Digital learning may benefit students, but it is expensive to implement
A Sheung Shui school has become the first in the city to fully embrace e-learning. Butas the digital revolution takes hold,Elaine Lau discovers many others do nothave the tools they need
As they get ready for the new school term starting this week, children attending Fung Kai Innovative School will be the envy of many. While others lug heavy packs laden with textbooks, all that Fung Kai pupils will be carrying is a netbook. That's because the Sheung Shui school has become the first in the city to fully embrace digital textbooks.
Fung Kai began phasing them in from September 2007. With the recent addition of General Studies e-textbooks for primary four and six (material for primary three was completed earlier), all four subjects in the primary curriculum have been converted into PDF versions embedded with web links, videos and animation clips. That includes Chinese, English and mathematics.
"This is the future for education," says school supervisor Ma Siu-leung. "As they have discarded their exercise books, students submit most of their homework using their computers. There's no need for teachers to give out notes, as everything can be downloaded."
Fung Kai Innovative, formerly known as Fung Kai No 2 Primary, is the role model for what Hong Kong education officials hope will be a digital revolution here. In 2007, it was the first school in Asia selected to join Microsoft's Innovative Schools Programme. That aimed to develop best strategies and practices for a better learning environment, especially in using technology to enhance education.
As a pilot school, Fung Kai Innovative now boasts an information technology set-up that can rival that of an international school. The roll call is aided by four face-recognition machines; pupils submit their homework on an electronic platform equipped with automatic marking functions that can lessen teachers' workloads; and it also hosts a YouTube-like site, Show & Share, to share videos of lessons.
But most government schools are equipped with just the bare bones of IT infrastructure. They are far from ready to embrace the digital revolution, principals and digital book publishers say. Although schools still rely on paper texts, judicious addition of digital facilities can make for livelier learning.
