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.]

The goal of this study was to forward information technology (IT) in education among secondary schools for promoting the paradigm shift to learner-centered learning. This study investigated the readiness of secondary schools in Hong Kong for IT integration into curriculum delivery. All 463 secondary schools in Hong Kong were invited for a territory- wide survey. With the response rate of 72.79%, the feedback from 337 schools indicated that most of the secondary school teachers confidently and habitually used IT for curriculum delivery. The teachers were adapted to integrate the use of digital resources, especially the free-of-charge ones, into students’ in-class learning process and after-school learning tasks. The teachers were also willing to try the pedagogical use of Web 2.0 technologies for supporting subject learning and teaching. This study revealed that secondary schools in Hong Kong are ready to forward IT integration into curriculum delivery for learner-centered learning. It also revealed the need of sustainable and scalable teacher development to help teachers enhance pedagogical competency in promoting learner-centered learning along with the trend of digital classrooms.
[Copyright © 2013 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.]

Computer education in Hong Kong secondary schools has a short history. The histories of Computer and Information Technology education in junior secondary and primary schools are even shorter. This report is part of the comprehensive review of the development of teacher education of Computer and Information Technology in Hong Kong. It focuses mainly on computer courses for teachers, especially those developed in the colleges of education and the Hong Kong Institute of Education. There are three different stages: (1) before the implementation of the Certificate-Level Computer Studies; (2) from the implementation of the Computer Studies subject to the formation of the Hong Kong Institute of Education; and (3) after the establishment of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Implications of the development in computer teacher education will be discussed.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education]

This research focuses on building a computer-supported learning environment for fostering inquiry learning process, which is an essential quality of life-long learners. This research discusses how computer- mediated learning resources are designed and implemented for supporting inquiry learning of primary school children to have better understanding of puberty - a core element in the Health and Living Strand of General Studies in the Hong Kong primary curriculum. The computer- mediated learning resources include virtual devices and case studies. The various virtual devices of balance, meter rule, magnifying lens, and x-ray machine helped learners look into the body changes and sexual development during puberty, as well as reproductive anatomy. The case studies provide situations of harassment and questions early adolescents may encounter. Teachers can guide pupils to work individually or in groups to search for supporting information from the virtual devices for making wise choices. Hence, the learning resources serve to support teachers to provide a computer-supported classroom learning environment for inquiry learning of puberty.

One key element in changing societies is the advent and the use of computers. Computers are ubiquitous nowadays. There is no exception for education. The explorations of using computer packages like Mathematica, Maple V, and Cabri-Geometre in mathematics education have been reported in various Mathematics Education Journals. The applications of software to teach primary and secondary mathematics are also found in conferences. These developments indicate that it is time for us to investigate the potential of applying computer technology in mathematics education and the implications for our aims of mathematics education. Two of our speakers, Mr. Kong and Mr. Leung, will choose Exel as a software for exploration in this conference. The reasons for choosing Excel have twofold: 1. Almost all schools in Hong Kong have licensed Excel copies; and 2. Excel has both computational and graphical capabilities which formulate great potential for teaching crucial mathematical notions and can serve as tools for mathematical exploration. Kong and Eeung will demonstrate how Excel can be used for the teaching of the statistical notions of central tendency and deviation and as the exploration tool for solving arithmetic problems. Dr. Man will discuss how Maple V, one of the modern symbolic computer softwares, can be used in teaching primary mathematics topics, such as finding prime numbers, greatest common divisors, least common multiples, etc. He will also demonstrate how to use Maple' s worksheet structure to prepare notes or examples for discussion purposes in class. Besides, if time is permitted, he will also try to demonstrate how one can make use of Maple' s graphical abilities in teaching some chosen topics in the current primary mathematics curriculum. After the exploration of using computer packages in teaching and learning mathematics, Mr. Ng will discuss the implications of the use of computers for the mathematics education: Is it possible for computers to reproduce the achievements

This article mainly addresses the Hong Kong new Information Technology in Education policy to have further integration of information technology into the learning and teaching process, particularly on the design of IT-supported inquiry learning in the primary General Studies. The article focuses on the collaborative effort of the teacher educators from the Institute of Education and the curriculum developers of the Hong Kong Education City in the design of a web-based learning unit on "Earth Movement" to support pupils' inquiry learning of science. The article discusses the different modes of inquiry learning with the web-based learning unit in primary General Studies

This paper describes the learning experience of the student-teachers in an initial teacher education programme run by the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The focus is on the teaching practice period of the programme and the report is made through the eyes of the student-teachers as regards the support they received from their co-operating teachers. In order to enhance the quality of support provided by the co-operating teachers, the first phase of the study is an intervention in which training sessions for the co-operating teachers are provided prior to the teaching practice period. In the sessions, an introduction to recent educational theories; classroom observation skills and basic counseling skills are discussed. This study also includes an evaluation of the intervention through an examination of the quality of guidance provided by the co-operating teachers. The data collected include interviews with the student-teachers, conversation records between the co-operating teachers and the student-teachers, and journals written by the student-teachers during the teaching practice period. The findings contrast the support provided by the trained and untrained co-operating teachers as well as the experience of the student-teachers under their guidance. This paper concludes with different modes of support perceived and discusses implications on the design of field experience for initial teacher education programmes.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Teaching duty assignment is an important aspect of human resource management in a secondary school. This problem is currently solved by human planners. A prototype of an Intelligent Decision Support System for Teaching Duty Assignments (TDAS) has been successfully constructed and validated. The assignment aims to incur minimum dissatisfaction to teachers by distributing workload evenly among teachers. The automation of such a planning activity can reduce the pressure on a planner that are induced from the anxiety of teachers of being manipulated by the human planner. This system is the first of its kind in Hong Kong secondary schools. The algorithms have been tested on a set of real life data of a secondary school. The result was compared with its counterpart which was produced manually by the school principal with favourable comments that the computer result was usable.

The teaching practice is a crucial part of the teacher education program. During the field experience program, student-teachers put the theory learnt into practice, and acquire teaching experience in actual school settings. The quality of learning acquired largely depends on the quality of support provided by the Institute and the schools before and during the practice period. Dispoto's study stated that student-teachers experienced conflict and stress during their field experience. The strain to learn to teach may result in feelings of incompetence and lack of confidence, and may affect the attitude, behaviour and performance of the student-teachers. Besides support from the Institute, student-teachers also receive support from teachers (mentors) in the schools where they perform their practice. With reference to the expectations for mentors concluded by Grimmentt and Ratzlaff, mentors need some pre-requisite knowledge and skills, e.g. observation skills, up-dated knowledge on education theories, ability to undertake critical analysis of one's and other people' lesson in order to involving student-teachers in planing and evaluating learning experience, conferring and evaluating their development through regular observation and feedback. Since the establishment of the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 1994, a new form of teaching practice has been introduced in the 2-year full time primary teacher education program, namely the Co-operating Teacher Scheme (CTS). Co- operating teachers from schools are assigned to student-teachers and perform the functions of the mentors. In a local study student-teachers were found to have lowered the perception of their competence after the teaching practice. Our previous researches revealed that the co-operating teachers (CTs) would like to have more updated knowledge of education theories, teaching strategies, observation and communication skills so as to enhance the learning of the student-teachers. In order to improve the quality