Comic Life is and incredible piece of software.

Every now and then a software application crosses one’s path and it immediately grabs your attention. Back in 1992 I was introduced to HyperCard by Dr John Hedberg. That application changed my career and my life. Thanks John!

Several years back I was attending an Apple Technology Day for teachers and right at the end of the day we were given a quick look at Comic Life. I was immediately captivated.

Naturally Comic Life allows you to create comics. All sorts of comics. Basic, 1940s, strips, manga and loads more. Yet, it is capable of much more than that. You can skip the templates and simply allow the creative thoughts to generate and drag the various elements such as panels, word balloons, images and titles wherever you wish. If you explore the details panel for each element you can modify the style of each element to your heart’s content.

Recently I conducted some workshops over 6 days for a number of teachers from a variety of schools devoted to children and young adults with special needs. Part of the programme incorporated a Comic Life workshop. They all loved it. We all had a ball. We also covered digital photography, connecting, web presence and other connected stuff. There were teachers from Pathlight, Metta and the Cannossian schools in Singapore. Teachers also travelled down from the Korean International School in Seoul to attend the workshops in Singapore. I shall post some images from the workshops and examples shortly. In the meantime you might like to check out this pdf. Some of my efforts are displayed in this post.

Well, what is this all about, eh? This Wednesday Kevin Lim and I shall be giving a talk at Nanyang Technological University on Education and the social web ~ taking learning beyond the classroom. I am up here in Singapore, on a bit of a break, hanging out with friends and taking photographs, and the opportunity arose to give a talk and I thought why not invite Kevin to be part of the process. The talk is part of the edUtorium series at NTU.

I am a big fan of Kevin’s blog & also his Delicious feed so I thought it would be neat to allow Kevin to speak in Singapore during his current homecoming visit from the University of Buffalo where he has recently completed his PhD. Congratulations Kevin!

Kevin and I at Starbucks, Holland Village, Singapore

Last Saturday morning Kevin and I met up for a drink at Starbucks in Holland Village and synthesized a number of ideas for our talk. Individually our ideas have been gestating for some years now and they have come together in a manner of speaking and this Wednesday I guess an offspring will be generated in the form of our talk. Please feel welcome to join the talk and if you can spread the word. Kevin has been doing a great job already!

What are the details? Taken from the Nanyang Technological University web site…

Date/Time
14 October 2009 (Wednesday) · 2.30 pm – 4.30 pm (2hrs)

Location
NTU Lecture Theatre 6, Level 2, Academic Complex North, Singapore (PDF map)

Overview

The democratic nature of the social web means that the ability to learn and produce meaningful work can now happen at any level – from the independent student, to the individual teacher, to the entire education institution. Now, more than ever, instructors are able to motivate active learning among students, by empowering them with relevant online tools that allow for more creative approaches to go beyond the traditional class-based education.

In this two hour session, learn how you can…

~ cultivate learning beyond the classroom
~ encourage participation in the class conversation
~ inspire student pride through greater sense of ownership of their work
~ include new literacies in research, organization, and synthesis of ideas
~ support multiple learning styles
~ create exemplars by raising the bar of student achievement
~ archive learning by creating a record for both you and the students

And much more…

In this international presentation brought to you by educators John Larkin (Australia) and Kevin Lim (United States), the first part of the session will provide a general state of education on the social web, while the second part will demonstrate tactical approaches to meeting your students’ learning objectives through the appropriate use of social web tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networks. The ultimate vision of this session would be to situate student learning in a more familiar and communal environment.

Speakers

Dr Kevin Lim studies and shares his interest in the wide-ranging cultural affordances of information communication technology, particularly on the self-organizing and pedagogical quality of the social web. With his academic background in communication, his research has ranged from Internet censorship and civil sovereignty in China, to social capital among online non-profit organizations. He also conducts social web-related workshops and produces instructional guides at the Teaching & Learning Center, located in the University at Buffalo (SUNY). Kevin has been fortunate to be featured on the Buffalo News (New York), CBC News (Canada), Zaobao Weekly (Singapore), Channel News Asia (Singapore), commandN.tv (Canada), as well as several prominent blogs.

