An innovative teaching method using personal digital assistants (PDAs) has raised students' interest in learning.
The project was launched in the first semester of 2004-2005 at City University (CityU). It involved
130 business administration students from CityU's department of information systems who were each given a PDA.
'The PDAs allow us to express our ideas simultaneously. Teachers then project the answers onto the screen and start the discussion,' said Fontane Lau, a second-year student. 'We find that we are learning a lot.'
Following the pilot scheme's success, the project has now been expanded to include more than 2,000 students. PDAs are being used in classes with more than 200 students.
New features have also been added to extend the use of PDAs outside the classroom.