A Great Day at EPPS

24th July 2010 marks a fun-filled day to be remembered by Elias Park Primary School’s student as they celebrated their school’s 15th Anniversary cum Racial Harmony Evening. This event was graced by Mr. Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence as the Guest of Honour.

It was a memorable day for the Elias Park Primary School’s students as they were treated to a fun day of learning and discovering the values of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and the significance of the Racial Harmony day, including learning Mathematics through the following interactive games designed by our fellow students from the Diploma in Interactive Media Informatics (IMI):

-Racial Harmony Game: A memory game where you have to flip up two similar cards.
-YOG Game: A guessing game where you have to identify the missing letter in the words. YOG values and sports were used as the word to be guessed.
-Soccer: A game where you have to answer question on YOG and EPPS.
-Shoot the Bird: A game where students learn simple mathematics such as Addition and Subtraction.

The Junior (Year 2) students designed these games as a requirement for the module Multimedia Project 2 which they read in semester 2. This module aims to provide students with the knowledge and hands-on practice to build flexible and dynamic interactive multimedia applications. The objective of showcasing these projects was to showcase the capability of IMI students in using the Immersive Technology.

This event was successful because of the efforts and contributions of the following IMI Junior game designers who had the priviledge of showcasing their awesome projects during the event:

-Nur Amalina Bte Rashid
-Victor Ng Jun Teng
-Yeow Chun Sian

Thank you fellow IMI friends, you have done us proud!


Game designer, Nur Amalina, inviting the esteemed Minister to view the games.


Students enjoying the games.

Student Insights!

The blogging team interviewed a few freshmen(Year1) on why they chose Interactive Media Informatics as their choice so here is what one of them has to say.
He is Heng Sen previously from Chung Cheng High School (Yishun).

Graduate Insights!

gov.sg team with guest of honour Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Member of Parliament, Hong Kah, GRC.

Nur Ashikin Isnin our graduate can be found at the 2nd row(second from the right)

Nur Ashikin Isnin graduated in 2009 from Internet and Multimedia Development (now Interactive Media Informatics). She is currently working in the Ministry of Infocomm, Communications and the Arts, Public Communications Division as a webmaster.

Her advice to our students is to "Work hard to get what you want. Efforts that you have put in will surely benefit you one day."

She shares with us her experience as a webmaster for gov.sg and crisis.gov.sg.

"It is my duty to oversee issues or amend any broken links within these two sites. As these sites will reach out to thousands of people each day, it is my job to maintain the currency of the portals by giving prompt and regular updates. This helps ensure customers of the portal that they will receive up-to-date and relevant information from the government. Apart from that, both me and my colleague are required to create visuals for http://www.gov.sg/ highlight items.

The department has also exposed me to the creation of both static and Flash advertisements to promote the websites. Currently, they are giving me the opportunity to create an intranet website for them. Often, they let me do what I love most - to take photographs! All that I had learnt in the Diploma in Internet and Multimedia Devt have been very useful and relevant for my job.

Thanks to Diploma Internet and Multimedia Devt / Interactive Media Informatics! "

Sheldon - Erupting Quest For FAME

Hi there! My name is Sheldon, and I am your new M blogger on the fringe of going insane with my erupting passion for FAME. I am so elated to be part of this awesome team of IMI fabulous bloggers. For my inaugural post, I will share with you the magical wonders of how I showcase my creative works virtually. But how? you may ask. It is simple! There is a website called deviantArt which allows you to upload your works up there.

What is deviantArt? It is an online community showcasing user-made artwork done by people. Showcasing your work is not the only feature of deviantArt! There are many other useful features of deviantArt which have enticed me to be part of this amazing virtual community.

Features
Uploading:
This is pretty straightforward. To upload your works, first you just need to choose what categories you want to upload. Then you select the copyright license that you want. And your work gets uploaded onto cyberspace in a jiffy. People can choose to comment or provide critique to your work. People can also select the button “favourite” if they like your work. Your work will then be highlighted in one of their profiles.

Favourite:
If you see an artwork that you like online, you can choose to “favourite” it too by simply clicking on the “favourite” button. The more “favourites” tags you have on your works, the more well-known your works will be and you will get the much anticipated FAME that you wanted for your artwork. If the works you upload are erupting with juicy creativity, people will favourite your work and be drooling at it. Through this, your works can be spread around faster.

deviantWatch:
A friend-like system similar to the exciting features of Facebook and Twitter, you will be able to watch (or follow or write on the walls) the progress of the people that you have the flame for. This means that whenever the people that you have “watched” upload their new artworks, you will be notified. You can make many great friends through this feature. I watched a few people and some other people watched me. Whenever I upload my flaming works, they will comment about my flames and how I can make it more explosive.

