Newsletter No. 481

# 4 8 1 | 1 9 . 0 8 . 2 0 1 6 04 踏 上約有六千五百萬年歷史的東坪洲沉積岩，八十位中三同學手持平板電腦或智能電 話，進行分組戶外考察。同學一找到指定考察點，電子裝置的螢屏即時彈出富挑戰 性的問題，回答完畢，系統會指導同學尋找下一個自然地貌，螢屏上代表各人的圖像，會隨 之在路線圖移動，過程宛若島上尋寶。 在既互動又饒有趣味的學習背後，是地理老師的悉心部署。學生之所以能運用智能裝置 及全球衛星定位探索周邊事物，按自己的學習步伐考察自然地貌，是因為老師預先利用流 動學習系統EduVenture ® 編寫電子學習教材。 裘錦秋中學（元朗）的 黃志威 老師負責策劃是次東坪洲岩石戶外考察，他解釋：「這個雲 端系統除了讓教師即時知道學生位置，也從他們上載的答案和描述現場地貌的錄音，實時 了解他們對地質知識的掌握程度。教師可以隨即向能力稍遜的學生提供協助，學生也很樂 於使用這種自訂考察路線的模式。」這是黃老師第一次帶學生運用EduVenture ® 進行地理 考察，也是第一次目睹他們如此專注地完成題目，十分有滿足感。 雲端學習時代來臨 廿一世紀的教育強調「跳出課室」，戶外探究式學習是其中之一。傳統的考察往往由教 師主導，學生不能調整路線，也不能隨自己的興趣與步伐決定考察的時間，有見及此， 中大課程及教學學系、學習科學與技術中心 莊紹勇 教授團隊研發雲端流動學習系統 EduVenture ® ，幫助「數碼族群」藉科技和多媒體工具活用探究式學習，提升學習的自主 程度，戶外考察從此不再一樣。 EduVenture ® 分為三部分：EV-Composer、EV-eXplorer和EV-Retriever。教師先在雲端 平台EV-Composer製作電子教案，考察期間，學生使用應用程式EV-eXplorer四周探索， 到了指定位置，內置的視聽學習素材就會在螢屏彈出，引導學生透過拍攝和攝錄等方式， 觀察實地環境和搜集數據。所有考察期間的數據，包括學生的探索路線、在每個考察點所 花時間等，都會經互聯網上傳至雲端系統，供教師在EV-Retriever下載，以了解學生的實 時考察歷程和掌握學習差異，有助教師即時提供支援，或在考察後檢討所學。 自主探索提升學習動機 至今，有二百二十間本地中小學和特殊學校採用EduVenture ® 作考察學習。莊紹勇教 授說：「使用者只需運用內置GPS天線的智能裝置考察環境，即使現場環境沒有網絡覆 蓋，EduVenture ® 也能準確辨識用戶的實時位置。我早前評鑑這學習系統的教學效能，發 現系統除了有助學生長知識，也讓他們更深入了解探究過程，提升對戶外考察的學習動 機。」莊教授於本年初成功申請研究資助局的優配研究金，將會為EduVenture ® 進行為期 兩年的研究，探究教師在常規課程使用系統時應該教甚麼內容、如何善用此工具等，以提 升系統的教學效能。「是次研究將有助於優化系統設計和教學應用，冀鼓勵更多教師在戶 外考察中應用這互動的科技。」 E ighty Secondary 3 students embarked on a voyage of geographical discovery on Tung Ping Chau—an outlying island with sedimentary rocks formed 65,000,000 years ago— with their tablets or smartphones. When they arrived at a designated checkpoint on the island, a challenging question would pop up on their device screens. Once the question was completed, the system would instruct them to look for the next geological site. As the students continued their ‘treasure hunt’ on the island, their avatars in the digital landscape in their devices would trace out a similar itinerary. That they were able to engage in such an interactive and interesting mode of learning was due to the dedicated preparation of their geography teacher. He tailor-made some electronic learning material in advance on the mobile learning system EduVenture®; therefore, the students could explore the natural landscape at their pace using the smart devices and GPS to investigate their surroundings. Mr. Wong Chi-wai of Ju Ching Chu Secondary School (Yuen Long) is the teacher responsible for the Tung Ping Chau field trip. He said, ‘The cloud-based system not only gives teachers real-time data of the students’ positions but also enables them to have instant assessment of how their students are doing and lend timely support to those having problems after evaluating their answers and listening to their audio recordings of the land formation surveyed. The students also enjoyed being given the choice of designing their own itinerary.’ Mr. Wong had not adopted EduVenture® in his previous Tung Ping Chau field trips. He found much satisfaction this time in having seen his students completing the tasks with great diligence and enthusiasm. The Coming of Age of Cloud-based Learning In the 21st century, education is increasingly moved outside the four walls of the classroom. But traditional study expeditions do not allow the students to set their own routes, pace or agenda. All these have changed since the research team led by Prof. Jong Siu-yung Morris of CUHK’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies has developed the cloud-based EduVenture®. The system offers the ‘digital natives’ a brand new exploratory experience as they are able to leverage on technology and multimedia tools to design a more interesting and autonomous learning process for themselves. 流動教室 Classroom On-the-go 在雲端時代， 學習不再囿於課室內 。 Learning is no longer confined to classrooms in the cloud era.