Archive Consultation Papers and Consultancy Reports Information Technology for Learning in a New Era Five-Year Strategy 1998/99 to 2002/03

Chapter 6 Fosting a Community-wide Culture 6.1In order to work towards our vision for IT in education and to achieve the targets we have set for ourselves, Government needs to assume an overall co-ordinating role, to put in substantial and sustained investment, and to facilitate collaboration among key players. The foregoing chapters therefore naturally focus mainly on Government's role. However, as a young person's education extends far beyond the classroom and continues after his school life, it is critically important that all stakeholders within and outside the school sector should take up their new roles in IT in education in a collaborative manner. These various players include the school management, teachers, students, parents, the business sector and other community bodies. We set out in the following paragraphs what we see as their respective roles. School heads 6.2With increasing emphasis on school-based management and as schools are empowered to take more decisions on their own, the school as a professional institution should take up the responsibility of heralding the paradigm shift. We suggest that the school head, in consultation with the School Management Committee, should have a vision to embrace the challenges brought by the information age. He/she should formulate a forward-looking plan that lays down clear, practical and progressive goals to promote the use of IT in a wide spectrum of school work, including general administration, teaching and learning, personnel and resource management, school activities, external and internal communication, school-based curriculum design, student assessment etc.; on the basis of the goals set, and with advice from ED where necessary, make IT plans to put the resources for hardware, teaching resources and training provided by Government to the best use. As schools will be given more flexibility in acquiring hardware and services on their own, the school head will need to decide on the best timing and mode of procurement, the quantity and configuration of IT equipment etc; seek to increase opportunities for wider access of IT and self-learning by students, with special attention for disadvantaged groups; seek to motivate teachers and provide an environment which values innovation and collaboration, and which has a mechanism for feedback from teachers as they charge ahead with the goals set. The IT plans should also be made transparent to parents so that they can take corresponding steps; take active steps to ensure the continuous professional development of teachers in respect of IT competencies, and monitor the progress of students to ensure they have achieved the desired level of IT competencies at various key stages; and at the same time ensure that students' balanced development should not be compromised by the sheer wish to increase penetration of technology, given the increasing ease with which schools will be able to acquire additional resources for more hardware. Teachers 6.3Teachers should likewise rise to the challenge of the "paradigm shift" and view it as presenting an opportunity for them to enhance their professionalism, rather than a burden in itself. As discussed in Chapter 4, with the exponential growth in the volume of information that students are exposed to, they need to understand that a strictly book-based pedagogical approach will need to change, and that they will also play the role of a learning facilitator. They should therefore strive to become comfortable and habitual IT users as soon as possible in order to be able to perform this role effectively. It is also important to develop a collaborative culture whereby teachers share experience, expertise and teaching materials among themselves with a view to supporting one another. Students 6.4Students should equip themselves with the necessary IT skills and proper attitudes towards use of information and technology, and seek to apply these meaningfully in their studies. Ultimately, they should take up a more active role in learning, setting their own learning objectives as well as the means to achieve them. 6.5Students' computing skills do to a certain extent reflect how well they will be able to learn or self-learn with IT. We therefore propose to set attainment targets for students at key learning stages although, as we have commented before, developing students' computing skills is not a central objective of this strategy. The attainment targets would also help teachers design assignments for their students. For illustrative purpose, possible attainment targets for students at the key learning stages of Primary 3, Primary 6, Secondary 3, Secondary 5 and Secondary 7 are set out in Annex E. Apart from skills in computer operation, we should also seek to instil in our students proper attitudes and values on the use of IT, for instance, respect for intellectual property rights, respect for others' privacy and an awareness of harmful elements in the electronic networks. CDC has set up a working group to develop IT learning targets to outline the essential IT knowledge, skills and attitude that students should acquire at different stages of schooling. The focus is on how students can use IT to accomplish meaningful tasks in classroom and future workplace. The working group will produce a draft document for consultation in mid 1999. We intend to implement the finalised learning targets for students by the 2002/03 school year. Parents 6.6As students spend more time at home than at school, parents play an important role in encouraging and guiding their children to take up a more active role in learning. They should help to ensure their children's use of IT produces pleasant and positive results. Parents should learn about the IT plan of their children's school and, like the school, parents should also ensure their children are not overly engrossed in computing activities to the detriment of human interaction and development in other affective domains. Parents also have a duty to supervise their children's computing activities to make sure they are not exposed to undesirable elements, and to keep in view the acquaintances that their children make through cyberspace. Tertiary institutions 6.7Tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have been taking a lead in the application of IT in the campus and are a good source of expertise and impetus for the school sector. Many IT projects designed for and in collaboration with the school sector are being carried out (such as ÒTelenexÓ and the ÒHong Kong Cyber CampusÓ). We see potentials for a lot of synergy between the tertiary and school sectors and look forward to this mutually beneficial relationship being enhanced in future. QEF stands ready to provide the necessary funding in this respect. We will urge the tertiary institutions to provide support to their school counterparts, and to give proper recognition to their staff's contribution to the promotion of IT in school education. We will also seek to develop ITERC into a focus of collaboration between the tertiary and school sectors. The business community 6.8IT in education can bring about tremendous business opportunities in respect of hardware, software and services. We hope that by devising a clear strategy on IT in education and facilitating information sharing, there will be a better match between business opportunities and the needs of schools, teachers and students. We would also like to see the business community as a whole showing more concern and support for schools in their endeavour to meet the IT challenge. The business community, particularly companies in the IT industry, can play the following important roles in the promotion of IT in education - hardware suppliers could help level up teachers' and students' access to IT equipment by offering discounts to them; Internet service providers and fixed network operators could likewise contribute tremendously to the connectivity of schools, teachers and students by offering concessionary packages of services to them; software developers and publishers of textbooks, reference books and teacher support materials may see an increasing demand for teaching and learning software or electronic reference materials that cater for the local curriculum. Software developers in Hong Kong and elsewhere may also consider how education software developed outside Hong Kong could be adapted for use here; and private firms may sponsor some IT-related school activities or donate IT equipment to schools. Community bodies 6.9Community facilities like public libraries run by the municipal councils, children and youth centres run by voluntary organisations and community centres play an important role in bridging the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" in terms of accessibility to IT. For instance, the Hong Kong Federation of Youth has obtained funding from QEF to provide computers in some of its youth centres for young people's access. Whilst there are already plans to increase or open up more IT facilities in public libraries and children and youth centres (details in Annex F), we are actively working with the relevant departments to seek to further increase in these community facilities computers and access to Internet for use by students outside school hours. We will also be working closely with ITBB to ensure that our initiatives in the education sector are consistent and co-ordinated with the overall plans for promoting community-wide usage of IT.