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This workshop offers participants hands-on training in how to set up a secondary school course in an online learning environment: Moodle (an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). It also reviews the process of implementing Moodle at the American International School (AIS), Hong Kong over the past year, and outlines our future plans. Moodle is a popular free software package designed to deliver an online learning environment offering a user-friendly interface, a large online support community of enthusiastic users, developers and educators at www.moodle.org, and open source availability for custom additions. AIS is currently using Moodle to assist in the delivery of 16 courses, support the faculty in another 5 areas, and implement a school Intranet. A recent directive from the secondary school administration asks all of the teachers to prepare for a potential school closing due to avian flu by making their course materials available online using Moodle. One of the co-presenters, Aaron Metz, a recent HKU MSc[ITE] graduate and current IT teacher at AIS, introduced Moodle to the school as a result of his studies. For the workshop the co-presenters, with the help of several PC workstations and Moodle software installed, will demonstrate how Moodle is used and offer opportunities for participants to review the environment on their own. Software operations demonstrated will include: course creation; developing course materials and resources; the initiation and maintenance of discussion forums; the collection of assignments; and the delivery and marking of assessment tools. Expected discussion will include: the background of Moodle development; the criteria for selecting an appropriate learning environment; proposals for administration; web hosting requirements; software setup; teacher training; the pros and cons of an online learning environment compared to traditional education delivery methods; curriculum delivery options; and an overview of the ongoing Moodle implementation at AIS. The implementation of an online learning environment is an important method of delivering education using IT. This workshop will provide participants an opportunity to discuss an ongoing implementation at a HK international school, and get hands-on experience in the use of a popular software package of this type. ; published_or_final_version ; Centre of Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kong and Education and Manpower Bureau, the Government of the Hong Kong SAR

This paper reviews the authors' experience in creating and implementing four educational videoconferences (VCs) for a three-week English language education program in 2004, and our proposal for VCs in 2006. The focus of this paper concerns the building of partnerships to enable the delivery of educational VCs. The VCs were established with four presenters: a professor specializing in Telecommunications at Ball State Univ.; the Dean of the Undergraduate College at Harvard University; a specialist at NASA on "International Business Etiquette"; and a playwright at the Indiana Repertory Theatre. The required partnerships were each developed on unique paths: building on previous contacts at a Global Media Network (GMN) Symposium at HKBU, facilitated through alumni and organizational / fundraising networks to reach high-level educational administrators, the use of online VC discussion forums to contact free US-based government resources, and the exploration of online catalogs offered by non-profit organizations devoted to the coordination and delivery of VC presentations. The three week English language program was organized by a non-profit charitable organization, and co-hosted by HKU. It invited volunteer Harvard students to lead small groups of disadvantaged secondary students from schools in HK and mainland China in a range of language-oriented leadership activities. In 2006, we plan to simultaneously operate two such three-week programs, one hosted by HKU, and the other by Fudan University in Shanghai. VC technology will be utilized to virtually import real-time educational presentations from Harvard and other top universities, and also to enable cultural exchange between the students in all three locations. In addition, we are implementing an "Observer" status, where staff and students at other remote locations can get the VC feed one-way, and watch the language program presentations and cultural exchange interactions. The development of symbiotic partnerships is key to the implementation of educational VC-based distance learning and cultural exchange programs. This paper presents the methodology of a successful recent implementation, and our plans for future development of increased technology-based interaction. ; published_or_final_version ; Centre of Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kong and Education and Manpower Bureau, the Government of the Hong Kong SAR