E-learning hits a new high--or low--in Hong Kong

"To enhance students’ ability for self-learning and interactive learning, and to promote the use of e-books rather than printed copies, we will look into the development of electronic learning resources." So said Chief Executive Donald Tsang in his policy address of 2009, foretelling a 3-year trial to examine the advantages and effect of e-learning.

The planned HK$140 million package would also "stabilize" textbook prices by preventing publishers from revising books too often. It is "a matter of public concern," says Tsang, who argued that educational textbooks should not be updated more than every five years to relieve the financial burden on parents.

In this one initiative, we see both the keening potential of Hong Kong and its tremulous reality. One the one hand, there is a drive toward empowered learning through the latest in technological resources. On the other, insight that it is less a latter of expanding Hong Kong's intellectual capital and more a matter of constraining publishers from issuing textbooks that will cost more than current stock. The answer to the price of textbooks? Use out of date ones! What, I ask, does that do for the development of an educational system?

Missing from the equation is any notion of consideration of academic value in the purchase of texts, of the potential for government to fund education such that text books are not a burden to parents (in place of some truly startling expenditures in other directions) or understanding that e-learning is not about plugged in textbooks so much as an entirely new learning paradigm.

Should we be surprised? I remain convinced that Hong Kong has great potential but fear that it is daily losing ground to the surrounding region. Why? This matter of developing the intellectual capital of the territory is a good example.

In discussion with a British Columbia directorate officer today, one who is key to the development of the province-wide K-12 education sector, we discussed the power of harnessing technology and learning as a marketable resource. It is already happening due to strategic maneuvering that has School Districts competing for online students. I myself am seeing an extension of this thinking. Graduate level education I am developing for the University of British Columbia will be offered to students in a consortium of US and Canadian universities, extending reach to tens of thousands of potential consumers (students and universities).

Could an innovative approach on a larger scale create a new resource industry: e-education? Why not? Could Hong Kong learn from this? You bet. But there is a long, long way to go.

The first step is to re-examine priorities. Its about learning first, money second, right? Think about that--it must be so. There are many ways to approach the challenge. Rather than forbid updating of educational content, why not negotiate access to updated online content on a subscription basis, permitting print-on-demand within certain parametres? or shifting from individually owned printed texts to shared libraries that augment student access to online resources. Other ideas? Share! Hong Kong needs your collaboration.