Smart classroom has some common features such as automatic sensing physical environment, flexible use of computing devices and physical settings, connected learning environment, and learning data tracking. These features can promote interaction among teachers, learning peers and resources entertaining needs of new generation learners. Interactions in smart classrooms have a higher level of complexity in comparison with traditional classrooms. In this study, an interaction observation tool in K-12 smart classroom was developed, based on the existing interaction tools and derived from the characteristics of smart classroom as discussed. The two major parts of the observation tool are interaction records in smart classroom and interaction support from the learning environment. The tool has been piloted in 14 selected primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shenzhen. The tool has been revised eight times after thirty times of in-class observation and ten times of video observation. The tool was evaluated in the dimensions of function, usability and data processing by 5 experts of educational technology, 10 K-12 teachers and 35 observers. The average mean scores of function, usability and data processing are 4.47, 3.98 and 3.94. The Kendall synergistic coefficient is W=0.471, Sig=-0.000, indicating that the tool was highly acceptable.
[Copyright © 2015 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.]

A school-based planning for technology enhanced learning (TEL) in both the traditional school curriculum and the development of the Twenty-first Century Knowledge is considered crucial for school education in Hong Kong. This study aimed to analyze the status quo and provide recommendations on the planning for TEL. Focus group discussion and case study were conducted to collect views of school practitioners on the need and areas of school-based planning for TEL. Results of the study showed that schools in Hong Kong recognized the importance of the Twenty-first Century Knowledge in school education, and asserted the adoption of TEL for delivering traditional curriculum and fostering the Twenty-first Century Knowledge. In this regard, three recommendations in response to the roles of IT on enhancing school education in the twenty-first century are made. They are the use of information technology for fostering independent inquiry learning, the promotion of self-regulated learning involving the use of digital resources, and the use of digital student learning records for encouraging assessment for learning.

This paper reports and discusses the findings from the first phase of a research study concerning the use of mobile technologies for teaching and learning within 10 schools in Hong Kong. Implementation plans devised by the schools were evaluated by an extended framework for analyzing mobile learning with a view from teachers' perspective. Initial finding reveals that teachers could contrive limited learning activities involving the use of mobile technologies in a range of subject areas within school environment. Insights derived from the finding highlight a need to guide teachers towards cultivating a more student-controlled and socio-constructive learning environment mediated by mobile technologies.
[Copyright © 2010 IEEE. Reprinted from 2010 6th IEEE International Conference on Wirless, Mobile and Ubiquitous Technologies in Education (WMUTE), pp. 142-145. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the Hong Kong Institute of Education’s products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.]

This paper reports the key findings of a territory-wide review survey on the current development of Information Technology in Education (ITEd) in Hong Kong. 711 schools in different sectors had taken part in this study. Five areas regarding ITEd were reviewed: (1) IT facilities and accessibility; (2) Resources; (3) IT deployment in schools; (4) IT deployment for learning/teaching; and (5) Students' awareness/competency in use of IT. All schools had basic infrastructure to support the development of ITEd while teachers and students were competent to adopt IT in teaching and learning. The present progress of ITEd has posted a solid foundation for further development which aims at developing 21st century skills.
[Copyright © 2011 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using mobile devices for promoting subject learning in school education. A total of 43 Chinese students from two Primary 4 classes in a primary school in Hong Kong participated in this study. One class was randomly assigned as the experimental class, while the other class as the control class. Students in the experimental class used mobile devices to learn about perimeter of polygons while those in the control class learned the same topic with paper-based materials. The results of pre-test and post-test show that students in the experimental class achieved a significant improvement in their learning performance. Furthermore, the responses from student interview indicate that students in the experimental class were generally satisfied with classroom learning with mobile devices because of two reasons: i) an increased level of student control, and ii) an enhanced communication between peers and between the teacher and students. These findings reveal the pedagogical potential of mobile devices to promote deep learning through classroom-based dialogic interaction in class time.
[Copyright © 2012 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.]

A study was conducted for creating digital classrooms to support students to develop information literacy competency and critical thinking skills through domain knowledge learning in digital classrooms. A total of 107 students from four Secondary 1 classes were invited from a secondary school in Hong Kong to participate in the study. In the 13-week trial teaching, every three students shared a Tablet PC for learning two topics in the Integrated Humanities subject. The pre- and post-tests of the two target subject topics found that the students had a statistically significant growth in domain knowledge. The three identical information literacy tests and critical thinking tests throughout the trial teaching found that the students had a statistically significant growth in information literacy competency and critical thinking skills. The semi-structured interviews found that the students and teachers positively perceived the effectiveness of the pedagogical designs of the digital classrooms on supporting the development of information literacy competency and critical thinking skills. Three implications are drawn for enhancing the pedagogical designs in digital classrooms that put emphasis on fostering students' development of information literacy competency and critical thinking skills through day-to-day domain knowledge learning in class.
[Copyright © Pergamon Press].

