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A triumphant Victoria Junior College (VJC) scooped not one but
two top prizes at the championship, organised by SingTel and
supported by MOE. They clinched the best blog, and the most
popular blog, for the junior college/centralised institute segment.
At the secondary school level, Nanyang Girls’ High claimed the first prize for best blog while Yishun Town Secondary captured the other most popular blog title.
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| Meet
the happy winners from Yishun Town Secondary, who
capture the most popular blog title. |
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The competition’s timely inauguration reflects the growing trend of using blogs as a communication medium among the young, and its potential as an educational tool. Blogs provide a wide gateway into the minds of its contributors via their content and comments. Mr Thomas Teo, SingTel’s Vice-President (Consumer Marketing) would agree. “At SingTel,” said he, “we are heartened to have been able to achieve both the excitement and educational objectives in organising the world’s first blogging competition for schools at the national level. Beyond the hype of blogging, this championship shows that content is just as important in capturing your audience’s attention.”
The competing schools had to start and maintain their blogs based on the sub-theme “My Teenage Years: Pet Peeves and Inspiration” in the preliminary round. In the final round, five JCs and 20 secondary schools tackled the sub-theme “Technology and Me” and were judged on the content and presentation of their blogs.
Students from the winning teams certainly knew what content aroused most interest. Across the board, school events generated the most buzz, since they affected the students most directly. Nanyang Girls’ expressed opinions about noise arising from construction work in school, while Yishun Town students chatted excitedly over their first ever Prom Night. Comments on current affairs made their appearances occasionally as did helpful hints, like how to cope with stress.
So what made good blogs? JC1 student John Ang of VJC offered tips: don’t repeat topics, don’t become stale with old topics, put in audio/video/photos, include interactivity elements like polls and most important of all, add humour!
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| Lively
performance of the “Limbo Rock” during the prize
presentation ceremony. |
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The school teams tasked to promote readership devised clever
strategies in addition to word-of-mouth, distribution of pamphlets
and messaging the alumni. At VJC, a video on blogging was made
and screened during assembly. At Yishun Town, games were posted
to attract lower secondary students.
Teachers’ participation made a big difference. Yishun Town’s team persuaded English teachers to conduct lessons in the IT classrooms and use the school blog as teaching material. Sec 3 student Ow-yang Zhijun explained how they managed to convince the teachers, “It was a way to improve our English because we had to use good and complete sentences when writing.” At Nanyang Girls’, readership shot up when a teacher posted behind-the-scenes photos of their theatre production and whenever popular teachers made postings of their opinions.
How has blogging and the championship affected life in school? Firstly, it has expanded the exchange of ideas and views from all levels. Said Chia Po Linn of Nanyang Girls’, “Previously, when someone had strong opinions about something, there was no platform for her to express her views. With blogging, we can now reach the entire school.”
Yet the competition also taught students to be thoughtful. Said
Dr Tan Seng Chee, Assistant Director, MOE Educational Technology
Division, “We have to be sensitive to the feelings of others
and be responsible. If not, we could hurt others unknowingly.
Even in the face of new technologies, our moral judgement must
be key.”
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We
have to be sensitive to the feelings of others and be
responsible. If not, we could hurt others unknowingly.
Even in the face of new technologies, our moral judgement
must be key. |
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Dr Tan Seng Chee, Assistant Director, MOE Educational
Technology Division |
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Connectivity has been strengthened. Said Mr Teo, “It is an excellent
example of how mobile and Internet technology can connect various
groups of people. We believe teachers, students, and online
readers of school blogs have all gained from the perspectives
of the students on a myriad of issues.”
Form teacher Ms Serene Yeo of Yishun Town noted a stronger school spirit during the contest, involving even the alumni, since there was a common goal for the whole school. She also was impressed by the copious amount of students’ expression. She said, “When they had to do spontaneous writing, they had more to say when typing than when writing by hand in their journals!”
The competition rewarded the winning schools with cash prizes and the student team leaders with Sony Ericsson mobile phones. For Yishun Town, now situated in a holding school, the money will help build a pond for their beloved koi. Not a bad outcome considering the students participated in the championship for fun. Said delighted Sec 3 student Terence Yeo, “We are amazed because we beat more than 50 schools. It is an achievement we never imagined possible. We never planned to win. We took part just to have fun.”
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