Nanhua High School: The Truth Exposed

I googled Nanhua High School after reading Wang Jun's post that he did so and found his and my blogs at the 4th page. So I decided to give it a try. This result from ChannelNewsAsia interested me alot.


See this stupid Howard using the Tablet with Suan Fong and the King beside him? Damn, his face must have been broadcasted throughout Channel 8, U, 5 and NewsAsia.

I have pasted the full article below.

SINGAPORE : It was a packed programme for King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia on the second day of his official visit to Singapore.

The king is on a three-day state visit at the invitation of Singapore President S.R. Nathan.

King Sihamoni's morning started in Clementi.

His first stop was at Nan Hua High School, where he was warmly greeted by the principal and students.

The school is 89 years old, and home to more than 1,700 students.

The king was particularly interested in learning more about how the school employs technology in the classroom.

There, Secondary One and Two students use a tablet PC in learning up to seven subjects, and the entire school is also wirelessly connected to the Internet.

The king saw for himself how the students make use of computers in a laboratory session.

In one of the lessons, a student explained to the Cambodian king on how they mix several essential oils to make perfume.

Then it was off to a geography lesson.

The school's teachers explain that using the laptops means lessons are not confined to just textbooks and students can even use resources from the Internet.

Even homework is mostly done using their laptops, which are optional for students at the cost of $2,800.

The only time the students use pen and paper is for their examinations.

Next, it was another lesson for the king - this time in history when he visited the Asian Civilisations Museum.

The king also visited the National Orchid Garden where a new orchid hybrid - the Denbrodium Norodom Sihamoni - was named after him.

The robust and free-flowering hybrid has about 15 to 25 richly coloured flowers per spray.

Its petals are gracefully twisted with slightly wavy margins and its floral parts are violet-purple with white borders.

King Sihamoni wraps up his state visit to Singapore on Friday. - CNA/de




How do we use this technology in the classroom? We don't. The Tablets are stashed away at home. On the (very-rare) occasions when the teacher tells us to bring them to school for lessons, the class would always groan and give excuses like, "Wa lao, so heavy." and "Dont want. Got CCA la" . At least this is what happens in our class. But it should be the same situation in other TPC classes. So when we do not even bring the TPCs, do we use them in our lab lessons? Or other lessons for that matter. The only time period we brought our Tablet PC to school daily was when we first got our Tablet PCs last year. We were so excited about them that we lugged them around in and out of school. But what did we do with them? Listen to music, play turn-based online game Gunbound and spam other students with fake Colligo admin messages. Did we use them properly for lessons? No, we did not.

"Even homework is mostly done using their laptops, which are optional for students at the cost of $2,800. The only time the students use pen and paper is for their examinations." Wow, when did we ever use the TPC to do our homework? I don't think I can remember. It seems like from day one, teachers have been using paper to give us worksheets. The only exception was last year when Mr Chow gave us a simple scanned-in worksheet on Vernier Calipers. Otherwise, I don't think we have ever used it for homework. And after including the cost of insurance, CD-RW/DVD-R drives, locks, screen protectors and other accesories, I don't think the price of the TPC would be only $2,800.

Ok, what I have said is the reality now in Nanhua. But I can see improvements in this Tablet PC programme. Teachers (like Mr Adrian Tan and Mdm Yip) are really urging us to bring the Tablets to school and use it. They are also adjusting their lessons to bring in the usage of Tablets. To prevent students from playing online games or surf undesirable (gaming, porn) websites, the school implemented SonicWall, a firewall that blocks access to websites the Admin specified using keywords for example, game, so www.game.com and www.gamefreakz.blogspot.com (my website! :'( ) could not be accessed. This would discourage students from using the Tablet in inappropriate activities, if students bring the Tablets for lessons in the future. But what is the big problem that makes TPC students so reluctant to bring the Tablets to school? It is the weight. The Tablet PC with the Main and Bay batteries slotted in would weigh around 2.5 kg. That is quite heavy accounting the weight of the textbooks and files we carry daily (yes we do. only crap people like Xiaotian don't) I guess the average weight of your bag should be around 4-5 kg. Would anyone want an additional 2.5kg in your bag? So, you can carry the Tablets using a carrier bag with your arm, but that is for short distances. What about people who do not take parent's cars to school will take either bus or MRT. Yeah, businessmen carry them around like that, but they have cars. For me, bringing the Tablet to school is normally a half hour strain to each arm (I switch between them). Just try going to the gym one day with a bag weighing 5 kg and holding a 2.5kg weight in your arm. Then stand there for around half an hour. After that walk on the treadmill briskly (8km/h). See how you feel if you do it daily. To solve this problem, the school should get lighter laptops from Fujitsu. There are 1.5kg laptops out there in the market. Because of the Tablet function, the Tablet would probably weigh more than other laptops because of the extra components and screen and I think being able to write on the screen is quite useless. Typing is so much more efficient, neater and faster.

So I conclude that it would help this TPC programme alot if the school buys lighter laptops in the future. The other problem should be easier to achieve, that is that the teachers should try and put in the usage of Tablets in their lessons, because currently, the most teachers would do is connect to the overhead projector and beam material on the screen to teach and for us to learn.