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| Teachers enjoying their time at the Leaps of Knowledge Conference's workshop. |
The Leaps of Knowledge Conference 2018 presented by FrogAsia Sdn Bhd
with the support of the YTL Foundation saw more than 1,000 educators,
parents, students and members of the education sector gathering to
elevate 21st Century education in Malaysia. Held at the JW Marriott
Hotel Kuala Lumpur, this year’s conference aimed to inspire, equip and
empower Malaysians to collaboratively and collectively do more to raise
the bar in education.
The Leaps of Knowledge Conference
2018 – themed Level Up!, centred around the commitment of the community
of educators, parents and individuals to continue leveraging on the
foundations built over the last six years, levelling the playing field
across all schools in Malaysia through technology. This year’s
conference explored how the community can work together to raise the bar
by celebrating each other’s successes, learning from each other and
collaborating on new ideas to increase outcomes for 21st Century
learners.
“At FrogAsia, we believe in a world where
everyone loves learning and where technology removes boundaries. With
technology, there is equal access to quality education regardless of
location or background. By bridging the digital divide, the education
divide is also bridged at the same time. After six years of driving 21st
Century education in Malaysia, we have seen the huge difference that
Frog is making in the Malaysian education system. Schools from across
the country can collaborate and support one another, and student
progress can be monitored and tracked to help them improve. Today, we
are gathering educators, students, parents and other members of the
education community to join forces to raise the bar further and make
21st Century learning even more accessible and empowering,” said Lou
Yeoh, Executive Director of FrogAsia Sdn Bhd.
At the
conference, FrogAsia launched its inaugural FrogPlay World Championship,
a competition that aims to encourage students around the world to
collaborate and optimise the use of the FrogPlay gamified learning and
revision application on the Frog Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
FrogPlay, available online on the Frog VLE and on the Google Play Store,
motivates students to learn and progress by doing revision using
gamification. Thousands of quizzes are available for the students’
revision, including quizzes from trusted education partner Pelangi
Publishing Group, teachers and the Ministry of Education. FrogPlay also
provides detailed reports to help parents and teachers help their child
and classroom of students perform better.
Since its
launch last year, students have clocked over 1.5 million revision hours
on FrogPlay. By tracking the hours spent on FrogPlay and the progress of
students, FrogAsia saw evidence that revising via the gamified-learning
app resulted in an improvement in student performance across all
subjects for both primary and secondary schools. For example, students
who used FrogPlay for physics revision are observed to have increased
their average scores by up to 29% points
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| (From left) Datin Kathleen Chew,
Programme Director of YTL Foundation, Shaheen Mistri, Founder of Akansha
and CEO of Teach for India together with Lou Yeoh, Executive Director
of Frog Asia at the Leaps of Knowledge Conference 2018 |
Lou added: “We were so excited to see the impact of FrogPlay last
year, which was driven by the FrogPlay Championship. The competition was
successful in encouraging students to proactively learn and revise on
FrogPlay even after the competition ended which led to an improvement in
their academic performance. We believe in providing Malaysian students
with exposure to the best education possible and equipping these
students to be globally competitive. This is why we are taking the
FrogPlay Championship to the global stage, where students in Malaysia
will get to compete with students from all around the world including
schools in the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, France, Hong Kong,
Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain,
Switzerland and the United States of America.”
The
conference featured Shaheen Mistri, Founder of Akansha and CEO of Teach
for India who spoke on her belief that educators and students are
partners in building education in a nation, and encouraged collective
impact through the contribution of all in the community. Through her
talk, she called upon the participants to evaluate the tools they
already possess and to use them effectively to raise the bar in
education in Malaysia, which will set a standard and be a role model for
the world.
Programme Director of YTL Foundation, Datin
Kathleen Chew was also one of the featured keynote speakers. She spoke
on the impact and success stories that were the result of the
collaboration between YTL Foundation, FrogAsia and the Ministry of
Education. “It is evident that change has taken place and that
technology has made a huge impact to education in Malaysia. We are so
glad to be partners with changemakers in this country and will continue
to contribute to this initiative that aims to inspire and upskill
learners nationwide.”
After her speech, Datin Kathleen
invited three teachers from schools that benefited significantly through
the various initiatives like the Frog Classroom Programme, 1BestariNet
Teacher Award and FrogPlay Championship. These three teachers were the
Headmistress of SK Kayang Noridah Hamdan, 2nd runner up of the
1BestariNet Teacher Award 2017 Mohamad Jalil, and Chew Soo Lee, Frog
Admin of SJK(C) Choon Cheng, School Winner of FrogPlay Championship
2017.
Leaps of Knowledge is sponsored by YTL Foundation,
also a key partner in the Frog Classroom Programme where they, together
with the Ministry of Education, contribute to building 21st century
learning spaces for schools. YTL Foundation had recently contributed a
sum of RM1.5 million together with the Ministry to provide 21st century
education infrastructure to 50 Tamil schools nationwide.
During
the workshops, the participants gained deeper understanding of higher
order thinking skills and how educators can incorporate them into
teaching and learning. There were also gamified experience workshops
that introduced the new features of the Frog VLE to parents and teachers
to demonstrate the capability of such technology when implemented in
today’s education system.
ABOUT FROGASIA
FrogAsia is a social enterprise with the
purposeful aim of enhancing teaching and learning. We offer 21st-century
learning solutions through a technology-based approach, with a mission
to provide equal access to quality education for all students. For a
seamless introduction, integration and execution of technology into
education, we include in our scope of work programmes and initiatives
that build learning communities, deliver leadership coaching and
influence thought leadership. We work collaboratively with educators and
stakeholders to realise our vision of ensuring that every child is
equipped with the skills to thrive in the 21st century.
FrogAsia
is the first organisation in the world to connect an entire nation of
10,000 schools through a single, cloud-based platform to create a
learning community of 10 million students, teachers and parents. Our
virtual learning environment, the Frog VLE, is a simple, fun and
engaging platform that enhances the teaching and learning experience.
The platform is adopted and adapted from Frog Education UK, an education
company with 19 years of experience in providing the award-winning Frog
Virtual Learning platform to schools.
Frog Education was
received the ICT Provider of the Year award at BETT 2015 and the Best
Use of Education Technology award at the Education Investor Awards 2013.
FrogAsia’s educational programmes, Leaps of Knowledge and the Word
Mania Challenge, have been recognised with the Gold Award for Brand
Excellence in the Education Sector at the CMO Asia Global Brand
Excellence Awards 2014, and the Gold Award for Best Use of
Games/Contests/Quizzes at the A+M Asia Pacific Loyalty and Engagement
Awards 2014. FrogAsia is a part of the YTL Group.
ABOUT YTL FOUNDATION
YTL
Foundation was founded in 1997 on the belief that education is the
basis on which every society progresses. By developing and improving
education in the communities in which it operates, YTL Foundation aims
to empower individuals and communities to be catalysts of change to
enrich and benefit society. Over the years, YTL Foundation has provided
aid to deserving individuals who would otherwise be denied opportunities
to pursue higher education. More recently, YTL Foundation expanded its
role, organizing workshops, talks and conferences to enrich and inspire
educators, students, parents as well as other stakeholders in the field
of education. Through programmes, funding, thought leadership and by
championing the use of technology, backed by the YTL Group’s 60-year
heritage of nation building, YTL Foundation hopes to build better
societies, through better education.
