Hong Kong School Leads the World in Cellphone Computer Use

Elliot: We have to tell our readers about what we saw at Pui Ching Middle School in Hong Kong.
Cathie: I’ll bet you didn’t tell our readers that the URL you provided for the school requires them to read Chinese.
Elliot: Cantonese to be precise.
Cathie: Tsk, Tsk, listen to you. You go to Hong Kong for 6 days and you return an authority on the Chinese language! So, tell us about how 700 of the 1400 students at Piu Ching are using HTC smartphones for curricular purposes.
Elliot: It is pretty impressive!  Students are learning  English by reading about current events displayed on their cellphone computers. The kids also take quizzes about the current events on their cellphone computers. Mr. Yip, the principal, worked out a favorable deal on a data plan with one of Hong Kong’s cellular providers – CSL. And, what is really a coup, he had the parents purchase the cellphone computer and pay for the monthly data plan.
Cathie: To the best of our knowledge, Pui Ching, over 120 years old and one of the most prestigious schools in Hong Kong, has the most  educationally-oriented cellphone computers in one school in the world.
Elliot: The old meets the new. The leaders, educators and IT staff at Pui Ching are to be commended for their bold vision and action.
Cathie: And what is most exciting: this is just the beginning of a huge transformation. We respectfully say: may Pui Ching’s record be broken very soon!

Comments

[CHUNG WT]

Hi Elliot and Cathie:

Nice to chat with you again on your Blog. I am the guy shaking my cellphone after your keynote speech in the school hall of the Pui Ching Middle School in Hong Kong two weeks before. :-)

For our cellphone project, it has its new application coming! Maths in action, computer quiz, as well as Chinese extensive writing schemes, etc. Details can be checked in the following URL:
http://210.176.23.172/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=mobile_learning

See you all in Hong Kong later! :-)

WT

[Peter Lui]

The name of the school should be Pui Ching rather than Piu Ching. It is celebrating its 120 anniversary this year. Talking about the tech, I would rather connecting to the school network via wi-fi then 3G which can cost you a fortune.

[Elliot Soloway]

Thank you, WT, for yoru enthusiastic support! The pictures at http://210.176.23.172/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=english show the children at Pui Ching using their cellphones for English language learning. I just love to see smiling kids, talking with each other, cleary engaged in learning. Thank you for sharing those pictures with us.

Peter, thank you for the corrections; I have updated the post. It is indeed an interesting issue - wifi vs 3G. Here in the US it costs a small fortune to build and maintain a highly available, high speed wifi network; it appears that it costs less to outsource such a network to one of the telcos, in fact. It would be a useful contribution to get some hard facts on this point. Perhaps you could gather them up for Hong Kong while Cathie and I work on getting the facts here in the US. Who else would like to contribute wifi vs 3G costing info from their city/state/country?

[Mark Pinkstone]

Actually Elliot, the children at Pui Ching school do not read Cantonese, but like all other Chinese schools in Hong Kong they read Traditional Chinese, which is more complex than the Simplified Chinese read in the Mainland. In Hong Kong they speak Cantonese as against Mandarin or Putonghua spoken in the Mainland.