Hey guys! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR~, start showing the world what you are capable of. It’s just a click away, I have done it so can you. Join me, yours truly, M flaming blogger, on our conquest of contributing to the fantastic and artistic growth of erupting works by commenting and giving critiques of their works as you “watch” them with flaming desire to achieve FAME.

Stay on the lookout for my next erupting post, you will be in awe by my awesomeness. =D Remember to bookmark this blog for more insanity!

Signing off, the M blogger.
P.S If you want to know what M means!? Keep guessing.

Student Insights!

John who is year 1 from Interactive Media Informatics is here to share with us why he chose the course as his first choice. So here is what he has to say:

Student Insights!

Hey guys! It’s Jaiden again! Today, I have a submission from one of our awesome schoolmates who reflected about himself and the SLP – Student Leadership Program which he attended. With that, I give you this reflection from an IMI Freshman, Mohammad Hussain B Safie.

Two weeks ago, on the 29th of July, from six in the evening to about eight pm, I attended a talk that is about being a student leader. I was nominated by my care person, Ms. Natasha. I was initially reluctant to become one due to past incidents which involves my horrible leadership skills, such as destroying a camp or scaring my juniors after an ejaculation of apoplexy due to an extreme amount of stress. Nonetheless, I was interested and went for the talk with two of my course mates Lydia & Dawn.

The talk was actually quite enjoyable even though its topic caused me brief trauma attacks as it constantly reminded me of my past. One of the main speakers was a man with a rather good sense of humour. Regrettably, his name escapes me. His jokes and strange riddles kept me awake despite the talk being right after classes end, & I’m pretty sure everyone is tired after classes. In comparison, Lydia and Dawn was probably dozing off or staring into space. The main speaker mostly talked about the qualities required in order to be a good leader and what being a student leader is about. Being a leader can be summed up into a short sentence invented by yours truly: “A leader is charismatic and influential”.

In order to be a student leader, you need to be liked by others but at the same time, your decisions needs to be just, & not what the majority chooses. This will probably be impossible since people would probably hate you for making a decision that is not well-received, but you’d be surprised by how well-known you will get for your right decisions. If you are making the right choices, and being well received by your entourage, you are a good leader. A student leader also needs charisma so that you can influence people into listening to you.

As the speaker progressed with the talk, I reflected on my past, which is quite dark in comparison to what I am presently. I have had bad incidents in which I was a leader in my previous CCA, the NCC. My most recent incident was when I came back to help out my freshly promoted juniors in educating them about being leaders. I taught them several wrong things by accident and was eventually lectured by my officer. I benefitted from that but almost ruined the CCA if my erroneous teaching was eventually spread around.

Still, as I continued thinking, I began to wonder why was I nominated when I clearly had bad leadership skills. Perhaps I was thinking too little of myself and I lack confidence. All this thinking brought me back to the time when I had a great time playing the role of a leader in NCC. I was dressed in a smart soldier uniform that is as white as snow with a cool hat that resembles a police officer’s. I greeted Professor Yacob Ibrahim (not directly but in a form of a unified salute with my platoon mates) and felt proud. And then, there was another time where I became a squad leader of a brief performance and the day was flawless. I began to realize, perhaps there is a leader inside me.

After about an hour or so, the man transferred the microphone to another person, a former TP student who talked about the NYAA (National Youth Achievement Award). It is an activity that requires dedication, a trait required in a leader. It was optional but I recognized it almost too well as I was asked to do at during my NCC years. I obtained Silver back then and I wondered if I should be chasing Gold. Still, I listened and even had memories of me taking part in the event like doing physical activities or taking part in donation events. After that, the talk came to an end.

The talk made me reflect deeply about my past and the kind of person I am. I had a change of heart about my leadership skills and I felt good. Perhaps, I might actually want to be a student leader. I’m not sure about Lydia and Dawn’s feelings about the talk but they seemed fairly interested. I might go for any future talks about the Student Leadership Program and hopefully become one soon.

Also, here are some photos of Hussain in person:

This is Hussain!

This is Hussain in a kampong.

This is the smart NCC uniform Hussain was talking about!

All right, that’s it. Thank you Hussain for such an interesting reflection! It sincerely & whole-heartedly shows us your reflection about your ‘dark’ past – Don’t worry too much about it, everyone has their ‘dark’ moments – & the way you were inspired to try & pick up leadership skills once more will definitely inspire many future leaders as well.

Your resident blogger,
Jaiden

Student Insights!

