By Liew Hanqing

NINE-year-old Adelle Lee looks forward to school every day.

A self-confessed computer buff, the Primary 3 student at Canberra Primary School enjoys the technological twist her lessons offer.

On Monday, when The New Paper joined in, her science lesson consisted of a series of computer-based games on an interactive white board, which functions like a giant touch screen.

Her class of 40 split into teams to play the games, which tested them on their knowledge of the human digestive system.

Using a stylus, the students dragged labels to their correct positions on the human anatomy projected on the interactive white board.

'It's interesting to learn this way - we can use the white board to play games and this helps me learn faster,' she said.

And the system is also a boon for teachers. Madam Ang Yen Ling, who teaches the class Maths, Science and English, said the games take less than half an hour to create.

'They're easy to come up with, and the students enjoy them. The games also keep them attentive for a much longer time,' she said.

The vice-principal of Canberra Primary, Mr Shoeb Burhanuddin, said there are about 20 classrooms in the school with the interactive white boards, which each cost about $3,000.

These were installed in stages over the last two years.

The expense seems to have paid off - the students participated enthusiastically in the games and, more importantly, got their facts right.

For the students, learning the 'textbook stuff' seems to come naturally - once learning is made fun.

The school is one of five in the Ministry of Education's FutureSchools@Singapore project, which also includes Beacon Primary School, Crescent Girls' School, Hwa Chong Institution and Jurong Secondary School.

All five schools will implement infocomm-enabled teaching methods by 2012. Canberra Primary declined to reveal costs.

On Monday, The New Paper observed both upper and lower primary classes at Canberra Primary which have started using computer-based learning methods.

These methods aren't restricted to classroom learning. In the science lab, students get a better picture of what their experiments show with the use of probes and data loggers.

These devices track and record data generated from an experiment, which students can refer to on the computer.

In one lesson we observed, students were conducting an experiment on electrical circuits. They used light sensors connected to data loggers to collect and plot their findings.

Teachers like Mrs Rebecca Vagenende, who teaches science, were trained to use the innovations and also participated in a professional development programme to learn more about the teaching methods.

Mrs Vagenende said she feels the data loggers help the students become better scientists.

She said: 'In measuring the brightness of bulbs, the students now have actual data to work with. They don't just say which bulb is brighter and which is dimmer.

'They learn more when they can actually see results (from the experiments),' she said.

The school has yet to assess students' grades.

MP3 LEARNING

Even preparing for oral exams is different. In one English lesson, students were tasked to record themselves reading a passage on an MP3 player.

Their classmates then played back the recording and completed a peer evaluation based on a fixed set of guidelines.

Said Mr Sim Tzong Haur, who was teaching the class: 'This helps the students have a better idea of how they can improve and what teachers look out for.'

Mr Shoeb added that the students also started creating podcasts for children their age in the US last year.

He said: 'They talked about their school, their classes, and also about Singapore culture.

'We've found that podcasting has helped the students improve their pronunciation, and they've also become more confident.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on July 2, 2008.