Mr John Larkin is an educator and instructional designer presently living in Australia. He has vast experience in the development and application of educational technologies in primary, secondary, tertiary and corporate educational fields. John is constantly researching the latest trends in educational technologies and as a result he has established linkages with like-minded educators across the globe. He is constantly seeking new tools and technologies that will allow educators of all backgrounds to converge teaching and technology in a manner that is both practical and productive. He has worked on a significant number of web-based and CD-ROM projects. John has led the design on corporate, tertiary and school based web-learning projects. His skill set is enriched with a keen eye for design and a practical approach towards instructional technologies.

Course Fee
Thanks to NTU the presentation is now free to attend.

Registration Link
http://edutorium.ntu.edu.sg/courses_detail.php?course_id=138

Kevin strikes a pose near Sultan Gate

This photograph was taken at Nanyang Technological University. It is the view from the School of Computer Engineering. Quite warm this morning.

Sent via iPhone.

Posted via email from Watershed Lite

Had lunch at one of my old haunts in Trengannu Street near Pagoda Street in Chinatown, Singapore.
 
Rice, omelette with pork, vegetables and seafood. Tiger beer. A nice way to relax and watch the world go by for a bit.
 
Nostalgia. Been nearly ten years since I first ate at this establishment.

Sent via iPhone, with a little help from Posterous, to my blog, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and Watershed Lite.

Posted via email from Watershed Lite

Went for a walk down by the Singapore River today. It was a overcast yet humid.
 
I eventually walked down to Pagoda Street to have some lunch. The gopuram on the Sri Mariamman temple is being renovated.
 
The Singapore River appeared quite brown today. Made for some contrast in the photographs. More to come.

Sent via iPhone with a little help from Posterous.

Posted via email from Watershed Lite

During 2001 Shao Ping and I lived in Choa Chu Kang in Singapore. It is a ‘new town’ located in the north-west of the island. We lived in an 11 storey Housing Development Board building on Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4. As you can see from the Google Maps image below the town is a maze, albeit highly organised at that, of high rise buildings.

View Larger Map

We quite enjoyed our time in Choa Chu Kang. The bus service was excellent. The MRT was nearby and there were plenty of handy shops. In the midst of this highly urbanised environment were two nearby Buddhist temples. Within a couple of minutes of our flat is the Hai Inn Temple. About 15 minutes in the other direction is the Uttamayanmuni Buddhist Temple. From time to to time we would visit either temple. The temples provided a moment of tranquility.

The Hai Inn Temple, Singapore. Gallery.

The Hai Inn Temple is positioned to the south of Choa Chu Kang in Bricklands Road. Here are the directions to the temple. It is quite a beautiful temple, like all Buddhist temples come to think of it. The temple has its own web site which you can explore here.

The Uttamayanmuni Buddhist Temple, Singapore. Gallery.

The Uttamayanmuni Buddhist Temple is an interesting temple that follows the Theravada tradition. It has a statue of the four faced Buddha. The decorations on the temple are quite exquisite. The temple is almost completely surrounded by the HDB Blocks of Choa Chu Kang. There is a private condominium located on one side.

I sometimes take the MRT to Choa Chu Kang and go for a walk around the town to capture some of that time duirng my visits to Singapore.

Mudskipper. July 2008.

The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is celebrating its 15th anniversary. My friend Siva has blogged about the forthcoming event as well as a related photography exhibition and book launch.

Sungei Buloh is a great place to visit in order to escape from the hectic life of the city of Singapore. You were never sure what you may see when you visited. Over the years I have seen otters, Malayan Water Monitors, mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, macaques, snakes, spiders and so on. Of course there is a rich variety of mangrove species as well.

Well, to share in the celebration I thought I would share some of the photographs I have taken at the reserve over the years…

Rain storm. January 3rd, 2003.

View from the tower

A view of the mangroves. April 12th, 2003.

Mangrove Pit Viper. 26th October 2003.

During my stay in Singapore I also helped out with the International Coastal Cleanup event at Sungei Buloh. I took photographs of the event and captured video. Galleries of those photographs can be found at the official site for the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore. Gallery 2001. Gallery 2003.

Happy Anniversary Sungei Buloh!

This morning I posted about Google Maps and some of the interesting discoveries made by users of the tool in the past. I just made one of my own. I was exploring the town of Pasir Ris in Singapore and discovered a strange white blotch near the intersection of Pasir Ris Drive 1 and Pasir Ris Drive 4.

View Larger Mape

What is this?

