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THRICE a week after the school dismissal bell sounds, 12-year-old Kevin Chang travels to faraway countries such as Brazil and Egypt, goes rock-climbing and takes part in exciting steeplechase races.
The Primary 6 student is one of 40 lucky pupils who have been chosen to take part in an online gaming trial project called e@Leader, at North View Primary School.
The online learning platform was introduced earlier this year in more than 400 schools in Hong Kong. North View Primary is the first school to use it in Singapore.
The programme exposes students to different challenges and tasks in the form of interactive games. These are set against a backdrop of various cultures and communities.
What's unique about it is that the system is pre-set to allow users to remain connected for a maximum of half an hour per session.
This, said North View Primary principal Ng Yeow Ling, has helped allay parents' fears that their child will become addicted to gaming.
"Half-an-hour is more than enough. In that time, as they play the games, the students get to exercise and develop their eye-hand coordination, expand their vocabulary, practice mental calculations and hone their memory skills," Mr Ng told Today.
To keep things fun, students are not graded on any of the online quizzes. And, if they miss the session in school for some reason, they can log in from home to make full use of their half-hour allocation.
There are 200 games offered with the programme, the popular ones being "Overcoming Hurdles" — where one must ride a horse and time decisions carefully to negotiate different obstacles — and "Bag Packing", which requires players to "fit" a series of objects into a suitcase in the shortest time possible.
Each month, a report charting each student's strengths and weaknesses is generated, and the school sends a copy to parents.
e@Leader — which will be officially launched this afternoon — has already caught the eye of the Singapore Gamers' Association, which has given the programme its endorsement and promised to help introduce it in more schools.
Each individual subscription costs $240 per student a year. In North View Primary's case, a sponsor contributed $10,000 to fund the programme for the school's students.
Using computers as part of learning is not new for Mr Ng, who is a chartered education psychologist by training. At his school, students are exposed to three periods a week of computer work from Primary 1, starting with simple word processing. Over the years, they learn how to produce Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, go online to do research and even do video-editing.
Parents are finding the latest programme meaningful.
Said Mrs Angela Wee, a housewife and mother of two: "I've tried the games myself and they're not easy at all.
"It's a good way for my eight-year- old son to pick up new skills while having fun."
Those interested in the e@Leader can log on to www.eleaderonline.com for more information about the programme. - TODAY/ra
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