A student experiences interactive education technology at the Teaching and Learning Expo 2010. Provided to China Daily

In their iconic image traditional primary school teachers are viewed from the rear, standing in front of chalk boards - chalk in hand, the shrieking of chalk, dust flying.

The classic image has been superseded, as seen at the Teaching and Learning Expo 2010 in early July .

The revised image was that of an elegant young lady, standing before an electronic flat-panel display. Relevant teaching materials and course content all were available at a touch of the desktop. Chalk was replaced by an electronic pen. The form was the same as always but the means of delivery, revolutionized by technology. The teacher may write, draw, edit and so on, without the squealing protestations of chalk, and rising clouds of dust.

"I've tried this electronic blackboard once, it helps our teaching in terms of adding interactive activities and attracting the attention of students," says Nicole Leung, a teacher of Liberal Studies at Marycove School.

This electronic blackboard, named ActiveBoard, is far from unique.

Some hundreds of e-Learning tools as well as e-teaching software, and resources were featured at the expo.

The highlight of the event, organized by Hong Kong Education City in celebration of its 10th anniversary, was the abundance of advanced interactive education technology.

"The expo aims to build a platform for students, teachers and exhibitors to exchange e-Learning technology and experience," says Mei Mei Ng, executive director of Hong Kong Education City Limited, in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

"From blackboard to electronic board, the technical development is meaningless if it fails to add practical enhancement to learning efficiency and convenience," Wu says. "Intelligent resource are extremely important for the SAR as we already have lost our advantages in natural resource. The principal goal is to maintain and enhance our intelligent strength to keep Hong Kong competitive."

The demand for e-Learning resources derived from the economic burden imposed by the frequent revision of textbooks and spiralling prices of scholastic texts, according to the Textbook and e-Learning Resources Development Report released by the Working Group on Textbooks & e-Learning Resources Development in 2009.

E-Learning, described as learning "with the aid of various electronic media such as computers, networks and multimedia, places students at the center of learning." The report called the new approach a "paradigm shift in school education." "In this way, the letter 'e' in e-Learning is more than electronic. It also means efficient, effective and enjoyable," says the report.

In February 2010, a fund of HK$128 million was established by the Legislative Council to create a three-year program promoting an e-Learning pilot scheme. Of that total HK$68 million will be disbursed among 20 primary schools and 30 secondary schools for e-Learning.

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/31/2010 page3)