What can it be? A massive liquid paper spill? A horrendous bird dropping?

Singapore, 2003.

Well, the week is over. It was hectic. No time for reading feeds. Just a couple of blog posts. Did engage in some Twitter repartee. That was good. For all of you that responded to various tweets and shouts during the last few days… thank you. This was my week…

Monday AM: Interview and video recording
Monday PM: 2 hour presentation ~ The Read~Write Web in the Classroom
Tuesday: Workshop ~ Getting started with the Read~Write Web (8 hours)
Wednesday: Workshop ~ Nurturing your Networks (8 hours)
Wednesday: Presentation @ eFest2008 ~ LMS and Web 2.0 Technologies (Evening)
Thursday: Workshop ~ Getting more out of your RSS feeds (8 hours)
Thursday: Evening: ME@N Meetup ~ Macintosh Evangelists at Nanyang
Friday: Workshop: Podcasting and Vodcasting (8 hours)
Friday: Evening: Fly home to Australia from Singapore Changi International Airport

It was hard going at times, yet, I kept finding a second wind. I felt I would hit the wall and then my energy levels would be restored. Teaching teachers is energising and enriching.

Last night, after the workshop had completed, I took a bus and train from the NTU campus into the city. As I walked from City Hall MRT across to Singapore’s Suntec City to meet up with my buddies in ME@N I felt mindful. You know, those rare moments when you are completely at peace with the world. The word nirvana crossed my mind. I was wearing my iPod and I was listening to Jeff Martin’s cover of a song by Daniel Lanois, I Love You. It is a live version that segues into The Messenger. The moment was so complete. I felt happy.

Today’s podcasting and vodcasting workshop was good. Everything worked. Podcasting can be an inexact science at times due to the vagaries of servers and networks. All the teachers and academic staff managed to:

1. Create their audio and video projects
2. Publish/upload their files
3. Subscribe to the ‘casts in iTunes and Google Reader for good measure

The timing was good. I had time for lunch and some administrative activities.

This evening a group of former colleagues at the CED and I shall be sharing dinner at the airport. They are all wonderful people. I feel as if I have been adopted by the team. A member of their family.

Wish you were here too.

This evening I am giving a short presentation at NTU’s eFest2008 seminar. This seminar will launch a suite of new Web 2.0 learning tools – Bb Scholar, Bb Sync and aNTUna Connect. The tools are an integral component of NTU’s commitment to Web 2.0 technologies within its edveNTUre eLearning portal.

The presentation is just over one hour away and I am about take my dinner.

Arrived in Singapore last night. Woke up this morning. Did some work. Then caught a bus and train into Chinatown. When I took the escalators from the Outram Park MRT Station up to street level I was struck by a wonderful aroma ~ rain. It was raining so heavily. It was wonderful. The rain smelt so good.

Grabbed some lunch. I took a few photographs around Chinatown. I love to see the old and the new mixed up. The tropical lush attempting, yet struggling, to reclaim its territory. Note the building below which is being retrofitted with elevators that stop at each floor. Previously, I think, they stopped at every fourth floor judging by the landings. One would alight and than take stairs up or down to your specific floor.

I went across to Bugis and Sim lim Square looking for a QuikPod but  I had no luck.

Grabbed a drink and took a few snaps of people. In particular, the Singapore Malay couple below who were dressed for post Hari Raya celebrations. They both looked so resplendent.

Took the train back to Boon Lay MRT. Like to see the bike racks outside the station. Should be more of that back home.

Singaporean bloggers have been very hard at work in recent weeks and in particular this weekend.

First of all a group of Singaporean bloggers, known collectively as the ‘media socialists‘ have been quite busy. They are not ’socialists’ per se. They are a group of academics, civil servants, consultants and designers who are passionate and actively involved in social media, or what many people call “new media”. A group of the media socialists devoted a rather busy week creating a response, via a collaborative wiki, to the recent AIMS Consultation Paper advising the Singaporean government on engaging citizens through new media.

This form of collaboration and selfless sharing demonstrates how blogging and social media can be utilised to connect with governments and organisations. Individuals can come together collectively to achieve outcomes that would have been so difficult for an individual. Another group of Singaporean bloggers have also contributed to the debate. You can read all about the work of the media socialists here. I am heartened by the knowledge that the media socialists have included myself in their ranks due to my connections with the island state and personal friendships with a number of the actual bloggers.

