Bon Voyage from Singapore

Currently finalising packing ready for flight out of Singapore this morning. It has been a wonderful experience for both teachers and the students.  The students have been excellent ambassadors for the Gordon and have all worked cooperatively during our study tour.
We have established many new contacts who have welcomed us during our stay and have provided us with invaluable information to support our learning's on Sustainable Design and Building practices.

The following pic is from our visit to Fusionopolis 1:

Last night we joined Han Liew-Juan from Bovis Lend Lease who would have to be one of the funniest and most helpful contacts in Singapore. He has been very helpful in extending our network and was most supportive throughout the tour. One of the highlights was the day we helped the Deaf School sorting books in their library during the Bovis community work day.

The following is a pic of our final dinner shared with Han and his partner;

The students presented me with a book on Singapore which I will cherish always. Loved the individual comments they wrote...I am commonly known now as Mr Aaran! They caught me off guard and I was stuck for words for a moment....only a moment. It was a great gesture and I appreciated the opportunity of organising the tour and the many new friendships developed. We finished the evening in the Karaoke bar where we all enjoyed some fun...wow can Han sing. He has many talents.

Must go so Bon Voyage from Singapore. I look forward to sharing my final Animoto video once I return.

cheers....Allan

National Library Singapore - What an amazing building.

Students had the privilege of visiting the Singapore National Library Building in Victoria Street. What an amazing building. The Deputy Director of Properties and Facilities Mr. R.Sanamurthi provided a very comprehensive presentation and tour of the building. The building was opened in 2005 and has many sustainable initiatives and has been accredited by the BCA Academy for a Platinum award which is the highest achievable for Green buildings.

Cheers from Singapore.....we are over the half way mark and have such a wealth of knowledge from our friends in Singapore. We are off to Clarke Quay today to watch the AFL football Grand final...Go Saints

Allan Fairchild

Community work in Singapore - Students help out at School for Deaf

Allan and students were invited to work with Bovis Lend Lease during their company community project day at the School for Deaf in Mountbatten Road Singapore. This was a fantastic way to further build our relationship with BLL. The work varied from lifting boxes of books up and down stairs (the boys did the hard stuff) and sorting of library books and then putting them on shelves. The BLL team was very enthusiastic and grateful that we could assist them. Fortunately we had the inside jobs, whereas many  of the BLL team were working in the garden and got very very wet after a sudden very heavy tropical rain. Singapore is an amazing place and within 30 minutes everything is hot and sticky again.

Cheers from Singapore from the man in the yellow boots, thanks Sue.

Allan Fairchild

Allan's Boots!!

Funny story today, we had to wear work boots, so I had a very old pair at home with crack sole like new and brought them so I could throw out at end to save carrying to Penang. Got to front of hotel and looked back and my boots were sticking to polished floor, everywhere I walk I had left black mark right through reception and on bus floor. The black rubber had broken down in the heat and the sole was breaking away in big chunks. It was like soft bitumen and was making a hell of a mess. Had to take them off in site office and bus. They found me a pair of bright yellow gum boots that they often use on site. What a look. The students could not contain themselves. The best part was when we walked across the site. Many had nice new boots and the site was very muddy in spots, and when we returned to site , there was a washing station, so they all had to was there boots before entering the site office complex.

Funny as....I got the last laugh. The office was that clean, you could eat your dinner on the floor. I bet they put my pics up on their e-portfolio....bugger not a nice look.

A week in............

We are now here a week, and have seen and done lots so far, both organised (well done Allan) and people going out and checking out Singapore itself. It is an easy place to get around and really quite safe to be out at any time. Evening and night time are good to be out as it is cooler and the City definitely lights up for the locals and tourists to dine/shop socialise and take in the amazing skylines.

All of the host presenters we have had (High Commission, Austrade, Bovis Lend Lease etc.) have been invaluable and extremely genrous in the time they have given us and the knowledge they have shared. For my part it has been an education in a region that is very much a leader in innovation and constantly moving towards a better future for itself.It is by no stretch of the imagination a City that rests on its laurels in terms of forward thinking, it is very progressive, with many cultures to experience and enjoy.I will attempt to upload some images but as this is my first success is not guaranteed

Sporting Stars fly back from Singapore and return triumphant!

Two of the students on the Singapore Study Tour were flown back by their footy club to make sure they could lend a hand in their team's win on Saturday!!  Amazing effort by both club and students!! They are now back in Singapore  - probably suffering from jet lag in a bigger way due their win in the Grand Final!  Congrats to them! Let's hope we see them add the details to their own eportfolios!

Singapore - informing our Stakeholders

The use of Animoto and YouTube has been a bonus this year - we have created short videos via Animoto - http://www.animoto.com/ - and then uploaded them to YouTube. This has been well received by all stakeholders - it's a great way to disseminate information - it's interesting and captures the interest of the viewers.

Animoto itself has then become a session of PD offered to many areas within the Gordon as it's a web-based application that is extremely easy to use

Students are in Singapore!

Yesterday the staff and students headed off to Singapore for their study tour.  All arrived safe and tired but very excited.

We can't wait to see their e-portfolios evolve over this time so will keep posting about the adventures.

This will be the first trial of such social media within The Gordon. There has been a lot of hard work and learning going on behind the scenes and it will be fantastic to see how the students utilize their e-portfolios to capture their learning whilst on the move

For me, it's been great to have Allan on board  - he put in lots of  hard work, had lots of vision, offered lots of assistance and has fantastic attitude in undertaking learning this new ‘e’ medium – the e-portfolios.

The Singapore Study Tour can be followed on twitter as well - @eportfoliosgord - watch out for their adventures!!

He well deserves a good stop and shop in the duty free area!

Check out this from Queensland University of Technology

http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/information2/toolkit/index.jsp

The ePortfolio Toolkit comprises a series of ePortfolio Concept Guides designed to inform the diverse stakeholders in higher education about issues and opportunities associated with ePortfolio learning

A text we recommend..

There seemed to be a lack of support materials available for working with Mahara - we located a book that we were able to purchase both as a book and as a pdf file - we purchased from https://www.packtpub.com/mahara-1-2-e-portfolios-beginners-guide/book and found the level of service great.

This book will help a with step-by-step instructions to get started with Mahara and create an impressive electronic portfolio. The book is packed with lots of useful examples and screenshots to help with easy and quick learning.

Some minor glitches...but some positive stuff too...

As the time draws closer to the students and teachers leaving for Singapore we have some last minute queries to work on - both from an Administrator perspective and a student perspective.

Some students have had problems adding friends and joining the group.

Allan and I will beaver away at these issues this week - we have our fingers crossed that it will be sorted before "take off" on 15 Sept!!

On a good note - Ed Development has now 2 more staff!! This means that we have more resources to assist with the development of the instruction/how to documents. These will be developed for students, teachers and the Administrator. We will be able to share these docs when they are developed.