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Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society

Exclusive Live Demonstration of Latest Learning Tool – LEGO® Education WeDoTM in Asia
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Keynote Address by Professor Mitchel Resnick from MIT Media Lab at the Inaugural International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology

Singapore, 1 August 2008 -- For the first time ever in Asia, LEGO® Education will be conducting a live demonstration of its new product, LEGO Education WeDoTM. The new creative product promises to redefine classroom robotics, making it possible for primary school students seven to 11 years of age to build and programme their own solutions.

An exclusive live demonstration of the LEGO WeDo will be held on 5th and 6th August in Singapore at the upcoming International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology (iCTLT).

Also at the conference, Professor Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab will deliver a keynote lecture titled, ‘Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society’’.

Jointly organised by the Ministry of Education, Singapore and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the conference is expected to draw 2,000 education practitioners from the region and around the world. Held from 5th to 6th August, it will also be attended by Guest-of-Honour, Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence.

It was Professor Resnick’s passion for developing new technologies to engage people in creative learning that led to several ground-breaking works, including the programmable bricks used in LEGO MINDSTORMS® and more recently, the LEGO Education WeDo. Professor Resnick strongly believes that creativity can be taught and that new technologies can help develop students into becoming creative thinkers and better prepare them for the challenges in a creativity-based economy.
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LEGO Education WeDo has created great buzz amongst education
professionals looking for a more creative way to enhance learning capabilities among young children. It will bridge the physical world of LEGO models with the virtual world of computers and programming softwares and bring the students to a total hands-on and new minds-on experience of the engagement of active and creative learning. This will nurture creative thinkers and promote children's creative thinking, teamwork and problem solving skills. Teachers can also use it to issue curriculum-based challenges for students to invent their own solutions and overcome tasks by building and programming LEGO models. Working in teams, cause and effect learning is enhanced by the models remaining tethered to a computer; similar to scientists in working labs.

LEGO Education WeDo covers a broad range of curriculum areas such as Language and Literacy: narrative and journalistic writing, storytelling, interviewing and interpreting; Mathematics: measuring time and distance, adding, multiplying, estimating, using variables; Science: transmission of motion, working with simple machines, gears, levers and pulleys; Technology: programming, using software media and creating a working model. With the application of these creative concepts in classroom settings, young students can better be equipped with the skills and challenges for the workplace of the 21st century.

Classroom pilot tests conducted in Brazil and the United States show very favourable response from schools, teachers and students. The WeDo platform provides a natural process of learning for students, even for those who are weak in their learning. In Singapore, LEGO Education (SEA) will be piloting tests in selected primary schools and kindergartens in the near future.

“Building upon our successful 10-year history of bringing educational robotics to middle, high school and university classrooms with the award-winning LEGO

MINDSTORMS toolset, we are excited to extend this expertise to benefit an even younger audience,” said Jens Maibom, Vice President of LEGO Education.

Professor Resnick said, “Success in the future for individuals, for communities, for companies, for nations as a whole, will be based not on specific knowledge or skills, but on the ability to think and act creatively. The most important goal for education in the 21st century is to help students develop into creative thinkers."

The complete LEGO Education WeDo product will be available in Singapore in the first quarter of 2009.

Apart from the iCTLT, Professor Resnick will also be speaking at two other lectures organised by the People’s Association and LEGO Education (SEA) for PA youths and staff. These are also open for media coverage. The details of the three events are as follows:

Talk 1
Topic: Preparing for Life in the Creative Society
Success in the future -- for individuals, for companies, for nations as a whole - will be based not on knowledge or skills, but on the ability to think and act creatively. In this talk, Mitchel Resnick will discuss new technologies, strategies, and activities designed to help you develop as a creative thinker, so that you are prepared for life in a society that will require creative thinking more than ever before.

Date : 3rd August (Sunday)
Time : 4pm to 5pm
Venue : The Grassroots' Club, 190 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8
** PA Youths

Talk 2
Topic: Helping Everyone Become a Creative Thinker
When people think about creativity, they often think about the brilliant scientists, inventors, and artist who transform their fields with radically new ideas and creations. But creativity is not only for the select few. In today’s fast-changing society, everyone needs the ability to come up with creative solutions to unexpected everyday problems. In this presentation, Mitchel Resnick will discuss new technologies and activities that are designed to help everyone learn to work and think more creatively.

Date : 4th August (Monday)
Time : 11am to 12noon
Venue : The Grassroots' Club, 190 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8
** PA Staff

Talk 3
Topic: Keynote Lecture at iCTLT – Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society
Success in the future - for individuals, for communities, for companies, for nations as a whole - will be based not on specific knowledge or skills, but on the ability to think and act creatively. In this session, Mitchel Resnick will discuss new technologies and educational activities developed specifically to help children develop as creative thinkers, so that they are prepared for life in tomorrow's Creative Society. The ultimate goal is a world full of creative thinkers who are constantly inventing new opportunities for themselves and their communities.

Date : 5th August (Tuesday)
Time : 2 – 3.30pm
Venue : Suntec Singapore, Auditorium

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About LEGO, LEGO Education:
About LEGO® Education
LEGO Education is LEGO Group’s educational division. The goal of LEGO Education is to be part of a young person’s entire preschool and school career. Its wide and diverse product range is to enable children to associate LEGO sets with fun-filled, rich learning experiences, and for teachers and care takers to see them as vital educational tools, where children are totally engaged, their creativity challenged and their knowledge and understanding enhanced. http://www.LEGOeducation.com.

About LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education
LEGO MINDSTORMS Education concept is developed specifically for school and after school settings. It consists of brick sets, programming tools and activity packs. The programming tool is developed by National Instruments and is based on LabVIEW™.

Media Contacts:
Carolyn Goh
DID: (65) 6325 6041 Mobile: (65) 9879 1797
Email:

Yani Tupani
DID: (65) 6325 6041 Mobile: (65) 9187 5691
Email:

Note To Editors:
We cordially invite you to attend the live demonstration of LEGO Education WeDo and conduct interviews with Professor Mitchel Resnick and gain insights on how the use of new technologies, such as the LEGO Education WeDo can help to nurture creative thinkers in a classroom setting.

Please indicate your interest to interview Mitchel Resnick and/or attendance to the above lectures by Friday, 01 August 2008, noon, to Yani Tupani.

Submitted by Olive_Consulting, Olive Consulting Group on Friday, 1 August 2008 at 2:15 PM
Category: Education