The Second ITEd Strategy

This section describes the seven strategic goals and the respective initiatives and measures undertaken by the Government during the period of the Second ITEd Strategy from 2004/05 to 2006/07 school years. The description is summarised from the strategic policy document Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology (EMB, 2004) and documents related to the ITEd initiatives provided by the EMB.

The seven strategic goals are:

y Empowering learners with IT;

y Empowering teachers with IT;

y Enhancing school leadership for the knowledge age;

y Enriching digital resources for learning;

y Improving IT infrastructure and pioneering pedagogy using IT;

y Providing continuous research and development; and

y Promoting community-wide support and community building.

Empowering Learners with IT

The first strategic goal of the ITEd Strategy is “Empowering learners with IT”. It aims at equipping students with “the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude for lifelong learning and creative problem solving in the information age”. Students are encouraged to use IT as an

“information retrieval, knowledge enquiry, communication, collaboration, analytical and personal development tool”.

Over the period of the Second ITEd Strategy, an extensive amount of input and support has been given by the EMB to promote the use of IT in learning among students and cultivate students’

global perspective. The plan includes setting clear learning targets in curriculum, developing assessment tools that are fully integrated with an IT-enriched pedagogy and providing e-learning platforms for students. “An information literacy (IL) framework” was developed by the EMB for

Hong Kong’s primary school and secondary school students to help teachers and students have a clearer picture on the learning targets of using ITEd (EMB, 2005a). Consultation sessions for school heads and teachers on implementing this framework, introducing the proposed IL standards, indicators and learning outcomes, exemplars of implementing IL education in school and teacher professional development programmes, were held in 2005.

Empowering Teachers with IT

The second strategic goal is “Empowering teachers with IT”. The purpose is to enable teachers to make good pedagogical use of IT as a tool to stimulate students’ thinking or facilitate students to construct their own knowledge.

In order to ensure that teachers are competent and confident to meet the challenges of using IT for curriculum and pedagogical innovations, professional development opportunities and support have been offered by the EMB. It is envisaged that the professional development activities can help teachers to facilitate exploratory learning, guide collaborative enquiries, provide learning resources, administer learning tasks, tailor-made teaching to students’ varied abilities and conduct assessments. Various profession-related training courses, seminars and workshops, such as “IT in Education Symposium 2004”, “Hong Kong International IT in Education Conference 2006”, “IT in Education Symposium 2007”, ITEd refresher training courses, ITEd workshops and experience sharing sessions were organised. The focus of the training courses switched from IT skills to pedagogical innovations to support Key Learning Areas (KLAs) or subjects. Through these professional development programmes, teachers have gained precious knowledge and skills on ITEd-related aspects that effectively uplifted their professionalism. Moreover, the

“train-the-trainers” scheme was enhanced. The “train-the-trainers” courses were targeted to prepare teachers to take up the role as trainers in subsequent teacher training courses. The EMB also encouraged sharing and collaboration among teachers and schools. The “Good Practices on IT in Education” interactive platform was formally launched in February 2006. This platform was not only a database of pedagogical innovations using IT but also an interactive platform for discussion and reflection among teachers and other education practitioners. It aimed at establishing a learning community for professional collaboration.

Enhancing School Leadership for the Knowledge Age

The third strategic goal is “Enhancing school leadership for the knowledge age”. The objective is to equip school heads with leadership capacities so that they can provide teachers with guidance and support to establish schools’ IT culture. IT leadership training has been organised and sharing platform has been established in order to allow school heads to explore efficient ways of utilizing resources, enhancing teacher training and promoting students’ learning with IT. Various professional development programmes, seminars and workshops, such as “Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology – Briefing Seminar and Exhibition” and “Seminar on implementing an information literacy framework for Hong Kong students (Primary/Secondary)”

were organised to help school heads and their associates to understand the different dimensions of school policy and strategy (including IT infrastructure, curriculum goals for IT use, staffing policy, staff appraisal and reward policy) that affected the implementation of IT in the school curriculum.

e-Leadership training courses were piloted for school principals to build knowledge, skills and understanding of key issues and impact of learning and teaching with IT.

