Cyber schooling: The Education Bureau says a web-based environment for collaboration and sharing will make learning more flexible, interactive and student-centred.

The Education Bureau today issued the Right Technology at the Right Time for the Right Task document to garner public views on the 3rd Strategy on Information Technology in Education. The consultation-period ends November 28.

The consultation is about the integration of IT into learning and teaching to improve learning outcomes.

The bureau said the use of web-based environments for collaboration and sharing (or Web 2.0 applications) and m-learning (using wireless technologies to enable learning anywhere, anytime) will make the learning environment more flexible, interactive and student-centred.

The role of the Government is to provide the necessary conditions and practical advice on the pedagogical applications of IT to reduce the barriers to integration of IT into education, it said, adding it will also seek to enhance administrative flexibility, especially in funding, to enable schools to embrace appropriate technologies smoothly.

The focus of the third strategy is on the human factor rather than the technical factor. IT is only one of many mediators in learning and teaching. Teachers and students will need to decide whether the use of IT is the most effective mediator for a particular learning and teaching activity.

Proposal highlights

The focus of the proposed strategy is:

* to reduce teacher workload in selecting appropriate digital resources and integrating them into learning and teaching activities by providing an online depository of curriculum-based teaching modules with appropriate digital resources;

* to emphasise on pedagogical applications of IT in future teacher professional development activities;

* to assist schools to draw up and implement school-based plans to integrate IT into education;

* to enable schools to maintain effective IT facilities by providing a $200 million one-off grant for replacing and upgrading their IT facilities.

* to continue collaboration with IT organisations to provide back-up technical services to schools. EDB will set up a dedicated team to support schools in integrating IT into education; and,

* to collaborate with non-governmental organisations to raise information literacy of parents and launch programmes on parental guidance on e-learning at home.

The consultation documents can be downloaded from bureau's website.