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SINGAPORE: A new virtual teaching method, designed to help students develop critical thinking skills, is being used in Innova Junior College, which is the first junior college to use the programme under the Education Ministry.
The only other institution that is using the same programme is Nanyang Polytechnic.
Called "SecondLife", it allows students to immerse themselves in a world where they create characters and encounter issues like euthanasia.
Innova Junior College started using this programme in January to give students a chance to deal with real life issues, without real consequences.
As the programme is used for General Paper discussions, students are able to use their digital interactions to write essays and post them online.
Daniel Yip, a General Paper teacher at Innova Junior College, said: "It actually assists them in structuring their work such that it looks like an academically worthy essay. It helps them to cope with the examinations at the end of the year."
Although cases of virtual crimes like stealing have occurred, Innova JC is not too worried as the college deems "SecondLife" is too basic to generate much harm.
The college added that even though there is no available statistics to support their progress, its students seem to be learning well with the use of the programme, which is also being assessed by the National Institute of Education.
Podcasting is also being used in more schools to teach students how to deal with tasks like writing, composing and drafting a script for a podcast.
Teachers said this helps students to use the skills to ace their final exams.
- CNA/so
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