The provisions of flexibility in resources allocation as well as pedagogical and technical support provided by the EMB enabled school heads to lead change in curriculum innovation and school strategic development based on their own needs. The EMB disseminated assessment tools via the Self-evaluation Platform (SEP) on ITEd for Schools. SEP was a web-based platform for individual schools to conduct self-evaluation of their performance and progress in ITEd. Schools could use or

adapt the sample surveys disseminated through the system or create school-based surveys in accordance with the evaluation goals or targets set out in their ITEd plans.

The EMB continued with the disbursement of IT grants to schools. Various IT grants such as the grants for employment of technical staff and support services, purchase of Internet services and IT-related consumables, and organising IT activities for parents were provided to schools. Schools were given the flexibility to allocate resources to support their school-based ITEd plans. Schools were also encouraged to seek funding support from parents and other parties to support school-based ITEd initiatives.

A list of ITEd-related grants is shown as follows:

y Special Non-recurrent Grant for Parental IT Programmes for 2005/06 and 2006/07 school years;

y Funding for the Enhancement of IT Facilities/Services in Schools;

y Composite Information Technology Grant; and y e-Learning Credits.

The schools could also deploy resources for the development of ITEd from other funding sources.

Enriching Digital Resources for Learning

The fourth strategic goal is “Enriching digital resources for learning”. This goal aims at continually enriching quality digital educational resources to meet schools’ needs. It also aims at developing the digital resource repository with effective knowledge management strategies to facilitate learning, teaching and sharing among teachers, parents, students and other schools.

Digital resources were enriched by the EMB, tertiary institutions, the private sector, schools and teachers. The EMB produced a variety of digital educational resources to facilitate KLA and subject-learning as well as develop students’ higher-order thinking skills. The EMB also launched the incentive scheme for developing instructional software to encourage participation and investment from various stakeholders in developing quality digital resources.

In order to assemble various digital resources from different sources, an efficient management mechanism is needed. The Hong Kong Education City (HKEdCity at www.hkedcity.net), thus was launched by the EMB as an online digital resources repository to support learning and teaching. It served to provide quality digital resources for teachers, students, schools and the community. The role of the HKEdCity was strengthened as “an agent for sourcing, editing and disseminating digital educational resources”. Such repository is evaluated continuously to improve the quality of digital resources and to suit the needs for the users.

Various professional development programmes in relation to the promotion on the use of digital resources were organised by the EMB. For instance, “Showcase of Learning & Teaching Digital Resources”, which aimed at introducing the projects of the Incentive Scheme for developing instructional software and other digital resource materials jointly developed with the HKEdCity, was held in June 2006.

Moreover, the “electronic Learning Credits” scheme was also provided to schools for acquiring relevant electronic and interactive learning materials as well as curriculum-specific computer peripherals.

Regarding copyright matters concerning schools, seminars which addressed the intellectual property issues about the use of web-based teaching resources and self-made digital learning and teaching materials for sharing were arranged by the EMB in January 2005. More seminars on new licence agreement on copying printed copyright materials and software licensing for schools were

organised by the EMB in May 2006. These seminars aimed at updating schools on the latest development of copyright matters in education and introducing the Software Asset Management (SAM) tools.

Improving IT Infrastructure and Pioneering Pedagogy Using IT

The fifth strategic goal of the Second ITEd Strategy is “Improving IT infrastructure and pioneering pedagogy using IT”. The progress of IT infrastructure improvement is tracked in terms of the sufficiency of serviceable IT facilities and technical support for students and teachers, as well as the new technology to support innovative pedagogy in learning and teaching enhancement.

The EMB extended various funding on a matching basis to help schools to upgrade and replace obsolete hardware and migrate where appropriate to wireless systems. The EMB also provided technical support services to schools. Information Technology in Education Support Center Service (ITeHelp) was launched in February 2005. It aimed at assisting teachers and Technical Support Services (TSS) staff in solving IT operational issues, and to provide a platform for sharing of IT knowledge and ideas. Furthermore, new information technologies and equipment for teaching and learning, such as interactive whiteboards, video conferencing and mobile technology, were promoted by the EMB in different trial or pilot schemes.

