Friday, June 26, 2009

Interactive remote e-teaching

We have built up a strong relationship with the school since our first visit in January 2008. The school is isolated in a remote place, and finds it difficult to recruit teachers. One way to overcome this problem is to build up a system to support interactive online teaching between Hong Kong and the school.

We have already organized and tested several video conferences during our visits. We tried a variety of software, cameras, lighting situations, and other settings. The results are quite encouraging.

We are now setting up a weekly class throughout summer, after we return to Hong Kong. Initially we will target English and IT classes, with PolyU students and professors taking up the first classes. We plan to bring in other collaborating primary and secondary schools in the future. To be effective, the system has to be inexpensive, easy to set up, and support effective teaching. If the arrangements are satisfactory, it can be a good model for other schools with similar problems.

Looking back, we have achieved a lot over the week, and we are proud of our students who worked so hard.


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