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

Chapter 8 Executive Summary Our Vision 8.1To ensure that our students will be able to meet the new requirements of the information age, we need to set new objectives for school education to keep it alive to various opportunities and changing needs, and to bring about a paradigm shift in the delivery of school education - from a largely textbook-based teacher-centred approach to a more interactive and learner-centred approach. 8.2Our vision in promoting IT in education is, through harnessing the powers of IT: to turn our schools into dynamic and innovative learning institutions where students can become more motivated, inquisitive and creative learners; to link up our students with the vast network of knowledge and information to enable them to acquire a broad knowledge base and a global outlook; to develop in our students capabilities to process information effectively and efficiently; and to develop in our students the attitude and capability for independent life-long learning. 8.3To realise the vision above, our four missions will be: to provide adequate IT facilities, including network facilities, for our students and teachers to enable them to access information; to encourage key players in the school system to take up the challenges of their respective new roles. This is particularly important with regard to teachers; to integrate IT into school education meaningfully through necessary curriculum and resource support; and to foster the emergence of a community-wide environment conducive to the culture change. 8.4Government will assume the leadership and co-ordination role, provide a threshold level of hardware for schools, training for teachers and any necessary infrastructure support, whilst providing more resources and support for those schools which are more advanced in terms of IT-readiness, teacher capability and physical conditions to progress at a faster pace. Where We Stand Now 8.5At present, schools in Hong Kong vary considerably in terms of their readiness for the paradigm shift. On the whole we do not see a strong IT culture in our campuses, and most teachers have little experience in using IT to teach, partly due to lack of training opportunities and facilities. The level of accessibility of the average student to computer and the Internet is also not very high. 8.6However, since 1997, IT in education has attracted a good deal of attention in terms of government funding: In 1997, Government announced a series of IT initiatives costing $2,880 million in capital cost and $260 million in annual recurrent cost. they include: about 65 000 computers for primary and secondary schools over 45 000 training places for teachers Internet access for all schools a pilot scheme in 10 primary and 10 secondary schools, and preparations for an education-specific Intranet. as at October 1998, 3 000 training places have been provided for primary school teachers, 60% of our primary schools have each been given 15 computers, and all secondary schools have been given 21 computers to upgrade the facilities in their computer rooms. In the 1998 Policy Address, the Chief Executive has announced a further set of initiatives at an additional capital cost of $334 million and annual recurrent cost of $294.5 million. they include: an IT co-ordinator per school for 250 schools enhanced technical support for all schools, and a grant for schools to make available computer facilities for use by students after school hours. 8.7Government initiatives have also sparked off much enthusiasm in the school sector and the teaching profession about the need for school education to keep abreast of new requirements of the information age and the advantages that IT would bring to school education. We have received a large number of IT-related applications for funding under QEF. Five-year strategy 8.8The key components of the strategy are - Access and connectivity Teacher enablement Curriculum and resource support Community-wide culture This strategy should be viewed as a "live" document capable of enrichment and refinement in the light of technological advancement, actual experience and the changing needs of the society. Access and Connectivity 8.9We will seek to ensure students have a sufficient level of hardware and that they have more access to the Internet. Achieving more connectivity is in keeping with our vision for students to become more inquisitive and creative, and to acquire a broad knowledge base and a global outlook. 8.10We will provide schools with more funding flexibility in acquiring IT facilities and services to suit their specific needs. This would shorten the acquisition procedure, and help address the issue of IT facilities having increasingly shorter life cycles. Schools should also have full autonomy to decide how to place the IT facilities within the school to achieve the best results. ITERC stands ready to provide advice to schools. 8.11As at October 1998, 60% of our primary schools have each been given 15 computers and the remaining primary schools will reach this level of provision by the end of this year. We have also provided 21 computers for each secondary schools to upgrade the facilities in their computer rooms. We plan to bring the provision level to, on average, 40 computers per primary school and 82 computers per secondary school by mid 2000. 8.12We are not proposing a fixed target in respect of computer-to-student ratio given the fast changing technological developments and varying needs of schools. However, we will provide extra facilities for schools with a higher level of IT-readiness. Indeed the 20 pilot schools and a number of other schools have been or will be provided with more facilities. 8.13We recognise the need to ensure that children from less well off families do not compare unfavourably with other children in terms of access and connectivity. In this regard, we will provide a grant to enable schools to make available their computer rooms and IT facilities for use by students after normal school hours. We are also working closely with relevant departments with a view to increasing computers and Internet access in community facilities such as public libraries, children and youth centres, and community centres. 