The blogging team interviewed a few freshmen(Year1) on why they chose Interactive Media Informatics as their choice so here is what one of them has to say.
He is Xuan Hao from C273, previously from Chung Cheng High School (Main).

The Joys of Teaching Web Designing – Reflections of a Lecturer

During this April 2010 semester, I had the privilege of teaching the module “Web Design” (WDS) to Year 1 students (Freshmen) from the Diplomas in Games and Entertainment Technology (GET), Interactive Media Informatics (IMI) and Mobile & Network Services (MNS). WDS is a core subject offered to all Year 1 students studying in the Temasek Informatics & IT School. In class, students were taught to use Microsoft Expression and Adobe Fireworks CS3 to build their websites.

For me, this week had been an exciting time of the semester where I could sit back, relax and enjoy my students’ wonderful presentations of the fruits of their weeks of labour – their completed websites! At the end of the 16-week stint, the project presentation was their final challenge and manifestation of their successful completion of the WDS module after surviving other hurdles of completing the research proposal and term test earlier.

I marveled at my students’ efforts and hard-work to produce quality websites that they can be proud off. I listened with interest as they reflected their challenging yet meaningful experience of their self-directed learning endeavours of learning additional softwares beyond the subject syllabus.

When I observed my students beamed with pride and happiness as they stood tall to present their websites, I knew that this subject had certainly achieved its objectives of equipping students with the basic yet practical skills and knowledge of web designing. I was also pleasantly surprised when some of them demonstrated how they had exceeded my expectations by incorporating programming and photography skills learnt from other subjects, to value add and increase the interactivity of their websites and adding the ‘wow’ factor. Indeed that had been the most rewarding experience for me as the facilitator for these self-motivated students!

Their smart formal attire had added a touch of professionalism to their presentation, helped boosted their confidence and gave them the experience of presenting their websites to a real-life client when working in the industry.

For the next batch of WDS students, heed these useful tips and advice from these seniors who had gone through the rigour of web designing - start working on your research proposal early in the semester, practice good time management, be consistent and avoid
procastination.

Just like my students, I too have had a fantastic and joyful experience teaching, interacting while learning together with them as well. This can be seen from their smiles and happy faces in the photographs seen here. While I felt sad to say goodbye to these students at the end of our short learning journey together this semester, I knew that the warm friendship and bonding we had shared will be cherished in our hearts for a long time to come. Thanks to the advent of digital new media, we can continue to virtually keep in touch with one another via Facebook, Twitter and MSN.

I certainly can’t wait to proudly demonstrate the good works of these students to motivate and inspire the future batches of WDS students. What a delightful closure I had had for this April 2010 semester!

Anyway, here are the photos I took with my classes:

Interactive Media Informatics - We Did Our Best!

Interactive Media Informatics - WDS Rawkz!

Interactive Media Informatics - Our Best Websites

Game & Entertainment Technology - We Made It!

Game & Entertainment Technology - We Love WDS!

Game & Entertainment Technology - We Are Proud of Our Work!

Mobile & Network Services - WDS Is the Best!

Mobile & Network Services - Satisfied With Our Websites!

Mobile & Network Services - Gerl Power!

These photos are hard evidence that classes in TP are fun, & both lecturers like me & the students enjoy our classes. Even though I'm always sad to see students leave, but as I said earlier, we still keep in touch virtually, & I get to know even more wonderful students! Teaching in TP is a wonderful experience for me! With that, I leave you with this post.

Your awesome lecturer,
Ms. Farida

Surviving Temasek Polytechnic!

Hey guys!

This will be the first of many posts by one of your resident bloggers here, Jaiden! There are others, of course, such as Yu Ling - who has already done a lot of work, doing the previous few posts - & Lorraine, so you'll get to hear from us a lot more. Also, this effort is coordinated by Ms. Noor Farida, an awesome lecturer from TP!

Well, I'm pretty sure that when it comes to picking a school, most people will definitely want to find out more about a school's overall dynamics, environment & most importantly, about the people in there! There's only one word that can sum the people in TP up. Awesome! Join TP, & you'll be rewarded with a host of awesome people, & trust me, you'll be glad to be part of this awesome school!

Being a Freshman in Semester 1.1, my experience with TP is still undoubtedly green, & there's a lot more I have to learn, but, I still have some tips on surviving the school - Which is by & by a nice environment. This means that you don't have to worry too much! You can focus on your studies wholly! - that can complement your learning & overall experience with the school.

Tip One: Internet on the Move

Well, one would probably not bring a MacBook - That's what I use! MacBook Pro! My beloved darling! - or laptop every day, but Internet is still important, & you might not be able to get access to a lab easily. So...

If you have the means, get a smartphone with a 3G plan.

