Sesson 3 Activity - Learning Object

Thanks to the development and advancement of technology, our learning and teaching tools have been evolving rapidly in the past decades. The launch of internet seems to be one of the most important communication means leading to the tremendous changes not only in our daily lives, but also our learning and teaching patterns. It is useful for students to search and obtain educational resources and information in a very fast and convenient way, and for scholars and educators to share their knowledge and views in the educational forums and websites. I am quite sure that we all can benefit from the collective intelligence arising from the contribution of technology.

As educators or teachers, sharing and making use of learning objects through internet are considered most important for us to gain more benefit from the technology, and we have a need to explore more useful and accessible websites, if not contribute the learning materials ourselves.

Just for an example, we may find a learning object on learning and teaching of Russian pronunciation from the following website:
http://daniel.cite.hku.hk/lo/russian1/pict.htm

The above learning object is a simple tool for students to learn the pronunciation of some simple Russian words and key terms. We can hear the pronunciation of the words and phrases by clicking the pictures or the terms. This can be served as a self-learning package for students to learn the pronunciation.

Similar to the above learning object, I can find a lot of learning packages for learning of other languages, such as Putonghua, from other websites. One of the recommended and more comprehensive packages for learning of Putonghua , through which students can learn phonics, intonation and writing pattern of the official Chinese spoken language, can be found at the following website:
http://resources.edb.gov.hk/~chi/selection.html

Having mentioned the convenience of searching for learning materials, two very important points worth considering include the copyright issue and the originality of contents. Where do the development and production costs come from? Can teachers become a true contributing and sharing community without commercialization or other sponsorship?

Apart from the above websites, as educators or teachers in Hong Kong, we may visit the following official websites, from where we can obtain or make reference to quite a lot of learning resources categorized under the key learning areas according to the curriculum of Hong Kong:
(1) Website of Education Bureau:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/FileManager/EN/Content_1619/packages_e.pdf
(2) Website of Hong Kong Education city:
http://resources.hkedcity.net/kla.php