Learning September 2020∣Youth Hong Kong
Online schooling a must have • Online learning is taking place on an unprecedented scale this year and the eCitizen Education 360 Project is monitoring progress.
• 今 年全港大規模使用網上學習，可謂前 所未見。
• Educators were not prepared for prolonged school suspensions, says Project Coordinator and Principal Investigator Prof Nancy Law of the University of Hong Kong. • She talks about the urgent need to strengthen strategies.
Professor Nancy Law monitors the ways in which adaption to online education is taking place. “E-learning only played a minor role in Hong Kong schools before the pandemic,” she points out. Her study of the effect of class suspensions was underway as the first swift adjustments were being made. She appreciates efforts to sustain learning, but she also recognizes the steep learning curve that has to be climbed. “In February 2020, a few pioneering schools used Zoom for interactive, real-time lessons.” Those schools made headline news, but a few months later, Zoom had become a norm. It is remarkable in the circumstances that Prof Law’s ongoing study [see eCitizen Education 360 Project, page 8] revealed that stakeholders had no particular concern over students’ long-term development. “I would interpret this as evidence of students’ learning through work submitted to their teachers for grading. It also indicates that the efforts made by schools, teachers and parents paid off.”
Maintaining contact However, going to school involves real-time face-toface interaction with teachers and other students. This element was largely missing from online learning this year and student-centred interactive learning needs to be addressed, says Prof Law, as well as results. “Schooling is more than academic learning and teaching. It is also a socialisation process.” A lot of students in her study said they missed the opportunity to socialize with 6
• 香 港大學教育學院羅陸慧英教授認為教 育工作者並未預料到學校會長時間停課。 • 她跟讀者探討了當只能使用電子教學時， 教育工作者首要加強使用電子教學的能 力以及制定相應策略。
In terms of competence [in online learning] there are huge differences between and within schools. peers and teachers. They also missed the chance for the “casual negotiation of meaning,” an element that face-toface lessons makes possible when clarification is needed but which is difficult in the context of online learning. “Teachers also reported difficulty accurately assessing students’ learning outcomes,” Prof Law continues. “When conducting a lesson face-to-face, teachers regularly check students’ facial expressions to gauge understanding. They walk around the classroom to check on progress or ask questions.” When such feedback is hidden behind computer screens, assessment is much more difficult. Subjects requiring hands-on or essentially creative engagement revealed more complications. “A teacher at one of the surveyed schools walked the extra mile by posting individual science activity kits to students.” Many teachers of the visual arts and music changed their curriculum entirely to accommodate the online learning mode, she reports. “Engaging students in creative or inquiry-oriented online learning without the materials or hands-on guidance is no easy endeavour.”
