Hi there!

A first online presentation of self…

I can’t believe I’m finally writing in my own online space! I’m not sure what it was: an evolving identity, inertia of some sort or just plain old procrastination. Anyway, thanks to the ONL202 course, here I am!

I’m a Lecturer at Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore. Lately, I’ve been teaching critical thinking and writing, engineering leadership, community leadership, English for academic purposes, graduate English and intensive English for ESL/EFL learners. I also conduct consultancy training for professionals and executives on business communication, effective communication for leaders, communicating your personal brand, and presentation and leadership skills.

Prior to academia, I worked as an educational research staff at National Institute of Education in Singapore. I was involved in two nationwide large-scale research projects including the CORE study on the impact of national initiative Teach Less Learn More on teaching and learning in schools, and the Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project (SKIP). Years ago, I was an English and Literature teacher in the local schools. And long before that, I thought I was going to be in sales and/or telecommunications industry for the rest of my life. But in 1999, I had an epiphany – I wanted to be a better communicator, and a confident user of the English language. That was when teaching found me, and I found teaching. The rest, as you would say, is history!

My research interests include ELT, classroom discourse, conversation analysis, scaffolding learning, blended learning and multimodality. I’ve been rather blessed to be involved in teaching and research work at pretty much all levels of education: from preschool to higher education. I’m very much a teacher at heart and I always seek the smallest of ways to be a better one every day!

I’ve always been interested in discussions on technology-enhanced learning, the orchestration of multimodal, semiotic and pedagogic resources for teaching and learning, and when Mishra and Koehler (2006) introduced TPACK, I was intrigued. I’ve been designing and teaching courses with the blended approach for some time now. With many IHL rethinking their curriculum and delivery lately (amidst the pandemic), I figured that it’s the best time to connect with practitioners all over the world to explore issues around this and learn from one another. I am looking forward to expand my professional network and stay hungry for more ways to be a better learner, better teacher, every day.

Mishra P, Koehler MJ. (2006) Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054.