Introduction

CITE, HKU has launched a series of research and development projects called 'Learning Community Projects' since 2001. The aim of these projects is to support and investigate the development of life-long learning abilities in group collaborative learning contexts using technology, focusing on finding the relationships between the development of enquiry and knowledge-building abilities and the changing group dynamics and interaction patterns of the learners. The project integrates a web discussion platform called 'Knowledge Forum' (KF) into secondary school curriculum, this project hopes to develop better thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills of students, and to enhance their knowledge-building ability. The various phases of this series of projects until 2008 can be found from the projects page from September 2008. The KB Online Course has summarized valuable knowledge from these earlier projects. From September 2008, the project has extended its scope to become the Professional Network for Knowledge Building in Schools.

CITE

The Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE) was established in June 1998 to provide support for the education community in Hong Kong in promoting the use of information technology (IT) for quality education. The mission of the Centre is to stimulate and under- take search and development projects and to disseminate the research products and findings to the education community both locally and internationally. The aim is to become a Centre of Excellence in the area of IT in school and teacher education.

Knowledge Forum

Knowledge Forum, a problem-centered collaborative knowledge medium that operates over a computer network. In the database, students and their teachers can create text and graphic notes, read and build onto each others' notes, and create views to represent different aspects of their collaborative work. It provides the organization for any number of small groups to carry on discussions and debates among themselves and with each other, for students to join in the discussions of whatever group they're interested in, and to realign themselves with other groups as the need arises, and it allows the teacher as well as other students to monitor and contribute to the developing lines of inquiry of each group. The computer system thus provides the organization and support for the complex array of individual and group discussions and development of ideas that constitutes a working knowledge-building community.