I have been keeping tabs on their work via blogger extraordinaire, Kevin Lim. Now, who is Kevin Lim? He is a visionary, a researcher, a student and as he points out on his blog Kevin  “…is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Communication at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). Dabbling for both pragmatic and play, he seeks an ideal interplay between online and offline life, through social networking, blogging and lifecasting. He openly wishes to become a “social cyborg”, where the meshing of human and networking technology would allow one’s presence to be augmented by the minds of many.”

On a separate front my friend Siva has been co-ordinating the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore. This involves 3000 volunteers. Blogging and connectedness play a crucial role in harnessing the volunteers, gathering data and publishing results. I remember back in 2001 and 2002 results were being published within minutes of the cleanup conclusion. Tonnes of rubbish are cleared away from beaches and mangroves during the cleanup.

Siva provides updates via his blog and the ICCS blog. The cleanup is happening today, as I type, and already several updates have been posted to the blog.

Siva uses blogging and the net to bring together students, teachers, and members of the community to work on environmental and other projects that benefit the people of Singapore. Siva has been using blogs as a tool to augment his research and teaching for at least five years now. Here are some of his blogs, those of his students and blogs that he contributes towards.

The Otterman ~ original blog
The Otterman ~ current blog
Habitat News
The Biology Refugia
LSM2351 Ecology and Environmental Processes
LSM1103 Biodiversity
LSM3261 Life Form and Function
LSM1301 Animal Behaviour
The Biodiversity Crew at NUS
The Pursuit of Anurans
Biodiversity of Insects at Kent Ridge
Fauna of Kent Ridge
Johora singaporensis
Frogs in Singapore
Horseshoe Crabs of Kranji
ToddyCats
Mangrove Shrimps of Kranji
Pasir Panjang Heritage
Singapore Heritage Blog

I would not be surprised that if one looked up the term blog in an illustrated dictionary there would be photographs of Siva and Kevin within the text of the definition. They are the definitive bloggers.

Most of all they achieve measurable outputs. They are productive. They assist the community. I wish I was in Singapore right now.

These photographs were taken at Boat Quay, Singapore. Years back it was a busy port with small boats and sampans lining the shores, busy with crews loading and unloading their cargoes. These days it is a tourist mecca with restaurants, bars and pubs. One can eat and drink outside, under the stars, by the Singapore River. It is busy of an evening and relatively quiet by day.

During my first job in Singapore the programmers, designers and I would occasionally set up camp in a quiet coffee shop by the river and work there, swapping files via a local wireless network set up by our Macs. Our office was a kilometre or so away in Chinatown.

Shao Ping and I did not go to Boat Quay all that often. We would take our visitors there for dinner or a drink. There are a few bars that are the haunts of expatriates that work in the CBD. I never felt that comfortable in those venues. I felt that there was an air or pretension in those places.

I took these two photographs with a Sony DSC-70 digital camera. I sat the camera on a stone fence and left the shutter open for a few seconds.

Tiong Bahru is an area of Singapore that I had not explored before. I had been to the shopping plaza adjacent to the MRT station but I had not explored some of the older areas of the town. I had often traveled past streets that I wished to wander around and during my last trip to Singapore I took the chance to pay a visit to Tiong Bahru.

I took a number of photographs as I walked around the estate. I walked along the following roads: Tiong Poh Road, Kim Cheng Street, Lim Liak Street and Tiong Bahru Road. It is one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore. Some of the buildings date back to the 1930s and feature a mix of art deco and Straits Settlements design. I quite like the estate. There are a few estates, like Tiong Bahru, that are like little ‘islands’ that are cut off from the hustle and bustle of Singapore. They include Bukit Purmei and the Eng Kong estate.

Go to Google Maps

A couple of weeks ago I had breakfast over at the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve in Singapore during my last visit. The reserve is a nice place to take a rest and recharge one’s batteries. I went for a walk around parts of the reserve, took some photographs, and observed that the reserve is making use of QR Codes. I have blogged about QR Codes previously here and there.

The staff have established a wireless learning trail at the reserve. Devices are made available to students so that they can access location specific multimedia data while walking the mangrove boardwalk. The portable reading device is rented to the students at $3.00SGD per student. I wonder if mobile phones equipped with QR Code reading software can also access the content?