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Alumni of the Department of Geography, Hsu Hsiao-Ping and Hsu Ting Yu received a bronze medal of Reimagine Education Award, which was held by Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Quacquarelli Symonds on December 4th, 2017. Reimagine Education is a prestigious international competition rewarding innovative initiatives aimed at enhancing student learning outcomes & employability. It culminates in a global conference for those seeking to shape the future of education. Reimagine Education Award is known as the Oscar of Higher Education. Participation team comes from more than 1,000 top universities enterprises and research institutes. 

 

The team is the only team in Taiwan being nominated. This is also the first time for elementary school and secondary school to work with a university in America for a competition. This is a recognition of the creativity of teaching and alumni from NTNU.  Participation teams from MIT, Harvard University, the Education University of Hong Kong, University of Essex, National University of Singapore, University of Queensland, Qatar University are really impressed by the creative education idea brought up by the Taiwanese team and would like to communicate more in courses and practices.

 

Hsu Hsiao Ping from the Department of Geography, now a PhD student at UT-Austin in Learning Technologies Program. He is a team leader who is responsible for the design of course and evaluation. Hsu Ting Yu graduated from the master program of Geography. He is appointed as the organizer of contacting junior high school teachers and he has provided many creative ideas for course design.  Hsu Hsiao Ping said that through international cooperation, we learn from the advantages of Taiwan and US. The experience in NTNU has provided a solid foundation for the course design, practice and evaluation. 

 

 Hsu Ting Yu said that in the past, there's little circulation of the course development. This time, the teachers voluntarily work as a team of professionals and bring in resources of American universities. The educational courses and training from graduate schools are vital for the success. We hope that teachers can be course planner in the future.

 

The topic of the team is "Student as Creator: International Collaboration to Develop 21st Century Skills and Environmental/Cultural Awareness Using Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality", introducing the VR and AR application to geography class and 21st-century skills in elementary and secondary schools. The goal is to reduce the alienated community through tech-savvy students, who can later become generators of VR and AR content.  They work with a professional teacher's group in Taiwan and communicate with the help of technology. Teachers went on field trips with students to discover local environment and historical stories. Students involved are more aware of local environment and culture when building an AR and VR touring system.  Students' ability of communication, collaboration, problem-solving, creativity and critical thinking all improved. These are very important skills in the 21st century. The link to the video is as follows: https://youtu.be/WH0ZpA-thxo.