Dr Wong Lung Hsiang Conducts Workshop and Delivers Keynote on Blended and Seamless Learning

Dr Wong Lung Hsiang, Senior Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, has been touted as a key resource person on blended learning among local K-12 educators, based on his decade-long school-based research experience on seamless learning curriculum, and the strong resemblance between the two learning notions. Dr Wong was invited to conduct a professional development (PD) workshop on blended learning, followed by a keynote at a teachers’ webinar.

On the afternoons of 29 January and 5 February 2021, Dr Wong conducted a two-part online teachers’ PD workshop for about 90 teachers from the Ministry of Education (Singapore) (MOE) School Cluster E3. The workshop, entitled “Blended Learning through Seamless Learning Experience”, was designed in the form of blended learning that took place not only at the online “synchronous” PD sessions, but there were also “asynchronous” activities. Before the first session and in between the two sessions, participants were required to complete readings, lesson critique, and design tasks individually or in groups to connect the learning process. Thus, the teachers gained first-hand experience of a full blended learning process as learners. Such an experience was expected to assist them in better comprehending and internalising the notion of blended learning. The seamless learning design frameworks and principles developed by Dr Wong as his past research outcomes were introduced in the workshop to guide the teachers in concrete blended learning lesson planning.

On 13 April 2021, Dr Wong delivered a keynote at the inaugural webinar of the recently founded Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence at New Town Primary School (NTPS). Targeting primary schools managed by MOE nationwide, the new centre was set up by the Academy of Singapore Teachers (AST), MOE and helmed by Master Teachers in AST with the aim of facilitating in-situ PD within the context of the classroom through the conduct of masterclasses and demonstration classes. The webinar, which attracted about 220 MOE and teacher participants, featured Dr Wong’s keynote speech “Designing for Seamless Learning Experience” to inspire the attendees in facilitation of blended learning and a panel discussion with Dr Wong, two AST Master Teachers, and two NTPS teachers on establishing a caring and enabling school environment for students.

At both the workshop and the keynote speech, Dr Wong shared and interpreted a “blended learning diagram” which illustrates how various learning activities may be situated in different learning spaces—on-screen or off-screen, in a synchronous or asynchronous manner. The diagram was developed by AST Master Teachers, underpinned by the “Ten-Dimensional Mobile Seamless Learning” framework developed by Dr Wong back in 2011. The Master Teachers shared this teacher-friendly diagram with Dr Wong recently and he referenced it to frame his subsequent talks and teachers’ PD activities. A great example of the research-practice nexus where researchers and practitioners are inspiring and enlightening each other to advance their respective understanding of a pedagogical practice!

Related projects and publications:
The “Ten-Dimensional Mobile Seamless Learning” framework

Flexible Collaboration for Interactive WhiteBoard (IWB) Classrooms

A Mobile Assisted Language Learning Environment to Improve Primary School Pupils' Attitudes and Competencies in Chinese Proverb Learning and Writing

MyCLOUD - A Seamless Chinese Language Learning Environment Leveraging on Ubiquitous Technology and the Construction of Mental Lexicon

Design for Scalability: From a Class Intervention to a Level Intervention

Towards a Seamless Language Learning Framework: Enculturating Learners to Practices of Bridging Language Learning Spaces Mediated by an Integrated Technology-transformed Learning Environment

LI-nterChange: Towards a Contextual- and Social-mediated Seamless Language Learning Practice with Multiple Learning Pathways

Streamlining the Designs of Seamless Science Learning for Wider Diffusion

e-SDCL: An ICT-supported learning environment to facilitate meaningful, contextualised and seamless Chinese Language learning journeys in and out of classroom