Inundated with technology, we can choose to be the creators or the consumers – to control technology or to be controlled by technology. The pervasiveness of technology in many aspects of our lives is not something that requires reiteration. As described in the Smart Nation Initiative, “smartness” is not a measure of how advanced or complex the technology being adopted is, but how well a society uses technology to solve its problems and address existential challenges. In a digital age, technological disruptions are common and our daily experiences, due to the affordances of technology, are vastly different from the past. As such, we have to ride this wave such that we enable technology to work well for us and enrich our lives.

At Jurong West Secondary School, as part of the Applied Learning Programme (ALP), students are the creators of digital artefacts such as

a short film with computer-generated imagery sharing upcycling tips,
a mobile app advocating water-saving practices and
a website with infographics and digital art discouraging gaming addiction.

ALP @ JWSS is designed to allow students to advocate ideas and present innovative ICT-based solutions to real social issues, integrating knowledge and skills of the InfoComm Technology (ICT), English Language and Art curricula at the application level. Harnessing technology, students embark on projects that require the application of critical and creative thinking skills as they connect knowledge across subject disciplines, stretch their imagination and apply knowledge to real-world problems.

These authentic contexts allow for deeper and more meaningful learning as the students explore and discuss issues that are relevant to them. Grounded in student-centricity, ALP @ JWSS also aims to allow students to discover their strengths and develop their passion in the English Language (communication), Visual Arts or Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

To make the experience an integrated and immersive one, ALP lessons are conducted during curriculum time using Project Work as a platform and are an extension of what the students learn during their English, as well as Art, lessons.

Our Two-Tier Approach

ALP @ JWSS is a two-tiered programme which uses Project Work as a platform to integrate existing aspects of the Art, English Language and InfoComm Technology curricula. In Secondary One and Two, students will be equipped with the relevant knowledge, skills, values and attitudes in three areas - the visual arts, communication and infocomm technology.

As another exciting aspect of the ALP@JWSS, students have a choice to select the digital mode that they prefer to work with – be it videography with Augmented Reality (AR), mobile app development, digital illustration, stop-motion animation or Micro:Bits. Based on their choice, students undergo customised training to enable them to develop their product.

Tier 1

This is an overview of the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that our ALP aims to achieve in alignment with key 21st Century Competencies (Critical & Inventive Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Information Skills).

Tier 2

A customised programme for students who would like to pursue their passion in ICT or Visual Arts at an advanced level (Computing or Art/Higher Art as a GCE O Level Subject at the upper secondary level) or would like to continue to pursue their interest via elective programmes offered by the school.

ALP Beyond the Classroom

The ALP provides numerous exciting opportunities to explore learning outside the classroom where there is a whole host of prospects to engage our learners in meaningful experimentation, nurturing their imagination and creativity.

IMDA Lab on Wheels@JWSS

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) Labs on Wheels were at JWSS from 9 to 11 January 2017. Over the span of three days, approximately 400 students and teachers visited the buses and all Secondary Two students attended exclusive workshops conducted by the IMDA instructors during the Applied Learning Programme (ALP) lessons.

The IMDA Lab on Wheels is a Mobile Fabrication and Technology Showcase bus that travels to schools to provide fun, engaging and experiential learning to excite students about technology. On board the buses, JWSS students had their hands-on experience with a plethora of cutting-edge technologies, including robotics, Virtual Reality, drones and 3D modelling and printing. In addition, the Secondary Two students learnt to programme an orb-shaped robot – Sphero – to ‘dance’ to a tune, flashing lights and spinning and moving rhythmically.

Here, a student is exploring music creation with a drum machine programmed with MaKey MaKey and Scratch


Many students and teachers tried Virtual Reality (VR) for the first time	Students working collaboratively as they tried to ‘choreograph’ the Sphero bots’ dance moves

Learning Journey (LJ) to the ArtScience Museum: Future World

In this LJ, students are immersed in a digital world where art meets science. Students experience for themselves the sensors and algorithm that make the interactive exhibits possible. Students witness for themselves how innovation and the aesthetics interplay.


Students planning and drawing items to help build a virtual town	A student trying out one of the interactive artworks at the museum

ALP Showcase@JWSS

The students’ two-year journey on the ALP culminates in an exhibition where students showcase and present their ICT-based solutions which come in varied digital modes to the rest of the school.


Secondary One students trying their hands at the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil	A group of Secondary 2 students demonstrating how videography with Chroma Key effect is being produced

A group of Secondary 2 students demonstrating how a Stop-Motion Animation with Chroma Key effect is being produced

Azura from Secondary 2N2 presenting her group’s Digital Illustration created with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil	Students from Hong Kong trying their hands at creating an animation using Adobe Animate CC and a Wacom pen tablet

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