CIS enthuses over ‘tech-infused’ learning strategy

As in the world of business, top schools in Hong Kong must continue to innovate and adapt in order to meet changing expectations and create “added value” for both parents and students.

In doing that, one of the major challenges is keeping pace with technology. That applies not just to use in the classroom, but also in understanding how it is fundamentally affecting everything from curriculum structure and learning needs to ways of looking at the world and social norms – and being able to respond accordingly.   

“We realise that young students everywhere are now growing up with ‘double lives’ largely because of technology,” says Dr Ted Faunce, principal of Chinese International School (CIS), which educates close to 1,500 primary and secondary pupils on its Braemar Hill campus. “They are developing new passions and, in many cases, expertise that aren’t connected to school at all. We want to connect the two and also connect within the Hong Kong community.”

With its commitment to dual-cultural and dual-language teaching in English and Chinese, the school has always made a point of being forward-looking. At secondary level, it is fully invested in the International Baccalaureate, or IB, programme and, each year, a major logistics operation takes 400-plus students to various cities on the mainland.  

Now, though, there is also extra emphasis on the concept of “connected learning”, linking what students do in and outside school, while  making sure that teaching is very much in touch with the developments, priorities and demands now prevalent in the wider world.