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In conjunction with the Malaysia Techlympics event organized by the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Digital Internet Association Malaysia (iaM) was invited as a corporate partner to set up its inaugural iaM Digital Xperience (iaMDXP) booth at Axiata Arena Bukit Jalil on the 26th and 27th of November 2022. Close to 500 participants visited the iaMDXP booth throughout the 2 day event.
Visitors at iaM Digital Xperience had the opportunity to explore three (3) excellent technologies that can advance our educational experiences. They are smart glasses, virtual reality goggles and an online certificate management solution to transition into green technology. While the students were immersed in the multi sensorial experience using Virtual Reality (VR) goggles, the teachers were more engrossed in testing the abilities of the Augmented Reality (AR) Smart Glasses in assisting their educational processes. Some of the main benefits of using AR and VR in learning is enhanced collaboration and teamwork, gamification of learning and improved understanding of new concepts via enhanced student engagement. As internet coverage expands in Malaysia, even rural students will be able to assimilate this technology in their studies.
From its humble beginning as an NGO in 2018, iaM has positively impacted over 4,000 participants by successfully running ten (10) national and international level hackathons. Its latest International Smart School IoT Hackathon managed to get representation from 6 ASEAN countries.
With so many participants to be recorded and recognised, iaM adopted a Certificate Management System wholly developed by Sijil Teknologi Sdn. Bhd. (sijil.online) which was also on display at the iamDXP booth. This system enables iaM to seamlessly manage their participants and supporters list, generate thousands of unique certificates with serial numbers, and retrieve them at any time. This eco-friendly, integrated solution eliminates most tedious and repetitive tasks while at the same time alleviate common problems faced by both students and training providers such as lost certificates, fake certificates, lost training records as well as participants data mismanagement.
One ardent supporter of iaM hackathons, Wong Hong Ying of SMK Kuala Kubu Bharu, who also attended the Techlympics event, said that her students got a chance to expose themselves to the growing world of IoT with hands-on applications through the hackathons organized by iaM. Her team also secured a spot in the international hackathon and was awarded the “Best Prototype” in their category.
iaMDXP booth is just a taste of the digital world’s vast opportunities. Ts K Nantha, the Chairman of iaM said that the teaching and learning process has to quantum shift into a digital environment in this post-pandemic world. Teachers and educators can offer more engaging lessons while the students and learners can absorb information in more ways than just passively listening, as it was done previously. Transfer of knowledge today can be done visually, audibly and verbally, as well as kinesthetically, overcoming many learning barriers of yesteryears.
For the upcoming year 2023, iaM has already planned a lineup of activities to attract more students to be involved in STEM by leveraging their in-house training and competition platform. Their corporate site is internetmy.org, and they can be contacted via email at [email protected].
Techlympics was initiated by MOSTI together with the Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology & Innovation (MRANTI) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to support the learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in an informal and fun environment. More than 1 million students and youths from all over Malaysia participated in numerous competitions held at 66 locations nationwide before concluding in this finals event.
CJMY
Shufiyan Shukur