The acceleration of e-Learning around the world has driven the major cities/regions in the Asia–Pacific region such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing to plan and implement official policies on e-Learning for enhancing the quality of school education. This article aims to review experiences and then draw lessons of these four major Asian cities/regions in the development of e-Learning policies on the dimensions of infrastructure, curriculum integration, students learning, teacher professional development, as well as leadership and capacity building. It is identified that each of the four major Asian cities/regions has its own area of emphasis in the planning of future e-Learning policies, with Singapore focusing on scaling up good practices of e-Learning among teacher community; Hong Kong focusing on creating digital classrooms supported by wireless networking for student-centered learning; Taiwan focusing on cultivating students with 21st century skills through daily subject teaching; and Beijing focusing on providing digital resources and e-textbooks geared to school curricula. Five implications with regard to e-Learning policies are further made in order to provide a point of references for other cities/regions to develop future e-Learning policies for school education in the 21st century.
[Copyright © Springer].

This study aims to examine the design of approaches for inquiry learning with multimedia resources in primary classrooms. The study describes the development of a multimedia learning unit that helps learners understand the natural phenomenon of the movement of the Earth. An analysis of the use of the multimedia learning unit by a teacher in two classes of pupils aged 10-12, with different pedagogical approaches, was reported. The multimedia learning unit was used by the teacher in the first class with her own understanding of inquiry learning, which is a teacher-oriented approach with mainly teacher control of the learning. She shifted to a more learneroriented approach of inquiry with another class after receiving suggestions from the lesson observers. A comparison of the prelesson and postlesson tests was conducted to study the learning achievement of the two classes of learners using the same multimedia unit. The results showed that though there were significant improvements in learning achievement in both classes, the teaching with a learner-oriented approach with less teacher controlled over the use of multimedia components resulted in learners' better achievement. The study concludes with suggestions on design of teaching based on inquiry learning with multimedia learning resources and the shift to a more learner-oriented inquiry approach.
[Copyright © 2007 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.]

In the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Co-operating Teacher Scheme (CTS) is an important element of the School Experience. Its aims are to let students obtain various forms of support as they first enter the school, progressively learn about a teacher's work and progressively develop professional ability and reflective skills and habits. It was implemented in the initial primary teacher education programmes in 1994. The focus of the present study is to view from the perspective of student-teachers and study what they have really learned from the CTS; how they perceived the relative effectiveness or importance of different phases of the scheme; how they perceived the difference between the roles of the co-operating teacher and the practicum tutor. In the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Co-operating Teacher Scheme (CTS) is an important element of the School Experience. Its aims are to let student teachers obtain various forms of support as they first enter the school; progressively learn about a teacher's work and progressively develop professional ability and reflective skills and habits. The study was conducted within a month after the completion of the CTS. There are quantitative and qualitative components. From the list of 130 schools participating in the Scheme in 95-96, eighty schools were selected randomly. School heads and co-operating teachers were invited to complete a questionnaire. At the same time, in the Institute 71 practicum tutors and 707 student teachers also completed a questionnaire. Futermore, 6 school heads, 12 co-operating teachers, 10 practicum tutors and 10 student teachers were interviewed in order to collect information in addition to that obtained from the questionnaire. The present paper only focuses on the data obtained from the student teachers in order to study the CTS as a learning experience from the perspective of student teachers. From the data of the questionnaire, on the whole, the student teachers supported the implementation

In this paper, we report on the findings with regard to classroom activities and their time use in a number of mobile technology-mediated classrooms at Hong Kong. The data was collected from a mobile learning project specifically designed to promote students' group and independent learning across a range of subject disciplines through using mobile devices within school environment. A total of 30 lessons in 10 primary and secondary schools were videotaped and analyzed. Results indicate that mobile devices can support establishing a well-balanced structure of classroom activities controlled by both teachers and students, where about 40% of the total class time was allocated to direct teaching and 40% was assigned to students' learning in independent and/or collaborative ways.
[Copyright © 2010 The authors.]