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The Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, today (June 23) visited St Andrew's Catholic Primary School in Tseung Kwan O to learn more about the school's achievements in implementing e-Learning. The school has developed an online learning system that incorporates external professional support to strengthen students' learning abilities.
The school is committed to implementing the school-based e-curriculum and has developed an e-learning platform - the Web-based English Learning System (WELS) - jointly with a subsidiary enterprise of the City University of Hong Kong. According to students' individual learning abilities, teachers can develop a school-based curriculum taking reference of curriculum framework and exemplars, as well as other learning resources available on the WELS. The platform also provides easy editing tools for making e-Learning materials.
The WELS marking function enables teachers to analyse students' assessment data, allowing them to cater for students' diverse learning abilities by providing in-depth exercises and challenges.
Since the development of the WELS and provision of school-based teaching materials, the school's Primary One and Two students are no longer required to purchase conventional textbooks for English language teaching. The online learning platform is also deployed to teach Chinese language using Putonghua.
In addition, the school has received funding from the Quality Education Fund to develop a school-based e-curriculum for English language teaching in collaboration with an online learning platform provider. The e-curriculum enables students to apply information technology in classroom learning and facilitate their self-learning at home. It also enhances students' thinking ability and understanding of their own learning needs.
During the visit, Mr Suen observed lessons under the school-based English Language e-curriculum for Primary One, Chinese Language teaching in Putonghua for Primary Two, and English Language e-curriculum for Primary Four, and joined some of the classroom activities. He was encouraged to see the school's achievement in promoting school-based e-curriculum and the students' keen participation in e-Learning activities.
Mr Suen then met with teachers and enterprise representatives to discuss the implementation of the WELS. After receiving a demonstration, he joined the teachers in using the platform to plan a lesson and create simple teaching materials.
At a subsequent meeting with parent representatives, Mr Suen was delighted to hear positive feedback from parents on the effectiveness of e-Learning. He also noted that the school and parents have formed a group to promote online learning by students at home.
A video clip of Mr Suen's school visit will be uploaded onto EDB's website at www.youtube.com/user/edbgovhk.
Ends/Thursday, June 23, 2011
Issued at HKT 19:01
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