bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

May Chan

Yau Ma Tei Catholic Primary School pupils log on to a pioneering e-book project

English learning could soon be  a combination of sounds, music and images tailored to  students' needs after the launch yesterday of the city's first electronic book scheme.

The  project, at  Yau Ma Tei Catholic Primary School, was funded by  more than $1 million from Fujitsu and $760,000 from the Quality Education Fund for the project.

After the English e-Book Centre, designed by Fujitsu, opens by the end of the year, the school's 200 Primary Four students will no longer have to bring their textbooks to English lessons.

Instead, they will access electronic learning materials through their tablet PCs or personal digital assistants, which will be connected to the school's intranet.

The computers can record students' work in the form of text, sound or images, send the data back to the server, and offer instant assessment. Teachers may follow up with the data and tools provided by the system.

Students may use the resources stored on the server through computers outside of school.

Fujitsu director Yau Kan  said the company hoped to further integrate IT and education.

'After the first five-year strategy of IT education, we see that Hong Kong is now ready for more integration of IT with teaching materials and curriculums,' he said.

School principal Tsoi Kai-chun  said he hoped the first e-book project would boost students' English standard.  The school  had spent more than $700,000 on hardware and software involved in the project.

'We wish to promote the e-book approach to Primary Five and Six students, and extend it to different subjects in the future,' he said.

But  Lam Yiu-sing,  adviser to the project,  said the e-book approach was more likely to succeed in English-language learning than in other subjects.

'Language is learnt through imitation and repeated practice. Each of the students may find themselves learning at a different pace in a different style,' Dr Lam said.

'The e-book learning approach makes it possible for each student to personalise their learning approach, especially in practising speaking English and listening to it.

'However, non-language subjects, such as history and geography, involve skills in research, analytical thinking and knowledge construction.

'The change in teaching methods, the roles of teachers and students will be more drastic than in English learning. In time, however, it is possible that all lessons will become textbook-free.'



Forget the textbooks, it's tablet PCs for English lessons