seminar
Establishing and Sustaining School Networks for Learner-centered Pedagogical Innovations
Description:
Chair: Dr Man-Tak YUEN, Director, CAISE, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong
School-University Partnership projects have become a popular form of support to schools to bring about pedagogical innovations in schools, including the integration of ICT to support the development of 21st century skills such as self-directed learning and knowledge building. A major challenge in this type of projects is their sustainability and scalability when project funding ends. The SELTAS project (http://seltas.edu.hk) was one of the 21 e-learning pilot projects funded by the EDB in 2011-14. This project was a collaborative effort of 10 special needs schools that have been collaborating in the SAME Network (Systematic Approach to Mainstream Education Network) since 2005 to promote quality education for children with intellectual disabilities. The SELTAS project is outstanding in that it has not only sustained after the e-learning pilot project funding ended—it actually scaled up its impact and depth of transformation since then. The main speaker in this seminar, Keith Humphreys, who has been a major driving force before SAME and SELTAS as an expert consultant for the project, will share his insight on success factors to sustaining joint school networks for pedagogical innovation and the role of university facilitators in such projects.
The discussant, Professor Nancy Law, will respond to Mr. Humphrey’s sharing by drawing on her experience and observations in leading and evaluating different forms of technology-enhanced pedagogical innovations in Hong Kong schools.
Keith Humphreys is an education consultant from the UK who has worked in many countries including Iceland, Israel, Malta and Hong Kong. His expertise is to facilitate curriculum development and pedagogical change in classrooms. He has been Head of Special Education at the University of Northumbria and an English government school’s inspector. For the past eleven years he has been honorary overseas advisor to CAISE and overseas consultant to the SAME and SELTAS projects in Hong Kong.
Professor Nancy Law is a Deputy Director of the Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE) and Corresponding Co-Convener of the Science of Learning Strategic Research Theme at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include international comparative studies of technology-enabled learning innovations, models of ICT integration in schools and change leadership, computer supported collaborative learning and the use of expressive and exploratory computer-based learning environments.