The Leaps of Knowledge: Recreation education conference was successfully held on 8 October, Saturday at the JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur. Organised by FrogAsia in partnership with Teach For Malaysia and Pemimpin GSL, it gathered over 500 educators from across Malaysia to explore a recreation of education for today’s generation of students. Sponsored by YTL Foundation, this event also involved 20 education partners including The One Academy. It aimed to inspire educators with an idea of what a recreation of education can look like when we reimagine together.
A key part of the conference, the ‘Playground’ featured interactive games and gamified learning experiences by The One Academy and FrogAsia that brought to life the value of ‘Thinking Ahead and Out of the Box’. Second-year Graphic Design and Digital Media Design students from The One Academy reimagined learning experiences by putting a spin on their selected topics from the four challenging subjects that secondary school students often struggle with – physics, chemistry, biology and additional maths, and turn them into engaging games.
Conference participants were given the opportunity to step into a world of wonder, and experienced what can happen when we think out of the box through immersive hands-on recreated learning experiences. The installations allowed users to learn topics in these subjects through group interaction and creativity.
Media personality Aishah Sinclair trying out the interactive game of identifying chemical aliens.
The biology installation, “Wiggle It”, allowed users to control the movement of chromosomes on a digital screen by moving their entire body to trigger the multiple stages of cell division in meiosis I and II. “Our installation will help students learn the different terms of the chromosomes in each stage. Using the Kinect camera for motion detection, they will embody the chromosomes themselves, allowing them to understand and learn more,” said team leader Lim Shi Yi.
Participants transform themselves into chromosomes while playing “Wiggle It”.
“SUS Entrant”, the installation for chemistry is an interactive game where users immerse themselves in a world of cartoons interacting with acids and bases taking the form of chemical aliens attempting to enter Earth. “We realised that the main issue students face with this topic is understanding the characteristics of acids, bases and salts. Thus, we create a game of aliens with features of different chemicals to help students better visualise and understand them,” explained its team leader, Jeffrey Tang Shao Hui.
To understand physics’ quantum theories of lights, “Quantum Mechanic” is an interactive device that consisted of a microphone and buttons allowing users to utilise soundwaves as energy in order to fix damaged light rays displayed on the screen. “We believe that education should be more than just a textbook experience. As students ourselves, we would also like the lessons to be much more interactive and interesting to learn. Inspiring a new perspective on learning, the elements of visuals, colours and sounds can help them memorise easier,” said Chan Jing Kyle.
“Guardians de Hollow” represents the quadratic functions topic in add maths. The team created beautiful eye-catching graphics that are not just exciting and attractive to play with, but would easily be embedded in the memory of the users who interact with them. “Ours is an immersive RPG game where players will be transported into a magical mage battle. Two players will work together to observe how variables work and changes the shape of the parabolas on a graph, while learning the workings of quadratic functions,” explained Kyasatina Jasmin.
Participants transform themselves into chromosomes while playing “Wiggle It”.
“Some of us applied the knowledge of design into designing title cards, logos, characters and environment, while some used knowledge in coding to develop a playable and functional game, while others used knowledge in animation to provide the cinematics for the game. It’s also not just learning, The One Academy has shaped us as art and design students in terms of attitude and mentality. We were able to maintain composure during times of challenges, and find solutions to complete our task as well,” added Jasmin.
“In the future of education, I hope there is more cross-industry collaborations such as this. Education does not have to be reading from books and studying from text, it can be games like our installation. Since access to phones and other technology has become more accessible, education can be on the go with students, and more immersive to experience,” Tang suggested.
“We hope that this project demonstrates how technology as well as design can be used within the education system to reinvent learning and also teaching. We wish the future to focus more on discovering ways to make learning innovative, creative and most importantly enjoyable. We hope this project can be an eye-opener to the future of education for both the educated and educators” expressed Chan.
In “Guardians de Hollow”, participants engage in a magical mage battle.
The One Academy’s Head of the Advertising & Graphic Design Faculty, Evan Yan believes encouraging students to tap into their visual, audio and kinaesthetic abilities can enhance learning. “Exercising different parts of the mind and body enhances engagement in a lesson because it creates a meaningful memory. We hope to exemplify how education can be reimagined in a way that inspires interest and curiosity no matter how challenging certain school subjects may be,” explains Yan.
Cheang Lin Yew, Head of the Digital Media Design Faculty at The One Academy adds, “This has been a great opportunity for our students from both faculties to collaborate and think outside the box as a team. The skills they develop in the process will be very applicable to their workplace after graduation.”
For Lou Yeoh, Executive Director of FrogAsia, this is a step forward towards innovation in education. “By working together, we believe we can meaningfully recreate and redesign learning experiences for students, which makes our collaboration with The One Academy so exciting this year. This is our opportunity to do our part as innovative educators, to help students thrive in their future.”
Utilising The One Academy’s students’ expertise in graphic, coding, design and creative thinking has helped create a meaningful, hands-on learning experience for participants in this educational conference, paving the way to a reimagined education.
The magical device with symbols for spellcasting.
The One Academy is committed to providing the best art education programmes and continues to nurture its students passionately through its “Masters Train Masters” coaching philosophy, which has been practised for over 30 years, by providing diploma and degree courses in Advertising & Graphic Design, Digital Animation, Digital Media Design, Film Visual Effects, Interior Architecture & Design, Illustration, Fine Arts, Paris Fashion Design & Pattern Making, Computer Science, Game Design and Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation. For more information on The One Academy, visit www.toa.edu.my or call +603-7875 5510 or e-mail your enquiries to [email protected].
Online Education Fair 线上教育展
The One Academy of Communication Design
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