Dr Wong Lung Hsiang Speaks on Technology-enhanced Learning in Formal School Systems

Dr Wong Lung Hsiang, Senior Research Scientist in OER, was invited to speak at two webinars on the topic of technology-enhanced learning in the formal schooling system.

The Marshall Cavendish Institute (MCI) of Singapore, in collaboration with SingTeach, organised the MCI Master Class Live Webinar Series on 10 June 2020. The talk titled “Will the pandemic accelerate a techno-pedagogical reform in the classrooms and beyond?” was designed for K-12 teachers in the Philippines. In this presentation, he shared two technology-enabled learning approaches - blended learning and flipped classroom. Dr Wong also engaged the teachers in a discussion on the advantages and potential challenges that they may face with these learning approaches, especially when there is a shift into a “new educational normal” due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The webinar attracted a turnout of more than 130 participants.

Dr Wong presented in another webinar, titled “Post-Pandemic Adaptive Learning through Online and Offline Integration”. This webinar is a four-part webinar series curated by the East China Normal University in Shanghai, China. The webinar features 11 educational technology researchers across the globe, which includes researchers from China, Taiwan, the United States of America, Canada, Japan and Singapore. The organisers invited Dr Wong as a Singapore representative. Dr Wong’s presentation focused on scalability, sustainability and school leadership support of innovative techno-pedagogical practices. The webinar series attracted more than 250 scholars, graduate students and K-12 school leaders and teachers from mainland China and beyond.

He shared about home-based learning, which was implemented in Singapore during the circuit breaker period, in both presentations. The partial lockdown in Singapore due to the Covid-19 pandemic brought conventional classroom teaching to a halt. Technology played a crucial role to allow students’ learning journeys to resume. Dr Wong explained that technology can also help facilitate 21^st century teaching and learning, and also encourage educators and students to use this opportunity to rethink conventional approaches and push the boundaries of school-based practices by leveraging on technology.