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  NParks website 25 Aug 07
NParks Launches Wireless Learning Trail @ Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve - First of its kind in the region

To better reach out to students, the National Parks Board (NParks) today launched a new wireless learning trail at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

The first of its kind in the region, the trail incorporates fun and interactive activities, enhancing the learning experience at the wetland reserve. The wireless learning trail enables students with special portable devices (Ultra Mobile PC), to receive information from bar codes located along the Mangrove Boardwalk. Such information includes text, images, video and audio files on the sights and sounds of the wetland reserve.

Students can also include their observations and thoughts into their portable devices to share with their teachers and fellow classmates. These can then become topics for discussion in school.

The wireless learning was conceptualised and developed with the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and iCELL Network Pte Ltd, which set up the wireless infrastructure.

It also involved student participants from Kranji Secondary School, who created the contents together with NParks and MOE.

Mr Ng Lang, Chief Executive Officer of NParks, said, “We are always on the lookout for new approaches to promote education and outreach in our parks. Our younger generation now learn through very different tools and in very different ways. We need to keep pace with their new modes of learning. This wireless learning trail presents us with a new way to design interpretive and educational outreach programmes that we hope will be more engaging for our youngsters.”

Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer of IDA said, ”As part of the iN2015 Education and Learning plan, the EdVantage programme seeks to enable learning applications that leverage on pervasive and cost-effective infocomm access for learning anytime, anywhere. Infocomm connectivity has taken learning beyond the physical boundaries of the classroom into nature reserves. Supported by Wireless@SG through a collaboration between IDA, NParks and MOE, students can now use hand-held mobile devices to research and discover the reserve in a more engaging and interactive way.”

Wi-Fi in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Parks As part of NParks’ efforts to improve the facilities of parks and nature reserves, free wireless broadband access is now made available at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and six parks around Singapore.

Visitors equipped with a Wi-Fi enabled device such as laptops and PDAs are able to obtain free wireless access at these parks via the Wireless@SG portal.

The six parks are the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Woodlands Town Garden, Ang Mo Kio Town Garden East, Toa Payoh Town, Pasir Ris and West Coast Parks. Installation works are in progress for three parks - East Coast Park, Fort Canning Park and Admiralty Park – and they will be completed by end September 2007.
links
Wireless Learning Trail @ Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve for students, on the Reserve website.

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