8.14We need sound network infrastructure for teachers and students to share information, and to tap into the wealth of knowledge in various electronic networks worldwide. All our secondary schools have access to the Internet, and so will all primary schools in the near future. By mid 2000, the library, staff rooms, computer-assisted learning room and/or computer rooms in a school will be linked up by a Local Area Network (LAN). We will review the scope of the LAN in due course. QEF has also awarded funding to a number of network-related projects, including the "Hong Kong Cyber Campus" which extends Internet access for the entire student population in 350 secondary and primary schools. We will commission a consultancy study on the establishment an "Intranet" dedicated for education purposes, and explore with Internet service providers and fixed network operators the possibility of providing Internet access (including broadband connection) and/or e-mail services for teachers and students at more favourable rates. We will consider providing, in the context of the education-specific Intranet where appropriate, access to the Internet and individual e-mail accounts for all teachers and students above a certain academic level. Teacher Enablement 8.15IT will never replace our teachers' professional skill as a teacher, it will only serve to enhance it. As our students will be exposed to so much more information, it becomes all the more important for our teachers to take up their new role as a guide and facilitator as soon as possible. They need to develop in students the skills to critically and intelligently select, analyse, absorb and present the abundance of information obtainable through use of IT. They should also encourage our students to take a more active role in learning. Training 8.16Continuous efforts will be made to train our teachers: about $514 million has been set aside for providing some 80 000 IT training places at four different levels for serving teachers in the next four years; a study will be commissioned to clearly define the different levels of IT competency for teachers and to develop corresponding assessment tools; schools will be given maximum flexibility to acquire training for their own teachers; teacher education institutions will be asked to integrate IT competencies in their pre-service programmes; in the long term, we will consider setting up a graded certificate system administered by an independent assessment organisation. Within an overall timeframe, teachers can work towards different certificates at their own pace. 8.17We will work with schools and tertiary institutions to ensure that: By the 2000/01 school year: all teachers reach at least the "basic" level of IT competency; all graduates of pre-service teacher education programmes reach at least the "competent" level of competency; By the 2002/03 school year: about 75% teachers reach at least the "comfortable" level; about 25% teachers reach at least the "competent" level; and one to two teachers in each school reach the "creative" level. Technical support 8.18We shall arrange contract technical support service by region for all primary and secondary schools. Under this arrangement, each school will receive technical service to resolve the problems faced by its teachers and students for a substantial part of the school hours. Professional support 8.19ITERC will: advise schools on the use of IT across the curriculum, development and implementation of school-based IT plans and preventive maintenance of IT equipment; disseminate information on and facilitate development of educational software; plan IT training for teachers; facilitate sharing of expertise and IT-based teaching materials among schools and teachers; and disseminate best practices emerging from the IT pilot scheme. In rendering support to schools, ITERC will give priority to schools which do not have an IT co-ordinator. 8.20In addition, we will provide an IT co-ordinator per school to 250 schools which are more advanced in terms of IT culture and readiness and which have formulated a sound plan for promoting IT in education. An IT co-ordinator should be a qualified teacher who can: develop and roll-out school-based IT plan; take charge of all IT-related teaching and learning activities in the school; tailor general software to meet the needs of the school's teachers and students; and supervise the maintenance of the school's IT system. Curriculum and Resource Support Curriculum 8.21We consider the target to have the teaching of 25% of the school curriculum supported through IT to be an achievable target because our focus is on how the delivery of the existing curriculum can be improved with the assistance of IT. Translated into practical terms, one example could be that approximately two classes per day are conducted either in the multi-media learning room or in the classroom using an interactive and non book-based approach and with some support of IT facilities. 8.22To achieve the 25% target and to bring about changes to the curriculum, we will proceed by two stages: Stage I: Enhancing the level of awareness and use of IT in the existing curricula review the existing curricula with a view to suggesting teaching and learning strategies using IT; identify appropriate IT resources; encourage the school-based approach to adapt IT to different learning areas, subjects, interests and abilities of students and parent expectations; encourage schools to use IT to make internal assessment; and conduct research on the impact of IT on student learning. Stage II: Full integration of IT in the new curriculum CDC will conduct a comprehensive review of the school curriculum in 1999. 