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Source: www.moe.gov.sg |
More than 50 schools to take part
in first National Interschool Blogging Championship |
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Reflecting the growing popularity of online
diaries (blogs) among students, Singapore will see its first National
Interschool Blogging Championship. It is co-organised by SingTel and the
Ministry of Education (MOE). |
The Championship will run from 1 June ¨C 31 August
2005. A total of 43 secondary schools and 9 junior colleges are fielding teams
to ¡®outblog¡¯ one another. |
The theme of the competition is ¡°Voices of
Singapore Teenagers¡±. The students will begin their blogs based on the
sub-theme, ¡°My Teenage Years: Pet Peeves and Inspirations.¡± |
Each school will start and maintain a group blog
during the competition. Five student leaders from each school will manage the
blog contents, including postings from the rest of the student body. Teachers
will be on hand to supervise the student leaders. |
Apart from the Internet, the students will be able
to use SMS and MMS to update their school blogs. This mobile blogging (moblog)
is useful if they were to see something interesting or want to share a quick
thought when they are away from their computers. |
Ms Ooi Lay Yong, SingTel¡¯s Vice President
(Consumer Sales), said: ¡°Youth is an important segment for SingTel. They are
natural users of mobile and Internet applications. Apart from entertainment
content such as games and downloads, we hope to bring in more educational
features into our service offerings.¡± |
¡°SingTel is in a position to enable young people
to use technology, such as the Internet and mobile phone, to find a unique
voice through their blogs. Instead of writer¡¯s block, we hope that the
students will be inspired to come up with interesting blogs through this
inaugural competition.¡± |
Ms Tan Teng Wah, Deputy Director, MOE Education
Technology Division, said: ¡°This competition is a good way to highlight to
schools the potential of blogging as a useful tool for teaching and learning.
Students can potentially use blogging for activities such as writing journals,
creating online portfolios or group work dialogues.¡± |
The schools will go through two rounds of judging
during the competition. A judging panel will look at the depth and clarity of
thoughts, organisation, and creativity of the blog entries. |
Ms Penny Low, Member of Parliament for Pasir
Ris-Punggol GRC and a Government Parliamentary Committee member for the
Ministry of Community Youth and Sports, will be an advisor and a judge for the
competition. The other judges are made up of representatives from SingTel and
MOE. |
Apart from the winning school blogs selected by
the judges, there will be an award for the most popular school blog based on
the number of votes by online readers and unique visitors. The blogging
champions will stand to win cash prizes as well as 3G phones. |
The school blogs can be read on
http://www.campusmoblog.com.sg
from 1 June 2005. |
More..... (Participating Schools) |
Source:
Ministry of Education Press Release 20 May
2005 |