Grace Pow
St. Paul’s Convent School

The primary objective of information technology for Hong Kong in the 21^st century is to raise the computer literacy rate so that Hong Kong becomes a leading digital city in the world (Kwong, 1998). The territory needs a dynamic workforce that is ready to learn new things constantly and is able to keep pace with rapid changes in information technology (IT). Our future citizens should be multi-talented workers who will take the initiative to explore and be creative. To achieve this goal, students should not just rely on their textbooks and teachers but rather with the help of IT in education, they should take a more active role in learning and acquiring new ideas.

It is suggested that "an innovative and interactive teaching and learning approach" should be emphasised so as to broaden the outlooks of students for the coming of the new Millennium (Education & Manpower Bureau, 1998). However, students are not interested in learning just by seeing colourful multimedia presentations. They prefer learning something that is related to their daily lives. They will be motivated if their work can be posted on the net and read by people all over the world (Citizens Party, 1998). Young learners will benefit from their projects if they can exchange ideas and receive comments from a global audience. Therefore, it is important to train our young generation to use the net for educational materials, because teaching and learning on the net can be done at any time and place, and because students can share their opinions with others in different parts of the world through e-mail. These activities can help students become more motivated independent learners and analytical thinkers.

In the past, students might have found language learning boring, especially when they had to memorise grammatical rules and complete lots of drilling exercises. They had to follow teacher instructions leaving them little time to think. Now, however, we want our students to enjoy learning and enrich their general knowledge so as to keep pace with a knowledge-based society. According to the Education Blueprint for the 21st Century (Education Commission, 1999), students of the new millennium should be independent learners. They should be ready for "continuous self-learning, thinking, exploring, innovating" and "filled with self-confidence and team spirit" since learning is a life-long process. They should be willing to learn spontaneously and enjoy the learning process. At the same time, teachers should inspire youngsters to think and to develop their sense of creativity. Future education will be more student-centred and teachers will act like facilitators. Approaching the new millennium, these targets can be achieved through IT since computer-assisted learning and teaching can make young learners more lively and active in the classroom (Education & Manpower Bureau, 1998). They will have more chances to interact with their peers and teachers. Additionally, universal networking will shorten the distance between students all over the world thus permitting communication irrespective of time and space.

To begin with, young learners should understand the reasons for the change in the education reforms. Unless they know that the new policy has great impact on their future, they will not be interested in taking the initiative to search for new materials for local students have got used to the 'spoon-feeding' approach. They should therefore develop the habit of reading current news and writing commentaries. As mentioned earlier, students will be interested to learn about events that are related to their daily lives (e.g. the innovative educational strategies). It is suggested that 25% of the school curriculum should be taught with the assistance of IT in the new millennium (Education & Manpower Bureau, 1998), which will help students to get updated information and facts. Students can adopt the 'non-textbook-based approach', for example, by reading the net edition of newspapers and magazines, to enhance their general knowledge. They can also share opinions with others from other parts of the world using ICQ and send assignments to their teachers through e-mails. The latter can also mark their work and send them comments with attachments. All these can speed up the learning process. Most importantly, it can help to develop independent learning.

The main purpose of this three-stage writing project is to make students aware of the new education policy which focuses on the mastery of language skills, the enjoyment of learning, the development of imagination and a commitment to their nation and families.

In Stage One, students were asked to read news articles on-line relating to local education. It was hoped that they would get used to exploring information through IT.

Once the young learners were familiar with finding information on the net independently, they could proceed to Stage Two in which students were encouraged to express their opinions by writing diaries. This technique helped motivate learners to express their ideas freely. They should write imaginative diaries so as to encourage fluent use of language and to enhance their writing skills (Byrne, 1991).

An English language project was assigned to a Form Four class during the second term in 1999. There were 44 students whose English standard varied from average to very good, with a few whose standard was quite weak. All of them were familiar with using the net to locate materials but only a few knew how to create a webpage.

In Stage One, the focus was on collecting language-learning input in the form of reading materials relating to the new education policy in Hong Kong. A few articles were selected from the South China Morning Post newspaper (for example, "Learning to produce a quality workforce"). Students read the articles and wrote commentaries about them. The main purpose of writing the commentaries was to provide a chance for students to express their opinions about the educational reforms for the new era. They had to know about the major shift from a "teacher-centred approach" to a "student-centred approach" and understand their new role as students. By surfing the net on their own, they learned to search for useful information and no longer just to rely on materials from teachers. Therefore, they were able to take a more active role in learning. Writing commentaries also helped these young learners to think analytically.

In Stage Two, students were told to work on an innovative writing project related to the new education system. They decided to create a webpage entitled ‘’The cyberclassroom in the 21st Century’’ that consisted of two main parts: a 5-day diary and a set of useful links. The five-day diary highlighted the school life of a Form Four student in which the first four entries are related to the four educational aims of 'language', 'enjoyment', 'creativity' and 'commitment' identified above. The last entry, 'history', is a flashback to school life 50 years ago. In this entry, they compared and contrasted school life between now and in the future. The imaginative diary provided a chance for students to foster their creativity and think about how education will change with the implementation of IT. Some sections of the diaries were hyperlinked to other educational websites.

In Stage Three, the class was again divided into peer groups of six or seven, and they looked at webpages in groups and searched the net for more educational websites related to the contents of the diary. Though not everyone in the class was involved in writing the diary, they were still able to contribute to the project by researching useful websites in teams thus giving them a sense of achievement. Each group was expected to hold meetings and to divide the work among themselves. They had to prepare, and work to, a schedule. After surfing, they then had to write a synopsis about the recommended webpages. All the groups submitted their synopses and reports on work description. I visited all the homepages and chose some webpages that were relevant to their studies.

