Technology in the Singapore Migrants Project

Here is the link to the Singapore Migrant Project.

In this project, students will be using technology (and sometimes Web 2.0) in the following ways:

• Writing, storyboarding, filming and editing an interview with a migrant worker.
• Selecting efl/esl apps to help migrant workers improve specific areas of their English language skills.
• Creating a multi-media piece of the student’s choice to reflect on the project.
• Writing a series of five fictional blog entries from the point of view/ in the voice/ on topics of interest for a migrant worker.
• Researching government statistics, to be used in a research paper.
• Using annotated Google Maps to give a tour of a Singaporean monument or landmark of interest to a migrant.

Internet 2.0 is simply the internet today, and the internet is as much a part of our lives as supermarkets, automobiles, libraries, or the weather: it is unavoidable, and will either be used as a resource, or ignored. I have decided to use it as a resource because it is expected by students, and because it helps develop their ability to use it in the future; part of the role of education, after all, is to help students use the resources at their disposal.

Integrating technology into my project came easily and naturally to me, possibly because the project itself, being a humanities/ English project, lends itself particularly well to this, but mainly because the Singapore national syllabus places on emphasis on students’ ability to understand and express themselves using a variety of “text types.” These text types include multi-media and web-based forms of expression. Not using these resources, given the Singaporean context, would have been a disservice to students’ academic success.