8.23ED will also provide the following support services: encourage and assist teachers to develop innovative school-based IT curriculum catering for the specific needs of their students; promote more frequent application of IT during classroom and extra-curricular activities through seminars, workshops, school visits and inspections etc.; disseminate best practices emerged from the IT pilot scheme to all schools; encourage inter-school collaboration ; and allow schools more flexibility in delivering and interpreting the school curriculum. Resource support 8.24We are committed to doing our best to foster the development of more and better software and other support materials. ITERC will: together with the Curriculum Development Institute, make available to software developers more information and clear guidelines on the school curriculum and the needs of schools and teachers so as to facilitate software development ; identify, source and promote software suitable for schools, including setting up an education software preview library; seek to negotiate with educational software publishers worldwide to offer their products, adapted for the local curriculum, at concessionary rates to our teachers and students; facilitate production of tailor-made teaching resources by teachers through advice to teachers and sourcing the appropriate software tools for use by teachers. 8.25It will not be cost-effective or appropriate for ED to engage in directly producing teaching software, but it may consider commissioning the development of software for certain subject areas where necessary. QEF has given funding for some tertiary institutions and schools to produce subject-specific courseware, and will continue to do so. Fostering a Community-wide Culture 8.26We need collaboration among the school management, teachers, students, parents, the business sector and other community bodies, in order to work towards our missions and ultimate vision on IT in education. These players are encouraged to: School heads embrace the challenges brought by the information age and take up the responsibility of heralding the paradigm shift; formulate forward-looking plans to promote the use of IT in a wide spectrum of school work; optimise resources; seek to increase opportunities for wider access of IT and self-learning by students, with special attention for disadvantaged groups; motivate teachers, provide them with an environment which values innovation and collaboration, and ensure the continuous professional development of teachers in respect of IT competencies; and ensure that the students have achieved the desired levels of IT competency at various key stages, and the students' balanced development is not compromised by the sheer wish to increase penetration of technology. Teachers appreciate the need for the paradigm shift in school education and rise to the challenge of taking up the new role as a learning facilitator; strive to become comfortable and habitual IT users as soon as possible in order to be able to perform this new role effectively; and seek to support one another in the cultural change. Students seek to equip themselves with the necessary IT skills and proper attitudes towards use of information and technology, and to apply them meaningfully in their studies and daily lives; strive to achieve the IT attainment targets being developed; and ultimately take up a more active role in learning, setting their own learning objectives as well as the means to achieve them. Parents encourage and guide their children to take up a more active role in learning; help ensure their children's use of IT produces pleasant and positive results; learn about the IT plan of their children's school and together with the school, help ensure their children are not overly engrossed in computing activities to the detriment of human interaction and development in other affective domains; and 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 serve as a good source of expertise and impetus for the school sector; and collaborate with the school sector in carrying out mutually beneficial projects. The business community provide support for schools in their endeavour to meet the IT challenge in the form of educational discounts in respect of hardware, Internet service, teaching and learning software and electronic reference material; and consider sponsoring some school activities or donating IT equipment to schools. Community bodies increase computers and Internet access in community facilities to help bridge the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" in terms of accessibility to IT. Implementation 8.27This strategy is not meant to be implemented in a top-down manner or adhered to without flexibility. Quite the contrary, schools should formulate their own IT plans tailored to their specific needs, in the true spirit of school-based management. It is for the same reason that we are carrying out the IT pilot scheme to identify best practices and strategies for schools in Hong Kong. 8.28We have worked out an implementation time-table for progressively achieving our targets in the four domains (Annex G). We will also set up an inter-departmental task force led by a senior officer in EMB/ED with representatives from relevant departments so as to resolve the implementation problems faced by schools. This task force will also interact closely with a "Users Group" of principals, teachers and academics who can provide quick front-line comments and feedbacks on a wide range of operational issues. The Board of Education (BOE) will monitor the implementation of the strategy at the school level. 8.29To provide advice to Government on any fine-tuning of this strategy in the light of advances in technology, the latest world trends in this area, the evaluation mechanism and other developments in the local education scene, the Education Commission (EC) will form a sub-committee on IT in education with members from Government, the school sector, the tertiary institutions and the IT industry, including members of BOE.