After the final exams, the homepage editor updated the webpages and included the selected links. Students were then asked to visit the webpages again and give comments. The response was quite positive and some students did send remarks relating to the content and the design of the webpages.

After completing the project, the class were asked to fill in a questionnaire expressing their opinions about IT in learning. Out of 44 students, 40 returned their forms.

Eighty percent of the respondents found learning English more fun when they found their project posted on the net. Seventy percent thought that the IT project had encouraged them to be more imaginative. Though only two students were selected to write the diary, others also participated in the project by exchanging ideas and opinions and by brainstorming. The majority believed that they had learnt to think more independently since they had to decide which websites they should recommend to their peers.

By working in groups, students had a chance to discuss and exchange ideas with other students and 92.5% of the learners stated they enjoyed group work. The reasons they gave included:

• exchanging and sharing ideas;
• gaining up-to-date information;
• collecting more opinions;
• dividing the work among the group members;
• learning to co-operate;
• learning to work independently;
• learning how work can be done more efficiently;
• learning how to reduce workloads.

On the other hand, almost half of the class (47.5%) said they had encountered some problems while working on the project due to the following:

• different members had different opinions;
• there were too many webpages on similar topics and choosing appropriate and useful ones was time consuming;
• some members were not co-operative;
• it took a long time to download the information.

Though there were problems, most of the students (97.5%) still wanted to integrate IT projects with English lessons and said they would visit their homepages during the holidays.

Students tend to have arguments or conflicting opinions when they work in pairs or groups. It would be helpful to teach them how they should negotiate and improve their communicative skills. Some respondents complained that their group members were not co-operative and did not contribute a lot. The teacher could arrange consultation sessions with each group and check their progress and find out if they have any such problems.

Some respondents stated that they found it difficult to decide which websites were useful. As the facilitator, the teacher should visit all the recommended sites and make the final decision.

Most students found learning English more fun when their work could be published on a webpage. Only a few did not share this opinion stating that they were not interested in surfing the net because it was too time consuming and they had to spend time on other academic subjects. Some students were still so used to the 'spoon-feeding' approach that they did not want to do research work and were only concerned about the exam syllabus.

In this project, only a few students were responsible for writing the dairies though the majority believed that the IT project had helped them to develop their spirit of creativity. If time allows, more students should be involved in the writing process.

Group-work is highly recommended for students to help them learn how to co-operate with others. By working in groups, students had a chance to discuss ideas and to make compromises with fellow students. Through discussion, participants learned how to help one another solve problems and reduce their workloads. However, some groups found that it was too time-consuming to select so many websites. One solution here is that the class could be divided into smaller groups and each group could then be responsible for surfing materials for one entry instead of for the whole diary. As for those groups who stated that it was difficult to decide which webpages were useful, the teacher needs to act as a facilitator and help select useful links. The teacher also has to keep a record of what the students have done by asking them to write regular reports on their progress.

In the new millennium, IT will play a vital role in learning. Unlike in the past, students should no longer depend solely on teachers. They will have to make good use of web-based materials to enrich their knowledge. This language project provided a chance for a Form Four class in Hong Kong to make use of net materials and create a webpage on their own. By working in groups, students learned to share ideas and opinions.

Byrne, D. (1991). Teaching Writing Skills. London: Longman.

Citizens Party. (1998). Policy Paper: Information Technology for Quality Education: 5-year strategy 1998/99 to 2002/03. Available: http://www.citizensparty.org/educationpp2.html [1999, October 7].

Education & Manpower Bureau. (1998). Information Technology for Quality Education: 5-year strategy: 1998/99 to 2002/03. Hong Kong: Government Printers.

Education Commission. (1999). Education Blueprint for the 21st Century. Hong Kong: Government Printers.

Kwok, S. (1999, January 30). Learning to produce a quality workforce. South China Morning Post. Available: http://www.scmp.com/Special/HKFuture/index.asp6.asp [1999, October 7].

Kwong, K.C. (1998). Policy Objective on Information Technology. Available:

http://www.info.gov.hk/pa98/english/epo/einfo.pdf   [1999, October 7].

 Questionnaire --- Cyberclassroom in the 21st Century

1. Do you find learning English more fun when you have a chance to post your project on a webpage?

Yes 80% No 20%

2. Has the English Language IT project helped you to develop your spirit of creativity?

Yes 70% No 30%

3. Has the English Language IT project encouraged you to work and think more independently when you have to surf educational materials and recommend useful websites?

Yes 80% No 20%

4. A. Do you enjoy group work while doing the project?

Yes 92.5% No 7.5%

B. Please give your reason(s).

Reasons for enjoying group work

• exchange and share ideas
• find more updated information
• collect more opinions
• division of labour
• learn to be co-operative
• learn to be independent workers
• learn to help one another to solve the problems
• the work can be done more efficiently
• reduce workload

5. A. Did you encounter any problems while doing the project?

Yes 47.5% No 52.5%

B. If the answer is 'yes', please state your problems.

Problems

• different opinions from members
• there are too many webpages on similar topics; it is time consuming to choose the appropriate ones
• some members were not co-operative
• sometimes it was difficult to decide which webpages were useful
• it took a long time to download the information

6. A. Do you like integrating IT projects with English lessons?

Yes 97.5% No 2.5%

B. If the answer is 'no', please give your reasons.

One respondent stated that students did not usually have

time to work on projects due to heavy workload.

7. Will you visit the recommended websites during the holidays?

Yes 95% No 5%