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20 May 2005

Singapore students to put their schools on the ‘blog’

More than 50 schools to take part in

first National InterschoolBlogging Championship

Singapore, 20 May 2005 – Reflecting the growing popularity of online diaries (blogs) among students, Singapore will see its first National Interschool Blogging Championship.  It is co-organised by SingTel and the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The Championship will run from 1 June – 31 August 2005.  A total of 43 secondary schools and 9 junior colleges are fielding teams to ‘outblog’ one another.

The theme of the competition is “Voices of Singapore Teenagers”.  The students will begin their blogs based on the sub-theme, “My Teenage Years: Pet Peeves and Inspirations.”

Each school will start and maintain a group blog during the competition.  Five student leaders from each school will manage the blog contents, including postings from the rest of the student body. Teachers will be on hand to supervise the student leaders.

Apart from the Internet, the students will be able to use SMS and MMS to update their school blogs.  This mobile blogging (moblog) is useful if they were to see something interesting or want to share a quick thought when they are away from their computers.

Ms Ooi Lay Yong, SingTel’s Vice President (Consumer Sales), said: “Youth is an important segment for SingTel.  They are natural users of mobile and Internet applications.  Apart from entertainment content such as games and downloads, we hope to bring in more educational features into our service offerings.” 

“SingTel is in a position to enable young people to use technology, such as the Internet and mobile phone, to find a unique voice through their blogs.  Instead of writer’s block, we hope that the students will be inspired to come up with interesting blogs through this inaugural competition.”

Ms Tan Teng Wah, Deputy Director, MOE Education Technology Division, said: “This competition is a good way to highlight to schools the potential of blogging as a useful tool for teaching and learning.  Students can potentially use blogging for activities such as writing journals, creating online portfolios or group work dialogues.”

The schools will go through two rounds of judging during the competition.  A judging panel will look at the depth and clarity of thoughts, organisation, and creativity of the blog entries.

Ms Penny Low, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC and a Government Parliamentary Committee member for the Ministry of Community Youth and Sports, will be an advisor and a judge for the competition.  The other judges are made up of representatives from SingTel and MOE.

Apart from the winning school blogs selected by the judges, there will be an award for the most popular school blog based on the number of votes by online readers and unique visitors. The blogging champions will stand to win cash prizes as well as 3G phones.

The school blogs can be read on http://www.campusmoblog.com.sg from 1 June 2005.

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National Interschool Blogging Championship

List of Participating Schools