Volunteer Facilitation

 

Mentors and Mentee

I recently helped facilitate a session to onboard potential future volunteers to support a non-profit organisation's programmes and I think there were some parts worth writing about here.

I did up the above video quite quickly using lumen5 and Doodly was used in the introductions as a teaser trailer. I tried to capitalise some of the words for double meanings while referring to the various programmes the organisation offered. I believe the 1 minute+ clip helped to pique the audience's curiosity but the stories and anecdotes shared by Ari, Sufri, Ain and I were the powerful hooks for the volunteers.

It was nice to have such a diverse group coming together on a Saturday morning to get to know each other and learn how they can contribute with the skills and interests they had. 

I definitely did not do it alone, I probably couldn't even if I tried. I had a good team with me and we also leveraged our strengths and knowledge to ensure that the event was a success and that we met our objectives. On my part, I facilitated the post-break engagement by using Picture Cards to get participants to think about the metaphors that they would like to use to explain their hopes for next year. I personally chose the picture of a chessboard as mentioned in the tweet below. 

Facilitated a discussion with volunteers about their hopes for next year using picture cards. Loved the metaphors used and the rich sharing. I shared a pic of a chess board and how I hoped to be more strategic with my use of time next year. What's your hopes for 2022? pic.twitter.com/sBPFJXnENM

— Suhaimizs (@SuhaimiZS) December 12, 2021

I actually used the picture cards from the CCA facilitation toolbox and it has inspired me to use a different set that I have for another upcoming session for volunteers of Mendaki Club (but this time for potential future community leaders who are quite seasoned volunteers). The simple activity generated quite a buzz amongst participants probably because of a few reasons. Firstly, it could be because there have not been many face-to-face events lately and secondly perhaps the cards were good visual stimuli that they can choose from. I wonder if having e-cards or letting participants search for pictures would have similar effects. Maybe the fact that the cards limited what they could talk about given the scope also made it more interesting.

 

Times like this make me miss my students and school life (as a teacher) in general. That is why in my introduction I emphasised that although I am in the EdTech Division of the Ministry, my heart is still for the children, young students, youth and their development. I was quite pleasantly surprised when SM Tharman (the patron for the organisation), as well as the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, came by to have a quick chat. He mentioned how in 1995 when he was a Civil Servant (he was DS(Policy) then) with MOE working on 'Accelerating the Use of ICT in Primary Schools Programme Pilot' (AITP), it was never only about technology. He asked me to look it up and so I did.

According to the book; Information Communication Technology in Education: Singapore's ICT Masterplans 1997-2008, he had worked with senior educators and educational administrators (principals) and they put in a lot of thinking for AITP which eventually formed the basis for the first ICT Masterplan in 1997. Back then, as many as 10,000 students in 6 pilot schools spent about 10% of their curriculum time using ICT through CD-ROM educational packages for learning.

"This approach was found to be helpful to students with the more academically-inclined becoming independent learners, while the others, encouraged by the hands-on lessons, showing greater interest in their studies and the motivation to achieve the curriculum objectives." (Koh and Lee, 2008)

 It is also quite relevant to me now especially since I am looking deeper into student-initiated learning and blended learning in general where we hope to develop and nurture self-directed, independent, passionate and intrinsically motivated learners. Perhaps if I get the chance to speak to SM Tharman again, I could engage him in deeper conversations about some of these matters.