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The Education and Manpower Bureau was determined to provide teachers with professional development opportunities and support to help them respond to the challenge of using IT for curriculum and pedagogical innovations, the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur KC Li, said today (February 6)..
Professor Li was speaking at the opening ceremony of the "Hong Kong International IT in Education Conference 2006" (HKITEC 2006).
The three-day conference was organised by the bureau in conjunction with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Baptist University, the Hong Kong Institute of Education, the University of Hong Kong, Association of IT Leaders in Education, the Hong Kong Association for Computer Education, the Online Learning and Teaching Association, and Partners in Learning Program of Microsoft Hong Kong Limited.
It was the first international IT in education conference organised by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and a spectacular event among the education sector, which symbolised a milestone for the development of IT in education in the territory.
"In 2004, we released our second IT in education strategy called 'Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology' for the 2004-07 school year. To further empower our teachers and school heads, we have set up Learning Centres for teachers to develop and share IT skills, and provided IT leadership training for our school heads," Professor Li said. "More will be available as we introduce incentive schemes to encourage the public and private sectors to develop quality instructional software."
Teachers were key players in providing the environment for learning and driving reforms. They were also indispensable for implementing new teaching approaches using IT in the classroom and facilitating students to acquire necessary skills for lifelong learning in the information age. The conference served the purpose of enhancing the sharing of information, dissemination of good practices and providing a platform for teachers and stakeholders in education to improve their collaboration in this area.
The conference adopted the theme of "Capacity Building for Learning through IT" and five sub-themes namely "Learning through IT", "e-Learning", "e-Leadership", "Learning Communities and Capacity Building through IT", and "Community Involvement".
It features six keynote speeches, 13 teaching demonstrations, about 180 presentations of various kinds, more than 20 workshops and more than 100 paper presentations and 40 poster displays/mini exhibitions.
The keynote speeches will be conducted by internationally renowned academics including Professor Li Kedong from the Mainland, Professor Looi Chee-kit from Singapore, Professor Chan Tak-wai from Taiwan, Professor Stephen Heppell from the United Kingdom, Professor Barry Fishman from the United States and Professor Eduardo O C Chaves from Brazil.
They will share with participants good pedagogical practices on the use of IT in Hong Kong and other economies.
The conference, in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai, will be attended by about 1,500 participants.
Details of the HKITEC 2006 are available on the website at http://www.hkitec2006.org. For enquiries, please call the Conference Secretariat at 2509 3430 or e-mail to hkitec2006@mphk.com.
Ends/Monday, February 6, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:18
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