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.]

In Hong Kong, the new Senior Secondary curriculum was introduced at Secondary 4 level in September 2009. The curriculum documents emphasize that textbooks not only provide the core elements of learning in the subjects but should also be designed to develop students’ critical and creative thinking and other generic skills through the information and activities they provide. In addition, textbooks should provide a ‘one-stop shop’ of teaching materials so as to help teachers plan the scope and sequence of their lessons. As teachers still rely on textbooks as an important source of information to support their teaching, all textbooks for Senior Secondary Education have been rewritten for the new curriculum. In this paper, the author presents a case study which aimed to develop a framework for designing a new set of Senior Secondary Information and Communication Technology (ICT) textbooks for use by Hong Kong students. In the study, the author conducted a documentary analysis of textbooks pertaining to the previous version of the curriculum, and interviewed experienced teachers, both in order to examine the design strategies for the new textbooks. The paper also discusses how supplementary teaching materials can be used to support learning, teaching and assessment.
[Copyright © 2011 Common Ground, Yiu Chi Lai, All Rights Reserved.]

With the surging demands for the use of network-based learning environment in primary and secondary schools, the knowledge and practical skills on school LAN management is increasingly critical for our pre-service and in-service IT teachers. Many of our IT graduates will assume the role of IT coordinators in their employed schools on top of their regular teaching duties. Training on network concepts and hands-on communication skills are essential to them. In this paper, we describe our model LAN project for teaching and learning. The model LAN stimulates a school¡¦s networking environment so that our student teachers can acquire the relevant knowledge and practical skills very close to the real school networking environment.

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.

This paper shares the personal experience of a teacher educator in Hong Kong who took the opportunity of lecturer attachment to a local primary school to field-test the application of information technology (IT) in teaching a primary school subject in Hong Kong. This is with the aim to get herself familiar with the application of IT in teaching primary pupils, as well as to initiate more discussion and demonstration in promoting the use of IT to the pre-service teachers. The paper also reports on how the teacher educator planned, implemented and evaluated her teaching, along with the difficulties encountered. The paper concludes with practical suggestions for teacher educators and pre-service teachers in Hong Kong on how to implement IT effectively in primary classrooms.

Aim: This paper discusses the creation of learning environments with online resources by primary school teachers for pupil's learning of science-related topics with reference to the resource-based e-learning environments (RBeLEs) framework. The reasons for the teachers to choose particular contexts, resources, tools, and scaffolds in designing the learning environments are considered. Evaluation by the teachers and opinions from the pupils regarding the teaching and learning in the learning environments are also included. Methodology: The teaching designs of three upper primary science-related topics were analysed using the four components of RBeLEs framework: creation of contexts, selection of resources, design of tools, and adoption of scaffolds. The three teaching designs were "Climate in China", "Connection and movements of bones", and "Hong Kong climate". The underpinning rationale and the post-lesson reflection on the designs by the teachers were captured through interviews with the three teachers who developed the teaching designs. Pupils' feelings about learning in the RBeLEs were revealed from interviews after the lessons. Results: From the analysis of the teaching designs, it was discovered that the contexts were mostly determined by the teachers according to the curriculum and textbooks; only one teacher also incorporated some current issues. For online resources, two teachers made use of both dynamic and static resources from different sources, and one teacher only selected static resources. To foster pupils' learning, the teachers adopted tools for various tasks, including tools for processing information, searching and seeking, collecting information and data, organising, collaborating and integrating, and communicating. Different types of scaffolds were also designed to support pupils in asking and discussion, searching and selecting, doing and observing, and summarising and conceptualising while learning in the RBeLEs. As revealed from interviews before