“Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology”: a brief review

1. “Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology”: a brief review (This was reviewed in September 2004 – may not be up-to-date) @TK Chung

3. VISION FOR THE FUTURE What Do We Want from IT? • Students, teachers, schools and other stakeholders will use IT effectively as a tool for enhancing the effectiveness of learning and teaching, with a view to preparing our students for the information age, turning schools into dynamic and interactive learning institutions, and fostering collaboration among schools, parents and the community. (p.10)

5. 7 Strategic Goals (our comments in red) • Any priority of goals? • How many years – 3, 5 or more? • Appropriate goals; but depend on feasibility of implementation plans.

6. Goal 1: Empowering Learners with IT • Students will acquire the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes for lifelong learning and creative problem solving in the information age. They will use IT as an information retrieval, knowledge enquiry, communication, collaboration, analytical and personal development tool. (p.13-15)

7. Curriculum – Clear Learning Targets Needed • 23.”CDC has made significant headway in conceptualizing and embedding IT in the curriculum guides.” (Just “conceptual” level – from conceptual to practice in class?) • 24a. Set up a broad framework of “Information Literacy” for students. (A good start though should have started earlier & given enough time. How to implement – not clear. Learn from other countries?)

8. End of 24a. “Due regard will be paid to the planned changes in the academic structure of senior secondary forms which are being deliberated. ” (Very important as consultation on the secondary 3+3 model will commence soon and we have yet to see the extent of ‘due regard’ they are going to give.) • 24b. “Based on successful local cases….., guidance will be provided to schools on the application of IT in developing whole-school curricula.” (Good promise; but requires large effort.)

9. 24c. “Interactive tool kits (e.g. using online learning platform) will be produced for schools and teachers on the practical ways of using IT…” (Enhance existing (commercial) products as well; should be related to Goal 7 – 67)

10. Assessment Tools – Help Teachers Know Students’ Learning Outcomes • 26. EMB will develop assessment tools for use by teachers. Schools will choose the right tools themselves in the context of “whole school development”. (Still early to comment, but teachers know they get more work. In what subjects / activities? How?) • 27. No need to fix the percentage of taught curriculum using IT (Right direction - achieving T&L in IT does not depend on the amount of time in using IT.)

11. Curriculum and Learning Materials – Going Beyond Textbooks • 28 & 29. Students learn & explore outside of school; partner with NGOs, overseas institutions; provide & research e-Learning platforms. (Ideal promises here in general which scatter over other parts of the document. Too many to achieve?)

12. Goal 2: Empowering Teachers with IT • Teachers will be provided with professional development opportunities and support to undertake the challenge of using IT for curriculum and pedagogical innovations, and to facilitate, guide, administer and assess learning in ways that align with the goals of the Curriculum Reform. • Support structures and mechanisms will be developed to foster the development of online and off-line communities of practice for teachers to exchange experience and good practices, collaborate in curriculum and pedagogical innovations, as well as undertake action-oriented research. (p.15-18)

13. 30. “Teachers are one of the key players in providing the environment for learning and driving reforms.” (Right. Yet in actual implementation, teachers are THE key players rather than the planners / officers / others.) • 30a. “experienced teachers have emerged and they are in a position to share their experiences with others” (Their numbers may be limited. Or the number of willing teachers is limited due to inertia. No figures here.)

14. 30c & 31a. New models of professional development; revamping the training framework. (Does this imply another benchmark? Related in any way to the so-called voluntary certification system in 39.?) • 31b. “tertiary institutions, qualified private firms, professional bodies and experienced teachers will be brought together to develop quality KLA or subject-based training…”. Feedback will be collected and evaluation be conducted. (Need this though old wine in new bottle. Monitor their quality so public fund is not wasted.)

15. 31d. “A “certification ladder” may be established with the assistance of IT organizations as well as subject associations to encourage continuing professional development of teachers.” (Interesting good idea. Reminiscent of BIT/IIT/UIIT/AIT ---> CAIT (Certified AIT)? Standards - it takes time to set up.) • 31e. “through HKEdCity, an online training platform and more instructional software for teachers…. HKEdCity will also set up mutually supportive teacher communities to undertake and share pedagogical innovations.” (Currently HKEdcity is quite weak in this area. The teacher forum is not actively and widely participated, not well-moderated.)

