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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 10, Issue 2, Article 15
(Dec. 2009) |
The collaborative project commenced in March 2008 after the Easter holiday when students from the two schools started to have their initial field trip on their own river near their schools. The students had their first “handshaking videoconference” in mid-April when their teachers invited other teachers from a third school as guest speakers to share the experience of the ecological field trip. The second videoconference, focusing on formulating their project topics, was conducted in early May, and the third one provided an opportunity for the two groups of students to discuss and to question each other on the research topics of their counterparts. This was done in late May. Students were asked to write their reflection after each videoconference with their virtual classmates.
It was the first time science teachers from two schools developed their school-based curriculum on the topics of water and water pollution. The collaboration gave them good experiences to share with each other and to learn from other teachers about the skills of planning and conducting a field trip. With help from curriculum officers from the Education Bureau, the teachers were involved in lesson design and water testing with updated information.
Through their reflections after the videoconferences, students were found to have more ideas and insight from the exchanges with their virtual classmates. They learned not only knowledge of water quality and ways of improvement and techniques in data collection and interpretation, but also the attitude on greeting the audience and the awareness of environmental conservation. Besides knowledge building and construction, students also learned the skills to acquire information.
The teacher-in-charge of School A felt that the collaborative project was one of the best ways to widen the perspectives of the students. During the videoconferences between the two schools, he observed that the students made many improvements while exchanging data with their counterparts on the other side of the video system. These improvements include their presentation skills and social skills, which were useful to them as they worked towards an interface to the new senior secondary curriculum. Through their dialogue, their questioning technique was observed to be enhanced together through their thinking skills. For example, they could even think of the regenerated energy sources. Therefore, the teacher-in-charge felt that this type of pedagogy and teaching materials could intensify the students’ learning experiences and make them more effective learners. He also felt that this kind of collaborative project required very little effort and equipment, but could achieve great effectiveness in learning for both teachers and students. After September 2009, the new senior secondary subjects offered that did not have the required enrolment of students, or supply of manpower and resources, could use videoconferences to help solve these problems. The use of videoconferences capitalize on minimal use of resources, like sharing curriculum design, lecture times and even sharing of venues through distance teaching and learning.
