networking

I would be including some activities that I'm involved in, that expanded my role and capacity, beyond the classrooms. Here I'll be sharing some of the networking sessions that I was a part of, that includes, but not just limited to, hosting visitors (both local and international), learning journeys, sharing sessions, etc.

I was humbled to be invited by ArKideture to be part of a panel presenting on the topic of 'Underage Designers' in early October at the URA Centre. PDF of my slides are available here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2prHyJFvr6wRF9DMlFpX2hQXzQ/view?usp=sharing

Some pictures from my sharing are shown below:

I felt so honoured to be amongst a group of dedicated and passionate educators from Europe and Asia, and was enthralled at the things that they have done over the years, bridging and collaborating on projects, on a scale that I've never seen before, across boundaries of space, culture and of course time zones.

This conference has been an exciting yet humbling experience so far for me. Safe to say that this is one of the more memorable conference/seminars that I’ve attended so far, the other being the Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) meet up in 2015, and the Apple Leadership Summits in 2010 and 2011. As I get into the daily grind of work and familiar routines, I'd like to document some of the key learning points that I have managed to elicit from my 4 days attending the conference:

• Amongst the points mentioned by Prof Huber from PH Zug is the story of the chickens in the chicken coop. The parable goes that when these chickens are disturbed, no matter how many times it’s done, they would go back to their ORIGINAL resting place once things have settled down. I thought this idea is funny, yet effective, to show the analogy of the kind of thinking that one needs to have, in order to be a disruptive force of sorts, (in a good way of course). The analogy used is simple, but thoughtful. It makes me realise that for one innovation to happen, things have to and must change. We can't revert to doing the same things, or doing them the same way, and expect big improvements to happen. In fact, the opposite might just happen! Expecting change, but not attempting to change your perspective or the process might just lead one to a regressive state of existence than before!
• CHANGE versus IMPROVEMENT: Within the same presentation, the idea about change, which drew inspiration from Obama’s presidential campaign slogan, was brought up. Prof Huber counter-proposed the idea of IMPROVEMENT as a preferred alternative, as change does not necessarily lead to a positive outcome. This also reminded me of the Japanese concept of ‘kaizen’, meaning ‘changing for the better’, a philosophy that has its roots, from among others, their religious attention to manufacturing improvements and higher output quality. When one focuses on minor but doable improvement, things can and WILL start to happen. Firstly, a mindset change must happen, one of challenging the norms of current processes, and then having the courage to see how they can improve, for the better. But of course the greatest challenge would be to see through the idea of putting the 'sacred cows' to the pasture, and then looking beyond to find other newer yet still significant elements in our programmes and processes, to steer us forward and upwards!
• Another idea mentioned in the conference, though not pervasively, is about ‘horizontal connectedness’ of subject matter/content. It is similar to the idea of interdisciplinary content approaches that we are more accustomed to in this part of the world; but I think that no matter what is the terminology being used, one of the good ‘next step forward’ that educators should be looking at in their professional capacity is to see how links to areas outside their immediate discipline could be introduced to the students, whether explicitly or implicitly! I personally think that the way to move forward in leaps and bounds in the areas of knowledge accumulation and management, is in encouraging students to find links and connections between the different subjects and content areas, much like how the diagram below is highlighting

• The quote in the picture below, as shown:

In the end, technology can amplify great teaching,

but great technology cannot replace poor teaching (OECD, 2015, p. 17)

...is the final jigsaw piece of my reflection puzzle, which resonates with me quite nicely. While we, as a species are working on developing better technology to teach our learners, we, as teachers must not forget that technology, no matter how good they are, cannot replace poor teaching!

There are many other snippets of reflection pieces that I have jotted down in my note book throughout the entire 4 day conference. With the showcased projects, I also felt humbled with all that were presented, and the impact that they have created! But more importantly, the greatest and most memorable piece of the reflection jigsaw puzzle is the new friends that I have made. I’m not sure when would be the next time we would meet again, if ever, but it is definitely something that I would cherish for the rest of my professional leaning journey as an educator!

Below are some pictures that I would like to put up here for posterity.

Regards, Irfan Darian

In the middle of the year, the department was approached by some members of the senior management team from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) for a learning visit. I was pleasantly surprised at the request, but decided to set aside some time to hose the visit.

It was indeed an enjoyable session, as I was not only able to share with them the school's mission, vision, and some of the great things that we do in SST, and the department, but I've also managed to learn a thing or two about the fantastic courses that they are offering, and would be offering. Below are some pictures of the visit, and a screenshot of their comments.