16. 31f. Continuing the sharing and collaboration among teachers. (repetitive) • 32. EMB will no longer organize training on generic IT skills (Right approach) • 33. Allow teachers responsible for IT coordination work to have an equal claim for promotion. (The same claim during SAMS times; not new. School needs a new staff entitlement- IT managerial position. Awful workload on existing IT personnel. EMB’s abolition of IT co-ordinator; not willing to subsidize.)

17. Goal 3:Enhancing School Leadership for the Knowledge Age • School heads and their associates will be guided and supported to establish visions and goals as well as build teams appropriate for their school contexts, in order to enable them to effectively lead change in integrating IT into school planning, curricula, learning and teaching processes, communication and collaboration. • They will be given more flexibility in making decisions that tailor to the IT needs of their schools. (P.18-21)

18. Building Leadership Capacities for Using IT as Lever for Curriculum Innovation • 36 & 37. “…enhance training on e-leadership and application of IT in education.…for school heads” in areas of learning & teaching, school administration, school-based assessment, and communications with parents and other bodies. (Good measures; middle management should be included.) • 38. HKEdcity will give support. (Doubtful about its role given its current performance and poor usability of the affiliated e-Services. EMB likes to boast the hit rate of such e-portals.)

19. 39. A voluntary certification system will be set up to recognize e-leadership competency. (Is this different from the teacher standards in 31d? If yes, then there are 2 standards?)

20. Providing Flexibility (in using fund) • Merging of different grants. Schools are flexible in using the new grant for services, training, hardware and software etc.. • (Feedback: Not enough grant after ED3/5, ED6 lapsed; e.g. A thirty class secondary school has only $234,889/yr. So EMB asks schools seek funding support themselves. Here is another headache for school leaders.)

21. Providing Support • 42 & 43 regional centres of excellence, guidance notes, advice etc. (continuing policy; appears in other goals.)

22. Facilitating Schools’ Self-Evaluation • 44. “Formulate school-based IT plans and to put in place a self-evaluation system…framework for benchmarking of performance… help school heads and the school management work for results by providing an accountability regime.” (Self-evaluation system, apart from the voluntary certification program? Benchmark for staff appraisal (promotion)? Sensitive issue.) • 45. Assessment tools for self-evaluation. (Tools again.)

23. Facilitating Schools/ Partnership • 46. “Encourage and facilitate schools to form partnership with other schools and the private sector… (repeated in 67)

24. Goal 4:Enriching Digital Resources for Learning • Digital resources will be continually enriched to meet school needs. • Research on knowledge management strategies will be conducted to enable digital resources and curriculum experiences generated from various sources, local and international, to become more easily shared, updated, retrieved, customized and utilized. (P.21-23)

25. 48-53. HKEdcity will play a major role in developing and managing resources closer to schools’ needs. • seek the support of serving teachers and experts, to form partnership with the private sector • encourage publishers to turn textbooks into e-learning materials • encourage the private sector to develop quality digital instructional content and software

26. licensing and adapting the contents of quality overseas e-learning material for local use • monitor and survey from time to time the demand for the digital education resources • improving the indexing of its resources and incorporating evaluations of resources or software by professional bodies and teachers • expedite a platform for e-transactions pertaining to the ‘electronic learning credits’ scheme

27. Feedback: HKEdCity needs to work hard to achieve these goals. Turning textbooks into digital format seems impractical because of cost/market issue, curriculum reform undergoing, and limitations of e-texts. ‘Electronic learning credits’ scheme is interesting but suppose not a top priority.

28. Addressing Diversity and Intellectual Rights • 54. Support “under-achieved” schools to help them build up intranets or improve the resource repositories on their intranets. • 55. Address the issues of intellectual property rights of self-made digital learning and teaching materials for sharing. (Formulate rules to protect IP rights. Will teachers feel comfortable to share their work without protection?)

