In The News
FrogAsia and The One Academy tackle learning challenges by recreating education with over 500 educators at Leaps of Knowledge 2022
FrogAsia 8 October 2022
Kuala Lumpur, 8 October 2022
Leaps of Knowledge 2022 organised by FrogAsia in partnership with Teach For Malaysia and PEMIMPIN GSL, gathered over 500 educators from across Malaysia to explore a recreation of education for today's generation of students.
Sponsored by YTL Foundation, the education conference also involved over 20 other partners including The One Academy, which featured second-year design students' industry projects that reflected the conference theme: Recreation.
The theme 'Recreation' responds to the needs of education in the current time. It captures and represents two fundamental motifs: recreation as in the creation of something new, and rècreation as in scholé - Greek for 'school' and 'leisure' where the pursuit of knowledge is meant to be enjoyed. In line with this, Leaps of Knowledge aims to inspire everyone to recreate, dream, and think ahead and out of the box towards building back better for education, together.
Bringing to life the value of 'Thinking Ahead and Out of The Box', the 'Playground' featured a variety of interactive and experiential learning concepts created by FrogAsia and The One Academy. Second-year graphic and digital media design students from the academy attempted to reimagine four topics in subjects that secondary school students often struggle with - physics, chemistry, biology, and additional maths. Their installations allowed users to learn topics in these subjects through group interaction and creativity. For example with biology, users control the movement of chromosomes on a digital screen, moving their entire body to trigger the multiple stages of cell division. The One Academy's Head of the Advertising & Graphic Design Faculty, Evan Yan believes encouraging students to tap into their visual, audio, and kinaesthetic abilities can enhance learning.
"Exercising different parts of the mind and body enhances engagement in a lesson because it creates a meaningful memory. We hope to exemplify how education can be reimagined in a way that inspires interest and curiosity no matter how challenging certain school subjects may be," explains Yan.
Cheang Lin Yew, Head of the Digital Media Design Faculty at The One Academy adds, "This has been a great opportunity for our students from both faculties to collaborate and think outside the box as a team. The skills they develop in the process will be very applicable to their workplace after graduation."
For Lou Yeoh, Executive Director of FrogAsia, this is a step forward towards innovation in education.
"The future will require grit and tenacity to dare to think differently. The ability to connect seemingly disparate ideas, to iterate, to find relevance and insight from empathy are definitely things we can learn from designers," says Yeoh.
"By working together, we believe we can meaningfully recreate and redesign learning experiences for students, which makes our collaboration with The One Academy so exciting this year. This is our opportunity to do our part as innovative educators, to help students thrive in their future."
The 'Playground' also featured other interactive games and gamified learning experiences that reimagined how education could be delivered via real-world application. Other notable events included a live interview with the winner of the Malaysia Teacher Prize 2022 - an award organised by PEMIMPIN GSL in partnership with YTL Foundation, and inspiring lessons at the 'Best Classrooms' by the Malaysia Teacher Prize Top 10 finalists. Teachers showcased innovative teaching methods ranging from cake decorating, to a guided simulation for visually impaired students and more. During the workshops, participants explored five different topics around the HEART of education and discussed ideas in small groups.
The mainstage also featured the voice of students with the purpose of understanding their real needs, and a panel session discussing the recreation of education with creatives who share the same heart for education: award-winning actor and Head of Enfiniti Academy, Joanna Bessey; educator and Executive Director of KLSP, Lim Soon Heng; and media personality Aishah Sinclair. The conference concluded with the launch of The HEART Course - a professional development course for all educators now available for free at www.leapsofknowledge.com.