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Keynote at a teacher conference at Guangxi, mainland China

By Rodneikka Scott posted 06-06-2019 12:31

  

Keynote at a teacher conference at Guangxi, mainland China

 

On April 26, 2019, I gave a keynote speech at Nationwide Primary Language Education Conference on gamified learning for over 5,000 teachers and educators at Nanning, Guangxi Province of mainland China.

 

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It was a pleasure to share with fellow teachers and researchers how a gamified e-learning platform, Reading Battle, helped to enhance students’ interest in reading and strengthen their ability in comprehension through an innovative gamification pedagogy. Since its release in February 2014, Reading Battle has been used by about 20,000 students (mainly primary, with some secondary students and kindergarteners) in over 60 schools and libraries in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, mainland China and Cambodia. The platform has proved very effective: 94% of the students agreed that using Reading Battle had enhanced their reading comprehension skills, and 84% thought that it strengthened their interest in reading.

 

Underpinning the pedagogical innovation is gamification, an essential element in transforming the teaching and learning experience. Whereas students disliked reading comprehension tests, the platform motivated students with the use of competition elements (ranking, e-badges etc.), which students appreciated and said the experience turned reading comprehension tests from “something boring into something fun”.

I also discussed the use of the participatory design approach in developing the pedagogy and platform. The project team collaborated with stakeholders such as teacher librarians, teachers, game developers, parents, and students in the process, which enabled all parties to contribute to the innovative design.

 

After the talk, about 300 teachers from around 300 schools indicated that they want help regarding the implementation of my e-learning/reading platform Reading Battle in their schools. Quite a few of these schools are in less developed parts of the world. It reminded me of my another trip to Cambodia in January this year, which also opened my eyes to schools with many underprivileged children. I am planning to start a social enterprise and/or a NGO to help underprivileged children from around the world to learn to read and write happily and effectively, and will need many volunteers and partners. If you can help, please let me know at samchu@hku.hk.

 

Cheers,

Sam Chu, Chair of ASIS&T Asia-Pacific Chapter

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Samuel Kai Wah Chu, Co-Editor, Information and Learning Sciences

PhD in Education (e-Learning, UCL IOE, UK [Ranked 1st in the world - QS 2018])

PhD in Education (Information Science, HKU, HK [Ranked 4th in the world - THE 2018])

Associate Professor, Division of Information and Technology Studies

Faculty of Education, HKU, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong       

Tel: (852) 2241-5894  |  Fax: (852) 2517-7194

E-mail: samchu@hku.hk | Skype Name – chukaiwahsamuel

Homepage: http://web.edu.hku.hk/staff/academic/samchu

h-index: 28 (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=7IQasCgAAAAJ)

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