A study was conducted for creating digital classrooms to support students to learn subject knowledge and develop information literacy competency as well as critical thinking skills. A total of 144 students in four Secondary 1 classes in a secondary school in Hong Kong were invited to participate in the study. In the 12 trial lessons, every three students shared a Tablet PC for learning the topic “Air Pollution Problems in Hong Kong” in the Integrated Humanities subject. After the trial teaching, the students and teachers were interviewed about their perception of the support from the designed digital classrooms. The study found that the students and teachers positively perceived the support from the designed digital classrooms on developing subject knowledge, information literacy competency and critical thinking skills. Three recommendations are made for enhancing the pedagogical designs in digital classrooms that emphasize the use of mobile technology. Copyright © 2012 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.

This paper reports an on-going case study on the project of “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for seamless science inquiry” in a primary school in Hong Kong. The study aims at investigating how the students advanced their content knowledge in science inquiry in a seamless learning environment supported by their own mobile devices. The topic of inquiry was “The Anatomy of Fish”. Data collection included pre- and post-domain tests, student artifacts, class observations and field notes. Content analysis and a trialogical approach were adopted in the data analysis to trace the students’ knowledge advancement. The work of one group of students was used as an example. The research findings show that the students advanced their understanding of the anatomy of fish well beyond what was available in the textbook.
[Copyright © 2013 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.]

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.]