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.

The content and delivery of the prescribed curriculum for primary, secondary and tertiary levels of schooling are operated in its own teaching and learning mode of practice at each level. Such independence and difference in curricular design and learning culture among the three levels has resulted in a lack of relevancy and coherence of learning outcomes between each interface as the students move from one stage to another. In an effort to enhance the secondary-tertiary interface, the University Grant Committee (UGC) has funded 20 million dollars to tertiary institutions for conducting projects that aim at strengthening the collaborative forces among primary, secondary and tertiary sectors.

On top of the above goal, there has been increasing concern about the changing role of teachers over the past decades. In the past, teacher education and training focus on teacher's role in knowledge transmission and emphasize on content delivery and explanation. Nevertheless, with the changing demand in the information age, teachers' role has elevated to a higher and wider scope of teaching-learning facilitation role in which students are given a higher autonomy to map out their own learning objectives, outcomes and approaches. In face of such tremendous change in demand, teachers and educators are struggling with their new roles in empowering their students to master skills that would enable them to cope with new challenges at progressing stages in their education.

To examine how well Sixth Form students were prepared for tertiary education, the UGC commissioned the POSTE study in 1995. The study addressed that the influence of public examination and existing classroom culture have been major forces that shaped the over-emphasis on memorization and rote-learning and hindered the development of critical thinking and understanding in the classrooms. It is worrying to find that students were 'not ready' to attempt a more self-learning mode which would contribute to then necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills relevant to tertiary education and their everyday concerns in the information age.

To alleviate such gap between the attained learning outcome and the demanding skills in the information age, the Centre for Information Technology in School and Teacher Education (CITE) at the University of Hong Kong has launched a "Self-directed Learning with Information Technology Scheme" (SLITS or S-Project). The project aims at fostering the development of self-directed learning and information skills in secondary school students through the collaborative efforts of secondary and tertiary teachers. Due to time limitation and restriction within the existing school curriculum, the S-project was launched as a supplement to the school syllabus and took place outside the school framework to maximize flexibility and creativity in organizing preparatory activities and group work.

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.

This project is funded by the Education Bureau and it aimed at supporting schools on developing and scaling up knowledge building pedagogy, sustaining teacher professional growth, and improving student learning through a knowledge building teacher network (KBTN).

Since September 2008, this project becomes part of the University-School Support Project (USP) under the School-based support services (SBSS) titled "Professional Development Network for Knowledge Building in Schools". The project leaders are Prof. Nancy Law and Dr. Carol Chan, Associate Professor of Faculty of Education. The USP project has started in September 2008 and is expected to be completed in August 2011. A team of expert knowledge-building teachers are seconded to EDB to assist participating teachers in implementing the knowledge building approach together with the project team from CITE, HKU. Six half-time seconded teachers (STs) and more than 60 participating teachers from 25 schools (11 primary schools, 13 secondary schools, 1 special school) have been recruited for this academic year. Knowledge Forum®, which is hosted at CITE (http://kf.cite.hku.hk), is used by teachers and students in the project to facilitate their collaborative knowledge building activities.

Objectives of the project:

• To motivate teachers and students to work collaboratively on developing knowledge building;
• To develop repertories of pedagogies and assessment strategies that facilitate knowledge building;
• To develop a model of teacher network that promotes teacher professional development and quality student learning.
• To equip students with holistic abilities of inquiry, reading to learn, generic skills, teamwork, IT skills, and life-wide learning, etc.
• To foster students’ active learning and higher-order thinking
• To enhance learning and teaching effectiveness

This project is funded by the Education Bureau and it aimed at supporting schools on developing and scaling up knowledge building pedagogy, sustaining teacher professional growth, and improving student learning through a knowledge building teacher network (KBTN).

Since September 2008, this project becomes part of the University-School Support Project (USP) under the School-based support services (SBSS) titled "Professional Development Network for Knowledge Building in Schools". A team of expert knowledge-building teachers are seconded to CITE to assist participating teachers in implementing the knowledge building approach together with the project team from CITE, HKU.

In the academic year 2009/10, one teacher consultant, five half-time seconded teachers (STs) and more than 60 participating teachers from 29 schools (12 primary schools, 15 secondary schools, 2 special school) participated in this project. Knowledge Forum®, which is hosted at CITE (http://kf.cite.hku.hk), is used by teachers and students in the project to facilitate their collaborative knowledge building activities. Please refer to the project website at http://kbtn.cite.hku.hk/ for more details.

In the academic year 2010/11, one teacher consultant, three half-time seconded teachers (STs), ten part-time teacher associates (TAs) and more than 80 participating teachers from 36 schools (10 primary schools, 24 secondary schools, 2 special schools) participated in this project. Knowledge Forum®, which is hosted at CITE (http://kf48.cite.hku.hk), is used by teachers and students in the project to facilitate their collaborative knowledge building activities.

The Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE) is granted by Quality Education Fund (QEF) to conduct a two-year project namely “Learning 2.0: an Online Platform and a Teacher Support Network for Curriculum and Assessment Innovation in Liberal Studies for the NSS Curriculum-phase I” (learning 2.0). It aims to design, implement and evaluate an interactive learning and assessment platform (iLAP) for supporting enquiry learning in Liberal Studies as well as to set up a teacher professional network for facilitating curriculum and assessment innovations.

The “Learning 2.0: an Online Platform and a Teacher Support Network for Curriculum and Assessment Innovation in Liberal Studies for the NSS Curriculum-phase II” project is a two-year project granted by Quality Education Fund (QEF). It is an extension of phase I. Phase II aims to integrate an e-portfolio component in the interactive learning and assessment platform (iLAP) so as to support school based assessment in Liberal studies. It also aims to scale up the teacher professional network to 10 schools and to disseminate innovative practices as well as facilitating the collaborative culture among schools.

Education Bureau (EDB) has commissioned the Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE), University of Hong Kong to conduct a one year project on “Development of Evaluation Tools for Assessing Students’ Information Literacy and Promoting Information Literacy among Students”.

This project aims to develop self-evaluation tools for assessing students’ Information Literacy skills in Science at levels from Primary 1 to Secondary 3 and to work with front line teachers including those who are members of the Information Literacy Focus Working Group (ILFWG).

The following research questions are addressed in this study:

1. What are the strategies that can enhance students’ information literacy skills?
2. What changes, if any, can be observed in student’s IL skills through the project process?
3. What recommendations can be made with regard to the development of a coherent strategy to integrate the development of IL skills in different KLAs based on the experience in this project on involving teachers in pedagogical and assessment design and implementation in this project?
4. What changes can be observed in teachers’ knowledge of IL before and after the implementation of this project?

The Centre for Information Technology in Education, the University of Hong Kong (CITE) has been commissioned by Po Leung Kuk Chee Jing Yin Primary School and Xianggang Putonghua Yanxishe Primary School of Science And Creativity to conduct an evaluation project on their e-learning pilot project. The project duration is three years starting from 1 September 2011.