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Mobile
Amazing Race
Now play nice It was popular reality TV show The Amazing Race with a high tech twist. The version by Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s (NP) Information & Communications Technology (ICT) , saw secondary school students running around like crazy, answering questions and trying to get to the next checkpoint on Sept 19. The only differences were that the clues and checkpoints were within the NP campus and there was a tech edge to their quest. Participants had to answer clues and navigate around NP, each team being aided by a spanking new Hewlett Packard iPAQTM 5450 PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). The PDA not only helped students monitor the time they spent, but also the number of questions answered, among other things. Why use a PDA? “...
they might not have the means to purchase a PDA
so it’s a good way somehow to let them have a try on the latest
one,” said Ms Chua Cheng, an ICT lecturer and one of the main
organisers of the event. Students from 12 schools made their way to NP to pit their skills, sense of direction and speed against each other, to try to win the first prize of HP PhotoSmart 130 scanner and a trophy, or a HP Deskjet 5160 printer and trophy for the second and third prizes. In conjunction with Infocomm Development Authority’s (IDA) tech month - Science 2003, ICT, with the help of NP’s E-Garage Club and the Wireless Special Interest Group (SIG) decided to come up with an event to engage secondary school students. “I think the fun part about it is that we organised
[it] mainly with the help of the students.,” said Ms Chua. The rules of the game were quite simple. There were 10 checkpoints dotted around the entire school (and the teams consisting of 3 members were flagged off at lecture theatre (LT) 22 to begin the race armed with their PDAs. Unlike the original race, each team’s next destinations were different. Although the flag off was rather sudden once the PDA’s were switched on, the students got into the Amazing Race mode upon realising how difficult it was to navigate around the school. Meanwhile in the command centre, LT 22, the ICT lecturers monitored the progress of the teams through a network system.
The event, which took about 2 months to organise, did face its fair share of problems. For 2nd-year Information Technology student and president of the Wireless SIG, Desmond Ong, 18, it was especially difficult to deal with uncontrollable, external factors like network coverage. “The testing out is quite hard. . . Today you test, there’s network coverage, tomorrow you test, there might not be network coverage [because] they might [turn it] off… or it might be faulty you see.,” Desmond said. Other problems faced were coming up with the Multiple Choice Questions , because he had to bear in mind the level of difficulty and the need for a variety of questions. He didn’t want to bore the teams with IT-related questions only, so general knowledge questions were added.. Despite all the problems, Desmond felt a sense of achievement watching the game turn out smoothly. You can bet they will want to provide their experience for a future Mobile Amazing Race. While the students were all over the school, the accompanying teachers were not allowed to help them. Ms Wan Azlina, a Crescent Girls’ School, Computer Club teacher-in-charge was impressed with the ingenious way technology was used. As proud as Ms Azlina was of her students, Crescent Girls did not win anything. After about 4 hours of getting lost, answering questions and playing with the PDA, Pei Chai Secondary School came in first, followed by Nan Hua Secondary School and Woodlands Secondary School. Although the winners were not allowed to take home the PDAs, Tony Chong Fangjian, the secondary 3 student from Pei Chai Secondary School said that he joined the competition because of the name of the competition and the chance to use the PDA With his fellow teammates, Mei Ghok and Pengiend they managed to finish the race in an hour. However, due to a penalty, they finished the race in 1 hour and 4 mins. The Nan Hua team came in a close 2 minutes later. However, there was a hiccup during the race, but not through the fault of the organisers. The network coverage as mentioned by Desmond, unfortunately crippled some of the teams, but the ICT lecturers were quick to rectify this situation. At the end of the competition, tquick calculations were done to compensate the teams for their lost time. If all this has got you excited, you don’t have
to feel left out Amazing
Race is receiving applicants now. However you have to be a United
States citizen and if you are, closing date is Oct 8 at 5pm. |
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