Teachers must use multimedia tools wisely

With respect to Mengqi Wu’s letter “Customise learning with open textbooks” (February 21), I concur with the author’s sentiment on the need to enhance open textbooks to facilitate personalised learning with the support of the Quality Education Fund. This is especially so considering the teaching and learning environment in the time of Covid-19 and given the maturity of e-learning technologies.

With growing demand for inclusive education, teachers face challenges in adopting suitable textbooks that cater for learner diversity. Many textbooks cannot be easily customised or adapted because of copyright restrictions.

In the case of the Open English textbooks developed by Hong Kong Metropolitan University, with support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, enhancing textbooks by adapting content and incorporating multimedia components would enable teachers to conveniently modify the materials according to their school’s specific requirements.

Unfortunately, in many instances, the use of multimedia technology such as games and augmented or virtual reality only results in superficial learning. Although these technologies can capture students’ attention and boost motivation, they fail to help students effectively acquire in-depth knowledge.

It is important that these multimedia components incorporate instructional design strategies that are fit for pedagogical purposes. We cannot solely rely on technology or multimedia tools to enhance print-based learning materials for e-learning.

With the paradigm shift from teacher-centred to learnercentred education in recent years, teachers play a vital role in cocreating learning and teaching content as they know their students well and understand their learning needs. Their contribution and ownership of the materials will be an integral part of e-learning projects.

Dr Eva Tsang, director of Advancement of Learning and Teaching, Hong Kong Metropolitan University