Bulletin No. 2, 2016

22 Chinese University Bulletin No. 2, 2016 E-learning Opens Up Experiential Learning With computers and the Internet increasingly being part of our daily lives, schools and education systems can do nothing but keep abreast of the technological megatrend. Classrooms across the world are equipped with more and fancier computer resources, and university curricula offer various forms of online support, be it a forum or an online bulletin board. But is that the best we can make out of technology to facilitate teaching and learning? Prof. Hau Kit- tai , Choh-Ming Li Professor of Educational Psychology, invites us to rethink the ultimate purpose of flipping a classroom. E-learning is Useless? Quot ing a P I SA 2015 repo r t on Student s , Computers and Learning which involved some 80 countries, Profes sor Hau shed light on an inconvenient truth: the impact of greater computer use on student performance is mixed at best. In countries where it is less common for students to use the Internet at school, students’ performance in reading improved more rapidly than in countries where such use is more common. Students who use computers moderately at school tend to have similar outcomes to students who do not use them at all. But those who use computers very frequently at school do a lot worse in most learning outcomes. ‘The conventional approach to e-learning—an entire class of students reading online material or browsing the Internet together—proves not as effective as we had envisioned. It is not that technology hampers learning, but that most of us have not yet become good enough at harnessing the true, liberating power of e-learning,’ said Professor Hau. Schools are Not for Lessons To illustrate how technology can be used to liberate learners, Professor Hau gave the example