IDS mass briefing on 21 May 2019
Zhang Jinxuan
I learnt that failure is okay, that it is fine a a natural, human thing to fail every once in a while. These days, with the technology available to us, teaching and learning becomes different, where the teachers are not the information providers, but our iPads, and the teachers are there for us to explain the information we learn online. I think that when I fail, I should take a moment to think about how I failed, and why I failed, and from there, try make something better out of it. To help our group learn from our failure together, I will bring them through the same thinking process as I usually go through.
Jeslyn Koh
During this lecture, I was shown a video about accidental discoveries and I realised that many great inventions, including daily appliances such as microwaves, were actually discovered through accidents. I also learnt about the importance of failure in succeeding. From the example of the Ted Ed video, I understand that allowing kids to fail is part of the learning process and telling them never to fail is wrong. We should give them room to create, and fail, and learn from their mistakes. The main point is that learning should be experiential, and be about giving students voice and embracing failure. This lecture made me understand more about creating prototypes for projects.
Kong ying yi
In this lecture, I watched a Ted Talk video and i have learnt that failure is inevitable in the learning process and that one should never tell children or anyone else to not be wrong. We should give them room to create instead of limiting them and pressuring them on whether what they create is perfect. The main point is to allow them to fail and learn from it. Education is not about just coming to school, it is about empowering student voice, embracing failure and experiential learning. That is why our schools should teach students to fail. I have now understood that the perfection of the product is not as important as our learning process and a failure does not mean the end of the world, on the contrary, we can learn from our failure to make our product better. I have understood that failure is the intermediate step before reaching success.
Rithi Shree
During this mass briefing, we were shown a ted talk video and I learnt that failure is the stepping stones of success. Failures cannot be prevented in the learning process. I have learnt that although we might have a lot of failures, we have to endure and not give up easily. We should give children room to make mistakes. Failure is one of the intermediate stages of success. I have learnt that our product does not need to be perfect and we can learn from our failures to make it better. The main point is that learning should be experiential, and be about giving students voice and embracing failure.
Xie Xiaomei
During the mass briefing today, we were shown many videos on how schools should actually teach children. I learnt that it is impossible to not experience failures, what’s more failure sometimes are the main causes of success. We were shown some of the inventions of the world that were accidental because they were the failures of some other inventions. Failure is the Mother of success, before actually succeeding, there must be failure. I also learnt that learning is not just about the teachers spoon feeding us with the information and knowledge we need but instead more about us trying, exploring and failing before actually inquiring the informations and knowledge.
IDS mass briefing on 13 May 2019
Xie Xiaomei
From the example of the Fuji films, I learnt that in order for our product to be liked by others, we cannot just think from our perspective and expect others to accept our product. We need to rethink what is it that the community need and from their perspective, we then must use our skills to help build a product that will benefit their need.
Zhang Jinxuan
We must adapt to changes in the world that are imminent in order to survive. We should not give up. For community education, I think that instead of trying to make something usual for the elderly. For I think that as the world slowly gets overtaken by technology, the elderly’s needs and wants will change also, and we should adapt to provide to their wants and needs, instead of assuming what they want, from what we think they want.
Kong ying yi
Fujifilm has encountered many problems because of the modernisation of the world. However, they have created new products and updated their old products so that it becomes better and more appealing to the consumers. This has helped them to bring up their profits. As can be seen, we need to review the needs of the world so that we can come up with a new product that can help them. Change needs to happen to cater to the modern world and new innovations must be made to appeal to the new generation.
Rithi Shree
Fujifilm has had many ups and downs in its business because of the rapidly developing world. To overcome all these hardships, they came up with other products,such as a new skincare line. This helped them to get more profit. Only 1 percent of the profit comes from instax cameras. This shows us that we have to adapt to the needs and wants of the community and provide for them, instead of assuming what they want.
Jeslyn Koh
From this lecture, I learnt about the challenges Fujifilm faced and what they did to overcome them. With the advancement of technology, Fujifilm, which specialises in film, had declining business. However, they did not give up on their company, nor did they give up on their old product. Instead, they used the knowledge they had on producing films to come up with a new product in the skincare department. This shows that we should adapt to solve our problems, and not back down from them.
Lectures on 7 May 2019
Zhang Jinxuan
The first speaker spoke about smart nations. She talked about how technology was very important to Singapore, as technology does not require natural resources that Singapore does not have. What shocked me about her talk was that when they offered free handphones and data along with it to the elderly, they refused as they thought that it would be a burden. The second speaker spoke about female rights. Her organisation that she co founded with another friend. Her community seeks to help the females in Milawee. The third speaker spoke about pollution. Mainly plastic pollution. She spoke about the impacts of plastic pollution and showed us many gory videos. She tries not to use plastics. In all, these talks were interesting but I do not see how any of these talks will be of relevance and use to both our IDS and community education.
Xie Xiaomei
From the first speaker, I learnt more about the smart nation. I learnt that smart nation is not just about the technological development of the nation but more about how technology can help the citizens of the country and how it is useful for them. She spoke about why Singapore government is so focused on the goal of developing Singapore into a smart nation, she explained that the reason is because that Singapore is a country with no resources and in order to keep our country prosperous, we can only focus on how technology can help, this is because, the technological development will not need any resources, the start point is the same for every country, it is the only one that no country has priority over. She also showed us some concerns of the older generation of the idea of a smart nation through the story of them giving out phones and data for free but no one wanted it.
Jeslyn Koh
The main point that the first speaker made was that a smart nation is not only about the advancement of technology in our country, but also about how it can potentially affect the people. For Singapore to develop into a smart nation, it is first necessary to help not just the elderly, but also the young people, who are having worries about the steady development of technology. For example, some young people worry about more and more jobs being replaced by robots, and there would be none left for them in the future, leading to unemployment. However, as research has shown, even as certain jobs are being replaced by technology, there are more jobs being created, and those are mostly related to emotional help for those people that still do not accept technology as part of their daily lives.
The second speaker mentioned working for an organisation in Malawi to help the females there fight for female rights.
The third speaker spoke about pollution occurring in Singapore, and its effects on the world.
Overall, the first speaker’s talk was informative and quite relevant to our project, but the other lectures were not as relevant.
Rithi shree
The first speaker was mentioning about smart nation and technology. She gave many examples of technology such as the bus timing apps, sg secure, etc. For singapore to develop into a Smart Nation, the government need to take into account the different groups of people.When the elderly were offered free mobile phones with free data, they rejected it as it was a burden. the second speaker talked about women’s rights. She runs an organisation which supports women in Milwaukee with a Friend of hers. The third speaker spoke about pollution and the effects of it on the world. All in all, I thought that the topic of the first talk was relevant to our project, but I can’t quite see how the other two lectures are relevant.
Kong ying yi
The first speaker mentioned about a Smart Nation and from her, i realised the importance of technology to the nation, however, some people don’t understand this and even have their own problems related to this topic, this shows that not everyone in the community is like us, therefore, we should be more considerate to others. An example would be when free phones and data were handed out to the elderly to help them but they rejected this offer due to various problems they thought they might have like being unable to charge their phones, this shows that different people will have different needs that need to be attended to. The second speaker was talking about female rights which indicates that there are differences in the treatment each group receives. Through the talks i have also learned a surprising fact, that a recyclable bag is not really recyclable as it has to be used at least 127 times to overide the wastage of natural resources used to make the actual bag. Overall, the talks gave me more insights about the community and reminded me that there is a need to be more considerate to the needs of other groups in the community.
