Caltex Fuel Your School

Got this in my mail today..... Put in the proposal in a haste the night before the closing date and today I got this email! Almost did not want to put in but sometimes because there are people working with you... well, you kinda just continue to plod on. 

I remember staying up very late that night to upload the documents and proposal.

Anyway, the least I'll get is a Certificate of Participation... 8)

It all started because an ex-colleague wanted to ask for my help to come up with a proposal for it and she went through my colleague. When I went back to school the next day, the latter asked me whether I had any ideas. And so I hatched a couple as we were standing by the field. We found another colleague who had written in a proposal the previous year and succeeded in getting a few eco-boards for the school.

And so as we discussed, I hatched more ideas. And finally we agreed to help each other out. And so, we went and got the quotations and necessary documentations done. But because I was busy, I almost wanted to just give it a miss. That is where a little nudge made all the difference. Documents were forwarded to me and both my colleagues saw me for more details of the ideas we hatched earlier.

No iPad or AppleTV for my proposal as I have been using this. Instead I opted for personal cloud computing. I have been using a WDLiveBook at home for quite some time. Found it to be convenient for storage and also accessing files even when I am not at home. And with the WDCloud app on the iPad, it really made things easy. Having everything I need for work in one place definitely beats rummaging through your bag for thumb drives. And thumb drives get left behind or dropped.

So, my proposal includes setting up a cloud in the class or class in the cloud. Either way, it is supposed to make available resources to my students. That is the main equipment, the others being a colour laser printer (I wish I can have a 3D-printer but it's still expensive now and there is still the issue of safety where the fumes are concerned) and a projector. 

Cloud In The Class.... that is the name of my proposal. Classrooms are changing. The way we learn should change to reflect the technology available to us now. Chalk and talk, static text books, teacher as the sole source of information.... well, those are yesteryear's way. Historically, the way education is done has been changing for as long as written records have been around. So there is no reason for us not to embrace the new technologies.

But I think everything is kinda cyclical. Once upon a time, when one wanted to master a skill, he became an apprentice under a master.... personalised learning. 8) Then mass education came along when the Industrial Revolution came about. There was simply not enough people to do the one-to-one thing. But now... technology has made what was impossible possible... and better.

I think learning has never been more fun than now... even at school, I am trying out so many things.... my good friend keeps encouraging me to blog about it as a way of keeping record and also to remember. I keep procrastinating. I should really get down to it and blog more again...

Anyway, today's email was nice.