Dr K S Yuen
Director, Educational Technology and Publishing
The Open University of Hong Kong

This workshop will start with a brief introduction of open educational resources, particularly open textbooks, and how different countries around the world are making use of them in teaching and learning at a reduced cost. Some relevant open textbooks project will be introduced and there will be a demonstration how open textbooks are used by teachers, students and the general public. Participants will be provided with the opportunity to explore the various kinds of open textbooks available for use free of charge.

The workshop will then describe the Open Textbook for Hong Kong project, which provides an online collaborative environment containing open source textbooks which are free, flexible, current and directly available for use and adaptation by schools and universities. Open English, the open textbook series written by the project team, will be used to illustrate how students can make use of the learning tools provided in the books, such as dictionary, pronunciation, highlighting, annotation, links to external websites, etc., so that they can learn the subject more efficiently.

Participants of the workshop will be given a set of Open English (printed version), as well as electronic versions of the books. To benefit most from the workshop, participants are requested to bring along an iPad to the workshop; otherwise, an iPad will be provided for use free of charge.

Prof. Niki Davis
Distinguished Professor of e-Learning, School of Educational Studies and Leadership
Director of the College of Education e-Learning Lab
University of Canterbury

In this workshop participants will be supported to review a course or another focus of their leadership from a global perspective using Niki Davis’ arena of change with digital technologies in education. The goal is to open our eyes to the exciting (often conflicting) evolutionary pressures that arise from many sources, including peers and multinational companies.

In 2013, Prof. Davis talked to New Zealand teachers about the arena in this video. Her Keynote includes the latest update on the Arena of change with digital technologies.

Participants are invited to bring their own digital devices to increase interactivity in this workshop.

Prof. Agnes Kukulska-Hulme
Professor of Learning Technology and Communication
Institute of Educational Technology
The Open University

This workshop will introduce ideas and activities from a new Guide for Teachers produced as part of a project conducted at The Open University, UK, funded by a grant from The British Council Research Partnerships scheme. Recognising that we live in an increasingly mobile world, where travel and migration are more common and mobile devices are part of everyday life, the research has focused particularly on the teaching and learning context of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Teachers already know many of the ingredients that can spell success for language learning and this naturally leads to consideration of how language teaching might be enhanced by the careful use of mobile devices. In the guide we propose a new framework designed to stimulate thinking around key aspects of mobile-enabled language learning activities for students. One of the aspects of successful mobile learning of English that the framework highlights is the use of activities which exploit a dynamic language and technology environment while drawing on the distinctive capabilities of teachers and learners. Various pedagogical strategies will be discussed and participants will use the framework to design or critique a learning activity. This workshop will help English language teachers to make sense of the rising tide of possibilities created by mobile language learning. The adoption of mobile devices, particularly when it involves learning beyond the classroom, has potentially far-reaching consequences for learners, learning design and how the activity is supported by teachers and advisors.

Dr K C Li
Director, University Research Centre
The Open University of Hong Kong

This workshop offers a summary of the skills useful for utilizing free resources from the Internet for teaching, aiming to assist teaching professionals in designing learning activities, as well as developing materials, tools and programmes for learning.

The ambit of this workshop includes types of free resources; copyright issues to pay attention to when adopting or adapting materials from free sources; characteristics and potential benefits of open educational resources as well as massive open online courses; selection of such resources, limitations of common resources. It also extends to a discussion on how such resources could facilitate mobile and ubiquitous learning.

Participants will be offered time to reflect on their use of free resources, identify lacunae between skills and knowledge for effective utilization of free resources, devise plans to use them effectively, and exchange views on utility of such resources.