More words, or simply, making new out of the old...?

Cover via AmazonPublished: Mon 28th Feb, 2011

Scrabble addicts will now have a whole new arsenal of words to choose from after the Oxford English Dictionary has added a bunch of techie favourites.

New words added to the dictionary include: 'clickjacking', 'scareware' (fake anti-virus alert scams) and 'sexting' as well as 'feature phone' and commonly used text-speak acronym 'tbh', according to Techwatch.

Bloggable is apparently defined as "suitable or sufficiently interesting as a topic for a blog," while c'yber-bully', 'bandwidth' and 'trackpad' also get a place in the linguistic bible.

While it used to take ages to get a word into the dictionary as they caught on via word-of-mouth in playgrounds and offices alike, now social media and the internet as a whole has meant new terms spread like wildfire and become more quickly accepted.

Other non-techie terms have also made the grade such as ‘tanorexia' (being addicted to getting a tan) as well as Borat's ‘mankini'.

Going back to the more serious sentry of ‘cyber-bully,' it seems the problem of bullying online as well as the term itself has become more official, as the police will now send warning letters to the parents of children found to be bullying others on Facebook, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The letters will apparently warn the ‘cyber-bullies' they are breaking the law and could therefore be prosecuted, aiming to alert web tormentors of the seriousness of their actions and stop them becoming criminals.

A trial will reportedly begin in the Thames Valley where police will team up with teen volunteers to investigate and deal with reported of bullying on the social network.

PC Dave Thomas told the newspaper: "By alerting their parents to the problem, we are aiming to nip the problem in the bud and prevent it becoming something more serious. Social networkers, whatever their age, often don't think about what they are writing in the same way they would think about what they write in a letter or an email. If we have to investigate Facebook messages as harassment or public order offences and the young person gets charged, it could seriously affect their future."

"While we want them to realise how serious the matter is, we also want to avoid that and keep young people out of the criminal justice system if possible," he reportedly added.

If the trial goes well, the initiative could apparently be rolled out across South East England from May.

Taken from Hexus.net; source article is below:
Oxford English Dictionary embraces techie terms

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• Virtual police to patrol Facebook in hunt for cyber bullies (dailymail.co.uk)
• 'Bloggable' and 'scareware' added to Oxford Dictionary (telegraph.co.uk)
• 'Bloggable', 'tbh' and 'feature phone' make Oxford Dictionaries Online (thenextweb.com)
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A new approach to learning

New institution has a fresh take on teaching style and examinations

by Lin Yan Qin

04:02 PM May 08, 2009

Mr Chua Chor Huat, principal of the School of Science and Technology. Photo by Lin Yanqin

 

TOSS out conventional textbooks and design a curriculum from scratch. Assess students on an ongoing basis, rather than the usual exam or test framework.

To keep apace with students who have been brought up to consider online socialising the norm and the Internet their main source of information, these are some of the big steps the School of Science of Technology (SST) in Clementi - which opens next year - plans to take.

And such steps are key to providing an applied-based curriculum where students will learn across disciplines, such as learning about mathematics and geography by looking at the issue of carbon footprints and the environment, said principal Chua Chor Huat.

The school is also prepared to embrace what Mr Chua describes as a “new generation of learners”.

For one, students these days are not averse to approaching authority figures via Facebook and adding them as friends, as one prospective student apparently did with Mr Chua, through SST’s Facebook site.

“He said that he would really love to come to (the) school,” said Mr Chua.

“We’re really dealing with a very new generation of learners ... I could not imagine a student in Primary 6 going up to a principal that you don’t know and say this face-to-face, but technology allows that to happen ... and I think we ought to encourage that.”

Teachers would then become key facilitators in helping their students make use of all the information available, rather than simply passing on knowledge.

And since they joined the school, SST’s teachers have also been hard at work designing and creating their own learning materials from scratch.

“We’re trying to teach real world problems and interdisciplinary learning, and where are you going to find textbooks with physics and chemistry and math all put in?” said Mr Chua.

For example, a Chinese lesson to teach new characters will be accompanied by a video found on YouTube showing the development of Chinese characters through history and punctuated by pop tests where students can enter their answers on laptops instantly.

The school is also putting in place an assessment framework that is “ongoing”, rather than the traditional semestral exams and tests each year.

“We want methods that demonstrate learning,” said Mr Chua. This can be through project work, assignments, blogs and podcasts.

 

The School of Science and Technology's interim campus at Clementi. Photo by Lin Yanqin

 

To ensure its pedagogy is sound, SST has inked a tie-up with the National Institute of Education.

And as one of six FutureSchools - schools pioneering innovative teaching methods based on information and communication technology (ICT) - SST will be exploring such methods, which will be shared with other schools if successful.

Such an approach has appeared to attract parents so far - the school has received 150 applications since the Direct School Admissions exercise kicked off in mid-April for its 200 places.

