Class straddles the border

With most local schools suspending all exchange programs amid the pandemic, a secondary school in Kwun Tong has pressed on with exchanges - but on the internet.

The Church of Christ in China Kei Chi Secondary School said it has continued its collaboration with its sister school in Zhongshan. Students from the two schools are attending English classes together online, with the collaboration set to last till August.

The school found the exchange important with the rise of technologies and the growing emphasis on Greater Bay Area cooperation.

"After visiting Zhongshan Xiaolan Senior High School (Foreign Language School) last December, we decided to collaborate on having English learning activities together, where we would be taking our students to Zhongshan," Native-English speaking Teacher at CCC Kei Chi Secondary School Janice Li Yuen-ling said.

"But after Covid-19 hit, we had to switch everything online."

The two schools had their first online English lesson on Wednesday, with the theme being tourism and traveling.

Students were taught how to write an informative travel blog entry on the landmarks of Hong Kong and Zhongshan as part of promoting the Greater Bay Area development.

However, Li said finding a mutual theme to work on was one of the difficulties they faced.

"As we have different teaching modules, sometimes it's quite difficult to find a mutual one that we both have taught before," Li said.

Another difficulty would be finding a technological platform that works in both Hong Kong and on the mainland. Li had to use different learning management system platforms simultaneously in class, such as Edmodo, Google Classroom and Quizziz.

Other than in class, students can also use these platforms at home for revision and peer review works too.

Asked if she enjoyed doing online teaching, Li said: "Face-to-face teaching and online teaching could not be compared, but it's really fun. It's one of a kind."

"For now, it's all about trials and errors," she added.

"With platforms like Google Classroom and Edmodo, we can make up for the lost time by accessing learning support and resources after class," a form three student of CCC Kei Chi Secondary School Justin Choi Cho-yiu shared.

"For our case, the platforms have become significant channels for peer work appreciation and friendship-building," Choi said.

cissy.so@singtaonewscorp.com