An afternoon lesson is going on at Computer Lab 1. The students sit at rows upon rows of desktop computers, the screens bright with displays of colourful HTML code.

The room is buzzing with low murmurs of discussion as the teacher plays a demonstrative video at the suspended projection screen at the room's front, its eye-piercing brightness almost painful in the dimly-lit room. A jumble of letters, number and symbols - an Edmodo group code - is posted on the whiteboard in bold font, the website's address scribbled below.

This is Chung Hwa Middle School (CHMS) at her technological finest.

The dawn of the millennium's first decade saw the rapid rise of technological advancement, which has changed the very core of the global society for good and, most prominently, taken modern education by storm.

In the wake of such meteoric change that has left many scrambling to keep in stride, CHMS has successfully evolved and revolutionised herself into the epitome of a respected ICT education institution with astounding, effortless grace.

Back when technology-integrated education in Brunei Darussalam was in its fledgling stages, CHMS has already started racking up national wins and making waves as a dominant contender in the national competitive ICT circuit. In the recent years, CHMS has achieved and proven her distinguished status time and time again with a staggering six consecutive wins in the prestigious national BICTA (Brunei ICT Awards) as well as another five commendable Merits at the international APICTA (Asia Pacific ICT Award).

When CHMS was announced as Brunei's very first `Microsoft Showcase School 2014-2015' in late 2014, it was the triumphant culmination of a strange technological journey that has undergone years of careful cultivation and persistent hard work from both students and teachers alike.

An irrefutable fact: CHMS is now an established part of an elite community consisting of over 150 showcase schools across 75 countries, and she's still not stopping.

So how does CHMS strive, triumph and blaze her way through the unpredictable terrain of modern technology with such apparent ease?

Through the school's extraordinary intuitive ability in anticipating developments in 21" century education and her fearless implementation of ICT tools in the CHMS learning experience, that's how. Working projectors and projection screens have been installed in every classroom and activity room.

Aside from tools from PIL Network, each computer in the school's network is fully equipped with Microsoft tools such as Office, Office 365, One Drive, One Note, Office Mix and Yammer. The school is also inclined to numerous unconventional incentives by implementing ICT as a compulsory syllabus in the school's curriculum and the regular organisation of training workshops aimed to cultivate a highly-trained and ICT-proficient staff.

For an establishment anchored to a history spanning over nine decades, CHMS has managed to fuse deep-rooted traditions with modern technology with confounding effortlessness, creating a seamless hybrid system that has made her a success story like no other.

As a proud CHMS student for the 12 years and counting, my earliest memory of my schooling days were of learning text manipulation on Microsoft Word and creating artwork on Microsoft Paint, which were actually simplified manifestations of my childish imagination.

Of course, I have since upgraded to learning the learning and acquainting myself with the functions of more complex software, and have bear witness to CHMS's transition from handwritten revision notes, to printouts, and finally to PDF files shared on my Edmodo and ClassDojo online groups.

As I embark on my final academic year in CHMS, I was struck with the sudden realisation of the magnitude of CHMS's contributions to who I am today as a student.

Raised by a school that prioritises and possesses a profound understanding of the importance of adopting ICT into the learning experience, I am well-equipped with proficiency in advanced ICT software, a sought-after skill regarded with utmost importance in the technology-driven 21st century workplace and market.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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