Mr Alvin Sng is one parent who likes what he has heard about the school. “I think its applied-learning approach suits my son’s way of learning and it will stretch him further,” said Mr Sng, 44, who works in business development.

The School of Science and Technology's interim campus at Clementi. It will move it its permanent campus in 2012. Photo by Lin Yanqin

 

But there are also those who are concerned as to whether the school’s unconventional curriculum will adequately prepare its students for the O-Level exams waiting for them at the end of four years.

Acknowledging that pen-and-paper tests and exams will still have their place, Mr Chua said the aim of applied learning is to have a deeper understanding of the subjects which will then enable students to do well, if not better, in conventional tests.

He is not ruling out the possibility that the school could eventually develop a six-year programme and bypass taking the O-levels altogether.

After all, a six-year programme - such as the Integrated Programme - has the advantage of being able to deliver the school’s teaching philosophy consistently.

“We want to prove that this is a successful model, and once people see the results, I think that’s when we can look at the next phase of development,” Mr Chua said.

Find out more about SST’s Parent Seminars and its Open House on May 23 at www.sst.edu.sg.

From TODAY, Home – Friday, 08-May-2009

A new approach to learning

New institution has a fresh take on teaching style and examinations

by Lin Yan Qin

04:02 PM May 08, 2009

Mr Chua Chor Huat, principal of the School of Science and Technology. Photo by Lin Yanqin

 

TOSS out conventional textbooks and design a curriculum from scratch. Assess students on an ongoing basis, rather than the usual exam or test framework.

To keep apace with students who have been brought up to consider online socialising the norm and the Internet their main source of information, these are some of the big steps the School of Science of Technology (SST) in Clementi - which opens next year - plans to take.

And such steps are key to providing an applied-based curriculum where students will learn across disciplines, such as learning about mathematics and geography by looking at the issue of carbon footprints and the environment, said principal Chua Chor Huat.

The school is also prepared to embrace what Mr Chua describes as a “new generation of learners”.

For one, students these days are not averse to approaching authority figures via Facebook and adding them as friends, as one prospective student apparently did with Mr Chua, through SST’s Facebook site.

“He said that he would really love to come to (the) school,” said Mr Chua.

“We’re really dealing with a very new generation of learners ... I could not imagine a student in Primary 6 going up to a principal that you don’t know and say this face-to-face, but technology allows that to happen ... and I think we ought to encourage that.”

Teachers would then become key facilitators in helping their students make use of all the information available, rather than simply passing on knowledge.

And since they joined the school, SST’s teachers have also been hard at work designing and creating their own learning materials from scratch.

“We’re trying to teach real world problems and interdisciplinary learning, and where are you going to find textbooks with physics and chemistry and math all put in?” said Mr Chua.

For example, a Chinese lesson to teach new characters will be accompanied by a video found on YouTube showing the development of Chinese characters through history and punctuated by pop tests where students can enter their answers on laptops instantly.

The school is also putting in place an assessment framework that is “ongoing”, rather than the traditional semestral exams and tests each year.

“We want methods that demonstrate learning,” said Mr Chua. This can be through project work, assignments, blogs and podcasts.

 

The School of Science and Technology's interim campus at Clementi. Photo by Lin Yanqin

 

To ensure its pedagogy is sound, SST has inked a tie-up with the National Institute of Education.

And as one of six FutureSchools - schools pioneering innovative teaching methods based on information and communication technology (ICT) - SST will be exploring such methods, which will be shared with other schools if successful.

Such an approach has appeared to attract parents so far - the school has received 150 applications since the Direct School Admissions exercise kicked off in mid-April for its 200 places.

Mr Alvin Sng is one parent who likes what he has heard about the school. “I think its applied-learning approach suits my son’s way of learning and it will stretch him further,” said Mr Sng, 44, who works in business development.

The School of Science and Technology's interim campus at Clementi. It will move it its permanent campus in 2012. Photo by Lin Yanqin

 

But there are also those who are concerned as to whether the school’s unconventional curriculum will adequately prepare its students for the O-Level exams waiting for them at the end of four years.

Acknowledging that pen-and-paper tests and exams will still have their place, Mr Chua said the aim of applied learning is to have a deeper understanding of the subjects which will then enable students to do well, if not better, in conventional tests.

He is not ruling out the possibility that the school could eventually develop a six-year programme and bypass taking the O-levels altogether.

After all, a six-year programme - such as the Integrated Programme - has the advantage of being able to deliver the school’s teaching philosophy consistently.

“We want to prove that this is a successful model, and once people see the results, I think that’s when we can look at the next phase of development,” Mr Chua said.

Find out more about SST’s Parent Seminars and its Open House on May 23 at www.sst.edu.sg.

From TODAY, Home – Friday, 08-May-2009