living room is big enough for everyone to have a seat. All avatars can now have a sit around the table :D

In today's session, below are some new information I have received from everyone's introduction:

•  Liz loves to travel and she has been to Taiwan!
• Anna has joined a dance club in GINUE recently ^^
• Florence revealed that Lucy (ebkim), Anna and herself are in the same room accessing Second Life during the meeting :) I guess other than being classmates, they must be really good friends with each other :)
• Helen has the hobby of collecting passport stamps (she will travel at least once a year) and postage stamps :D
• YoungSeok who appears as a robot in SL participates in CrossFit in real life, which is a form of bodybuilding that consists of many exercises!
• ebkim (Lucy) has experience in teaching elementary school children in English speaking ;)
• KB is interested in foreign languages and cultures :)
• Young (who is a Korean working in Singapore) will visit Korea in October this year and have plans to meet up with Korean members in our SL group with Helen :D

Hope to see all of you the next meeting!

-Amanda/Zhi Ying

Announcement

Meeting Schedules

Meeting date: 29 May 2012, Tuesday

Time: 4.00pm (Singapore Time), 5.00pm (Korea Time)

Activity: Reflection Session 2
Meeting Location: VLC1 House
 

Meeting date: 1 June 2012, Friday

Time: 3.30pm (Singapore Time), 4.30pm (Korea Time)

Activity: "The Future" Session 1

Meeting Location: New NIE House

*Do let us know if you cannot attend any of the sessions stated above by leaving a comment under this post.*

Furniture List

 

Hello everyone!

As mentioned in our previous SL meeting (25 May 2012), please post the furniture that you will like to have in the rooms if you have any additional suggestions by posting them as comments under this post :)

Brand NEW House!

Hi everyone ! It's my first time to write on the blog.

My name is Jaehoo for Korean and Adrianna for English.

Today we visited our new house! It's really pretty especially the sea view is so great!!

After looking around the house, each of us talked about the team name.

We have a week to think about the name.

Then we had some ideas about the interior of the room.

I took the pictur for the first time and I should try more I guess.... It's not a very good picture

It's taken too far from us haha....

See you guys next week! Have a nice weekend! ^0^

Announcement

Meeting Schedules

Meeting date: 22 May 2012, Tuesday

Time: 4.00pm (Singapore Time), 5.00pm (Korea Time)

Activity: Sharing of Singaporean Culture Session 2

Meeting date: 25 May 2012, Friday

Time: 3.30pm (Singapore Time), 4.30pm (Korea Time)

Activity: Reflection Session 1

Meeting Location: VLC1 House

*Please write a comment under this post if you cannot make it for any session this week.*