Our Chief Executive announced in his 1997 Policy Address to promote the use of information technology (IT) in education. One of his aims was to have 25% of the school curriculum taught through IT in five years' time. The author, a computer lecturer, believes one of the best way is to promote IT in education is to prepare student teachers for this new trend. She practised what she preached by integrating World Wide Web (Web) into her teaching. A tailored-made Web site was implemented and students were able to learn some computer concepts by surfing to the Web. Although there are many successful stories of adopting IT in education and yet there were very few studies to examine if Web-based learning are indeed more effective than paper-based learning. Therefore, the author attempted to investigate such an issue by conducting a case study. The participants were pre-service student teachers studying at the Hong Kong Institute of Education taking Computer Literacy (Information Technology) as one of their electives. Two groups of student teachers, one group consisted of ten participants whilst the other group consisted of eleven participants, participated in this study. Each study consisted of : (1) a pre-test, (2) a learning activity - Group A used the materials posted on the Web whilst Group B used the same materials but which was printed on papers, and (3) a post-test. All the questions asked in the pre-tests were asked again in the post-tests so that students well understood what to learn during the learning session and it was also easier to find out the effect of the learning medium. The average Group A students performed slightly better than Group B students in the pre-tests. However, Group B students performed much better than Group A students in the post-tests. The findings suggested that student teachers were able to learn more effectively using Web-based materials rather than paper-based materials. The limitations and implications of this study will be discussed.

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

Hong Kong's policy of academic banding, whereby students are placed in secondary schools according to factors such as test scores and available places, often influences the type of education a student receives. In the area of technology education, with subjects such as Design & Technology (D&T), the programs vary, depending on the band of student in the program. This study examined pupils' attitudes toward technology and what effect the characteristics of banding and subjects such as D&T had on attitudes. Using a 58-item instrument to gauge Pupils' Attitudes Toward Technology, over 3,000 students were surveyed from 17 schools. Of these schools, seven were from upper band (1&2), while ten were from lower band schools (4&5). Basic characteristics of the students' were obtained on such areas as mother's and father's occupation, computers at home, and whether or not they have taken "technology" subjects such as D&T in school. Attitudes were grouped in categories of "Interest", "Role Patterns", "Technology is Difficulty", Consequences of Technology", "School Curriculum", and "Career Aspirations". The results indicated interactions with three of the six attitude categories. The results suggested a review of the approach to teaching technology and student access to such courses is required.

This paper reported the nature of multimedia teaching materials and focuses of discussions of in-service teachers in a web-based learning environment. The significance of the study was that in-service teachers had developed useful multimedia teaching materials for their daily teaching and these could be shared among their peers. Besides, the study on the focuses of teachers' discussions and sharing provided insight and direction of further implementation of discussion forums for teachers.

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

E-learning has become increasingly important. The situation in Hong Kong is no exception. Since the implementation of the five-year strategic for information technology in education, there have been substantial changes in the infrastructure in Hong Kong schools in terms of hardware, software and peopleware. These advances are providing a good platform for Hong Kong schools to further develop a better and necessary learning environment for their students. This paper reports some of the recent development of e-learning in Hong Kong and reflects critically of its future.
[Copyright © 2002 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.]

This research studied how resource-based learning environment (RBLE) with multimedia resources facilitates students to develop understanding of "Hong Kong Economics". The study established an RBLE by creating authentic contexts, selecting appropriate resources and tools, and adopting necessary scaffolds. Three classes of students aged 11-12 were involved in learning of the different sub-topics in various approaches: a learner-centred approach with individual computer; a teacher-centred approach with one single teacher computer; and an interactive approach of group use of a computer. The analysis included video-taped lessons and interview responses, with a finding that deep learning is effected from a more learner-centred approach.

The Learning Centre (LC) Scheme is a collaborative project between the Education Manpower Bureau, a primary school, a secondary school, and the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) for facilitating the implementation of the recent education reform in various key learning areas. As a pilot stage of the LC Scheme, the primary LC works on the subject of General Studies and the secondary LC focuses on the subject of Junior Secondary Science. Both LCs achieve the aim of facilitating professional development in their respective key learning areas through a series of face-to-face teacher education workshops, school-based support service and the web-based Teacher Learning Community. The LC teachers need to take up the role of cascading good practices in curriculum and pedagogical changes through carrying out test-bed trial teaching in their own classes, facilitating other teachers' professional development in workshops and providing outreach school-based support. In carrying out these responsibilities, the LCs work with the HKIEd consultant Team which provides mentoring and consultancy services, and evaluates the project. The project is structured into three phases, to wit (I) preparation in leadership or teacher development understanding, (II) the implementation stage (including teacher professional development workshops, web-based development opportunities and school-based support) and (III) the evaluation stage. Using structured interviews, we identified the professional development that the LC teachers experienced in the first year of the project. The paper concludes with recommendations for future development of the LC Scheme in terms of ways and conditions to support LC teachers in realizing this meaningful mission.

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) provides training to students who wish to pursue their career in teaching. The authors, computer literacy lecturers, would like to find out if there is any difference between the expectation and perception of the computer knowledge students should possess in order to be competent junior secondary computer subject teacher. The authors would also compare the computer knowledge required with the present Computer Literacy curriculum and suggest amendment if necessary. A questionnaire was distributed to student teachers of Northcote Campus before and after teaching practice in 1996. The questions were grouped under basic computer knowledge, Logo programming, computer applications and others. Student teachers regarded all the computer knowledge as important. They gave highest regards to Logo programming, followed by computer applications, basic computer knowledge and others before teaching practice. However, after teaching practice, student teachers gave lower regards to all categories of computer knowledge except for the topics included in the"others" categories. It might be due to the anxiety they had before teaching practice and they found the reality was not so demanding. Student teachers found that computer applications were more important than the knowledge of Logo programming after teaching practice. The importance of other computer knowledge remained unchanged. It could be due to the fact that not all schools required student teachers to teach Logo programming to their junior form secondary school students. Although the importance for most topics in the"others" category had decreased, there was a slight increase of importance in the topic of artificial intelligence, computer organization, database programming, objected oriented programming language, operating systems and systems analysis and design. The present HKIEd curriculum has covered all the topics in basic computer knowledge, Logo programming and computer applications