Providing Continuous Research and Development

The sixth strategic goal of the Second ITEd Strategy is “Providing continuous research and development”. It aims at doing research on “the effectiveness of the IT in education strategy and the impact of IT on students’ learning outcomes” as well as pioneering IT applications in pedagogy, education resources, school practices, curriculum integration and system development.

The EMB commissioned researches and studies for supporting the implementation and continuous development of ITEd in Hong Kong. IT Learning Targets (CDC, 2000) and the study on the Information Literacy Framework (EMB, 2005a) developed frameworks and contents for the development of school curriculum on ITEd. The EMB also commissioned two studies for the Second ITEd Strategy (2004/05-2006/07): The Phase (I) Study and the Phase (II) Study on Evaluating the Effectiveness of the ‘Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology’ Strategy (2004/2007). The EMB also worked on research projects such as interactive whiteboard project and platform for consolidation and dissemination of good practices for pioneering pedagogies and for school administration and development using IT.

In the 2005/06 school year, four “Learning Centres” were established, including two which were transformed from two “Centres of Excellence” in 2004. The learning centres served as a test bed for the dissemination of innovative ways of learning and teaching through IT. The learning centres also organised seminars and workshops regularly to facilitate teachers to enhance their knowledge and skills in ITEd. They set up subject websites and developed learning resource banks for teachers. They also provided outreach support to all local primary and secondary schools on the integration of IT in learning and teaching. They encouraged teachers to take part in the activities conducted and facilitated the sharing of experience on effective use of IT. Moreover, the EMB has implemented pilot schemes in ITEd since 1998. The successful experiences and exemplars of good practice concerning IT infrastructure, pedagogies, educational resources and curriculum integration have been disseminated to the education community.

Promoting Community-wide Support and Community Building

The seventh strategic goal of the Second ITEd Strategy is “Promoting community-wide support and community building”. It aims at enhancing home-school co-operation and community-school collaboration. Two key areas in home-school co-operation were studied. First of all, parents were

particularly encouraged to be involved in ITEd as the motivators of their children towards the appropriate use of IT and the home education on cyber ethics. Secondly, schools were encouraged to enhance communication with parents through the use of IT. Community-school collaboration, such as school support from the IT industry, NGOs and community organisations, contributed to ITEd in terms of training and the provision of digital resources and IT facilities. Collaborative schemes with private sector and NGOs in support of ITEd were encouraged by the EMB. A 5-year Partners in Learning (PiL) Programme offered schools with a spectrum of IT and training resources to empower students and teachers to develop their full potential through IT. The

“ITeHelp” call centre, operated by Hong Kong Computer Society in collaboration with the HKEdCity provided IT support service to schools. Activities such as “Parent-Child IT Summer Camp” encouraged parents to motivate their children towards the appropriate use of IT and promote cyber ethics.

Community collaboration helps to address the issue of digital divide for the disadvantaged groups of the society and ultimately helps the capacity building of the community. While implementing the Five-year Strategy (EMB, 1998), a wide range of measures had been introduced in the community, including the provision of portable computers to needy students who did not have computers at home under the “Digital Bridge” project supported by the Quality Education Fund (QEF) as well as the provision of computers with Internet access at convenient locations (120 community or youth centres/units) for free use by the public. Under the Second ITEd Strategy,

“computer recycling” and the donation in collaboration with Parent-Teacher Associations or other parties to help needy students were promoted to schools. Grant was given for extending the opening hours of school computer facilities via the Composite Information Technology Grant (CITG) to help students with easy access to computers after school and there was also funding for parental IT programmes.

The above review shows that the Government has a very clear policy on ITEd. However, the achievements depend on the implementation of various ITEd measures and this is the main question to be explored in this Study.