A reflection of my understanding of EdTech and how it has evolved since the start of my teaching journey.
Since my NIE days, I've always been excited to experiment with new technology in the classroom to make lessons more engaging—though admittedly, without much focus on any pedagogical framework. Back then, SLS wasn’t on my radar. I vaguely recall some folks from CPDD/ETD introducing SLS in one of my classes, but I wrote it off as a tool for asynchronous learning, not something I’d actually use in the classroom (oops).
Fast forward to my first posting, I found myself in an "SLS department", where daily lessons and even alternative assessments were conducted entirely on SLS. (which was honestly super progressive back in 2021). It was through observing my department colleagues' lessons that I started to see the value of SLS not just a tool for HBL; it could also support meaningful learning both in and out of the classroom.
Seeing was definitely not enough though. I still remember one of the first few lessons I designed as a beginning teacher. The shiny new tech tool at that time was an online whiteboarding platform. My idea was to use it for Social Studies, getting students to annotate a pictorial source. My thought process was, “Woah cool, I can see everyone’s responses in real time on my laptop instead of flipping through worksheets.” Looking back, the tool did align with the idea of using tech to make thinking visible, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t my intention at the time 😆. I also remember tech failing me, and I wasted half the lesson just getting everyone onto the platform and teaching them how to use it. That experience taught me an important lesson: just because students are digital natives doesn’t mean they’re automatically fluent in using technology.
That said, throughout my experimentation, my co-teacher did not stop me from continuing my exploration of 800 other tech tools (an exaggeration). Instead, she just suggested that I organise the links to the various platforms I was using in class (e.g. Padlet, Mentimeter) within an SLS module. This way, students could easily retrieve them when revising.
August 2021 Wen Xin's understanding of e-Pedagogy / the role of SLS in supporting e-Pedagogy: Exciting tech does not translate to effective learning. SLS can be used as a parking lot. That was all I was ready for, and so that was all I used SLS for. (which is completely okay!)
Soon after, I was tasked with improving an existing SLS lesson for the Sec 3 Social Studies teachers. To say it was a complete disaster would be an understatement 💀💀💀. One look at the design map and you’d understand why. It was so bad that it triggered a department-wide intervention HAHAHA.
It was laughably tragic, but that experience taught me a valuable lesson. Without getting my hands dirty and authoring SLS lessons myself, I doubt I would have ever fully appreciated what it means to design pedagogically sound lessons that are meaningfully enhanced by technology.
Nov 2021 Wen Xin's understanding of e-Pedagogy / the role of SLS in supporting e-Pedagogy:
(Tang, 2021)
e-Pedagogy is pedagogy first and then enhanced by technology. KATs are a way to help us to consider the suitability of the choice of technology.
The Learning Experience is a pedagogy, with activities that are meaningfully planned for progressive attainment of content and skills.
Constructive alignment is alignment of LOs with Activities and Assessment based on the idea of constructivism, where students learn by doing.
Active Learning is the process where constructivism is actualised.
The best way to see if students have learned is through the learning artefacts. Can be in form of product or process (S-C, S-S, T-S)
2022 was a year of sponging (absorbing knowledge), and with lots of practice, I gained confidence in designing SLS lessons that promote active learning. I continued to explore tech tools outside of SLS, but with clearer intentions: pedagogy first, tech second.
Though I wouldn't be me if I didn't start asking existential questions. While striving to steer clear of using tech for tech's sake, I started to wonder: "Can a tech-free lesson be a good one?" The exchange I had with a higher being (actually just my ex-boss but fun to make her sound like a divine being) gave me even greater clarity in terms of the role of tech in the classroom.
To answer my existential question, we first need to ask ourselves what a good lesson is.
A good lesson should:
Make use of questioning to spark curiosity/ activate learning/ deepen learning through discussion
Provide opportunity for students to practise and apply what they have learned
And if these criteria are met, a tech-free lesson can be a good one.
But with technology, what we would ask ourselves would be whether/how the tech can:
Help you to see most, if not all of the students' ideas
Help you give feedback promptly and effectively
Nov 2022 Wen Xin's understanding of e-Pedagogy / the role of SLS in supporting e-Pedagogy: Tech is not meant to replace teachers in the transmission of knowledge, but rather to enhance the learning process. A key part being making thinking visible. One still has to be a competent teacher to instruct, consolidate and synthesise learning. The flip side also holds true—A tech lesson can be a bad one, if the use of tech is not meaningful.
In 2023, I levelled up with more ambitious uses of tech (meaningfully of course), like the use of VR and 360° media to create immersive experiences, and the use of interactive maps to promote spatial thinking.
I first experimented with gamification on SLS at the start of 2024, where I created a gamified Sec 1 Geography module on the topic of tropical rainforests. It definitely felt intimidating at first (What is a game story? How do collectibles work?), but I kept it simple: no avatars, no badges, just what I could made sense of. With more practice it got easier, and I managed to include collectibles in a gamified Upper Secondary Geography module.
I cannot emphasise enough how teachers do not have to adopt everything or know every single feature on SLS. Use what works, and discover new features at your own pace. That’s the beauty of SLS—it’s permanent, and we can grow with it. Case in point, I used Google Classroom alongside SLS in 2022 and 2023 to facilitate the Secondary 2 GI. This was before I discovered Google Integration and the Team Activity feature on SLS. Transitioning all submissions to SLS proved much easier for teachers logistically. Submission rates also improved significantly because students had a clear, centralised platform for submitting their work.
June 2024 Wen Xin's understanding of e-Pedagogy / the role of SLS in supporting e-Pedagogy: From the start, I saw how an entire department could collaborate seamlessly on SLS. Watching routines play out and seeing what tech-enabled learning actually looked like convinced me of its potential.
Guides design of active learning experiences
Enables learning at own pace
Allows flexible grouping
Gives student choice
Ensures appropriate degree of challenge
Allows us to hear student voice
Builds community
Facilitates ongoing assessment for learning
At its core, SLS facilitates the end-to-end design of learning activities—from authoring, assigning, and enacting to assessing and tracking progress—enabled by technology.
Something I've come to appreciate after joining SLS Office is the benefits that can be reaped from school-wide adoption of SLS, including gaining an aggregated view of student performance in enabling data-driven interventions. Also, the effort to drive nationwide SLS adoption involves numerous key stakeholders and extensive collaboration. This includes close collaboration with AST and NIE in ensuring pedagogical soundness, engaging CPDD and SDCD in populating the system with curriculum aligned resources, and working with ITD and Schools Division in realising the vision of SLS as a One-Stop Hub.
Jan 2025 Wen Xin wants to continue discovering more possibilities that SLS has to offer and to share her excitement in any capacity she can. 🙏🏻❤️
Opmerkingen