Facilitating factors

Enthusiasm and professionalism of teachers was the key to this fruitful experience. The core teachers were devoted to exploring e-resources and e-learning tools and preparing teaching plans and materials for S1-5. All the English teachers also took an active role to implement the plans and evaluate the effectiveness. They collected feedback on the project regularly and made adjustments to refine learning and teaching.

There could be different kinds of hiccups or technical problems in the classroom with the use of e-resources and e-learning tools. Some students also needed extra help when using the e-learning tools. The presence of technicians or teaching assistants in the classroom during the first few attempts was very helpful especially for teachers with less e-learning experience. A simple and systematic loan system of mobile devices and handling procedures were also important to facilitate the smooth implementation.

Utilising the same e-learning tools in different subjects could ensure that students were familiarised with the use of those tools. That could save time from teaching students to use new tools every time. Students also became more confident and efficient in the learning process if they had used the tools before.

Way forward

The school would like to continue to develop e-learning to arouse students’ interest in learning English and develop students’ essential skills to meet new challenges in the future. Individual teachers have gained confidence and accumulated experience in e-learning. They have become the new force to help develop e-learning plans and materials at different levels. The school would also like to aim at a higher level of technology integration in learning and teaching and further enhance students’ information literacy, enable them to interact with and produce multimodal texts, and promote integrative use of generic skills.