29. Goal 5:Improving IT Infrastructure and Pioneering Pedagogy Using IT • We will help schools to upgrade and replace obsolete hardware and migrate where appropriate to wireless systems. We will encourage innovation and trials of new information technologies to enhance learning and teaching. (P.23-24)

30. 56. On a matching fund basis and schools’ demonstrated needs, help schools to replace / upgrade hardware. • (This is a continuous process, even 10 years later. Currently government lacks fund; schools need more manpower to “demonstrate their needs”.)

31. 57. Provide wireless technology on a matching fund basis. (Good network enhancement measure but schools need to draft 3-year plan for approval.) • 58. Trial or pilot schemes to explore new information technologies and equipment. (already doing via e.g. QEF. But rules are not clear so sometimes not fair to potential applicants/schools.)

32. 59. Provide advice, partner with HKEdCity and private vendors on enhancing support to schools. (A continuing policy; service quality varies.) • School needs to work out the infrastructure requirements, maintenance and replacement plans in their school-based IT plans. (Needs more manpower such as IT manager, not merely teachers / technicians to follow this in the long run as infrastructure expanding; heavy workload on teaching staff.)

33. 60. Continue with the technical support services in schools and also provide maintenance of computer equipment to schools. (Probably misleading, vague. Actually covered by the merged grant; so no extra grant.)

34. Goal 6:Providing Continuous Research and Development • We will conduct research on the effectiveness of the IT in education strategy and the impact of IT on students’ learning outcomes. • We will explore the possibility of setting up a Hong Kong based research centre to pioneer leading edge IT applications in support of proven educational precepts and to come up with creative means of applying IT in pedagogy, learning and teaching and other education purposes. (P.24-25)

35. Research and studies in support of the implementation of Information Literacy for students and assessment, to benchmark schools’ IT in education performance and evaluation. • Encourage evaluation and research by tertiary institutions or schools. • Conduct regular surveys and longitudinal study. • Make studies to provide feedback on the effectiveness of IT in education strategy

36. Feedback: The idea of a research centre is fine. But it takes time and resources, lasting for more than a few years. This document provides implementation dates for 3 years only.

37. Goal 7:Promoting Community-wide Support and Community Building • We will enhance partnership with the IT industry on teacher training, digital resources and other related fields. We will involve the community, in particular parents, and encourage them to motivate children towards the appropriate use of IT and drive home messages on cyber ethics. • Communication between schools and parents will be enhanced through the use of IT and measures to address the digital divide will continue.

38. Home-School Co-operation • (66 - Not a major priority, more complicated involving parent / adult education which requires extra training on the part of the teachers. Anyway, some schools are already doing this.)

39. Community-wide Involvement • 67. Co-operation with the NGOs and private sector on giving services like: • call centre for service support • forums, events, guidance on various IT issues • “Adopt a school” campaign by private companies • (These are supplementary measures. Good to try but be reminded that commercial companies are profit-oriented. Do not expect too much for free from them.)

40. Digital Divide • 68. Continue the incentive grant for extending opening hours of computer rooms for students • 69. Provide “Digital Bridge” notebooks. (Note that these machines are getting old. Warranty has expired. Schools are asked to pay for the expensive extended warranty and repair. Yet these notebooks are NOT sole property of the schools, but that of the QEF which is not going to give extra fund. In some schools, the increasing broken notebooks are placed in store-room or written off unless the students are willing to repair according to the mutually agreed principle of ‘users paying their own cost’. Thus 69 will soon not be an effective means.)

41. Quiz Test your knowledge of the document

42. Links • http://ejournal.cite.hku.hk/articles/volume0/ Nancy Law, Research into Practice, Researching Practice of ICT in Education: the Second Wave? • This paper examines the vision and goals of the old & new strategic plans to identify their key differences and, • set up a network of practitioners and researchers to realize the new educational goals set up for the second five-year plan. • http://www.hkedcity.net

43. The End Thank you for reading.