Dr Ezzat Abd-El-Mawgood (left) & Dr Ali Abdul Aziz Al Sharhan (centre) being welcomed by A/Prof Daphne Pan	Ms Dáng Dô~ Hoàng Lan (left) & Ms Nguyen Thi Vân Trang (centre) are shown the ropes by Eugene Hiew

Recently, CDTL played host to some foreign guests who were in Singapore on fact-finding missions to learn about local educational facilities and practices. On 30 October, Associate Professor Daphne Pan, CDTL’s Director, personally escorted Dr Ali Abdul Aziz Al Sharhan, United Arab Emirates’ Minister for Education & Youth, and a six-member high-level delegation on a tour round CDTL. After A/Prof Pan’s introduction of the functions of CDTL, Principal Educational Technologist J.A. Gilles Doiron explained how we support NUS teaching staff in the use of IT; Media Producer Christopher Chew introduced our video production facilities; and Principal Media Producer Manuel Gamboa demonstrated our video conferencing capabilities for which our Emirate guests showed great interest. CDTL must have left an impact on our Arab visitors for before he left, His Excellency Minister Sharhan remarked to A/Prof Pan that CDTL was indeed “unique” in combining various services, “not technology in one place and pedagogy in another”.

On 22 December, Assistant Director Joseph Peters guided Ms Nguyen Thi Vân Trang and Ms Dáng Dô~ Hoàng Lan of Lê Hôñg Phong High School, Ho Chi Minh City, on their tour of CDTL. Besides being treated to a similar video conferencing demonstration as our earlier visitors, our Vietnamese guests were also given short demonstrations by Gilles and Multimedia Producer Eugene Hiew on the use of IT and multimedia. At the end of their visit, the two ladies left with some ideas on how to apply technology to the teaching of English in their country.