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.
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