If not, use iPod Touches, iPhones or any other phone/portable device that can connect to the school Wi-fi network. In case you forget or are lazy to bring your laptop, MacBook et cetera, you can simply use your phone or whatever to access your important emails or OLIVE - Online Learning Interactive Virtual Environment, which is a portal the school provides to complement your learning by placing important announcements there & course materials, notes et cetera. - on the go.

How to connect to the Wi-fi network with iPod Touches & iPhones:

Step One: Click on settings.

Step Two: Select Wi-fi from the menu

Step Three: Below the 'Choose a network' title, click the button that says 'Other...'

Step Four: Key in TP-Secure as the network name

Step Five: Select WPA2 Enterprise as the network name

Step Six: Enter your admission number - given to you when you start school - as the username, & your barcode number - on your matriculation card, given to you when you start school - as the password. There we go. Connected to the school wi-fi network.

Tip Two: 'PR Squared'

*WARNING. TIP DERIVED BY YOURS TRULY. HEED WITH DISCRETION!*

What's that? Personal Reputation, & Public Relations. Having lots of friends in polytechnics - or anywhere else - can be really advantageous, as when you need help, friends will undoubtedly be there for you. Now, imagine this scenario. You're stuck at doing an utterly perplexing assignment. Your lecturer is out of office for the next week. Who else can you turn to? Your friends of course. Now, if you didn't have any friends, & the assignment was due in the next week, all that you can do is to attempt the assignment to the best of your ability - Hopefully, you'll be able to finish it! - but with the aid of your friends, finishing that assignment would have taken less time right? Also, you probably would have more than one assignment to worry about! So, start socialising, & socialise well!

Also, a linked factor to Public Relations, is of course Personal Reputation. Now, if you're notorious for not wanting to do work et cetera, do you think people would want to help you? Or, do group work with you? Group work usually has to be a coordinated effort for it to work. I'm sure that you won't want your grades to be compromised right? Thus, whatever you do, remember to stay hardworking! Even when you graduate you have to. Whatever situation you are in you have to work hard. Don't let laziness become a burden.

Tip Three: Effective Time Management

More often than not, you will have more than one assignment to handle at one go. Thus, learning how to manage your time well - Again, this is an essential skill which can help you in your life after TP as well - is directly beneficial to your learning. There are many ways where you can do this, so I will try to the best of my ability to summate here as many time-saving methods as I can.

1. Use a personal organiser, & note down every little appointment, assignment dead line et cetera to remind you of everything around you that goes on. This way, you're bound to forget less, & do more.
2. Multi-task, if you can do it properly. If you're the type who must focus on one item at a time, then don't, for there will be a negative effect instead. More haste, less speed. But with wits, multi-tasking can be your best friend. But, without mastering it properly, it becomes a foe. Be careful with this one.
3. Set alarms for everything. If you're overly cautious, set multiple alarms. For example, if you're afraid you'll be late for school, set five alarms on five different devices - or at least that's what I do, if you can't wake up, you really sleep well.
4. Do your assignments ASAP. When you're hard-pressed for time, you won't have the mood or clarity of mind to finish up those assignments. Think of it this way, if you work hard at first, you get to rest later. Quoting my Chinese teacher from Secondary Four, Ms. Neo, 先苦后甜 - Translates to hard work pays off. So, work hard, & you'll enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Tip Four: Obliviousness to Negative Influence

Undoubtedly, Люди инвалиды - Russian, pronounced as Lyudi Invalidy, directly translates to invalid people, but I'm using this phrase in the context of morally invalid people - people exist. This is an inexplicable mystery of life that perhaps will never be solved. Why do some people - Sadly. Sigh. - do so much malicious things to other people?

Thus, if you ever feel that a classmate - Don't worry, there's not much here in TP, but everywhere you go, there'll be one or two, so you still have to be careful - is being malicious to you, just pay that classmate back in their own coin. If they cross the line, alert the 'authorities' - Lecturers, if your grades are compromised as a result of their actions - or confront them nicely. Strike a deal, make friends with them, & all will be fine. Well, you don't really have to 'like' them, you only have to make peace. Everybody wants peace, & making peace definitely is a win-win situation. Use your wits on this one. Brute force is a no-go. You'll lose for sure.

Well, that's about all I have to say for today. Having too long a post will turn people off, this is what we learn in Introduction to Human Computer Interaction. See! We learn so much from lessons in TP! So, what's holding you guys back? Consider joining TP today!

XOXO, Y'know y'wanna be a part of TP's awesome family,

Jaiden

P.S: In case you're wondering, yes, I watch Gossip Girl & am addicted to it. =)