Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association Chairman Leung Siu-tong said schools have concerns about the quality of e-textbooks, because some developers lack the experience of producing textbooks. He believes many schools have adopted the "wait and see" attitude, until the benefits of e-textbooks are well established.

The Education Bureau however says field-tests of e-textbooks being developed have yielded positive results. "In the 2014/15 and 2015/16 school years, over 320 schools chose to use e-textbooks from the Recommended e-Textbook List via different approaches," its spokesman said. "It is expected that with the increase in teachers' knowledge in e-learning and the use of e-resources and improvement in the IT infrastructure in schools, more schools will adopt e-textbooks in the delivery of their curriculum."

Legislator Charles Mok, who represents the information technology sector, said schools have been slow to adopt e-textbooks because of infrastructural inadequacy.

"The government cannot just focus on the supply side, it also needs to stimulate the demand," Mok commented. He recommends the government subsidize schools opting for e-textbooks.

When more schools are interested in using e-textbooks, publishers will be more inclined to develop e-textbooks, Mok predicted. For the time being, though, what is needed is to upgrade the hardware in schools.

Erwin Huang, chief executive officer of WebOrganic, recommends that the government educate parents and educators on how e-textbooks can improve students' learning efficacy. He stressed that using e-textbooks could make "knowledge sharing" and "real-time communication" a reality.

"E-textbooks have brought revolutionary changes to student learning by going from teacher-centric to student-centric," Huang said. "Through simulations and multimedia exercises, the foundation of knowledge is built on self-discovery rather than rote memorization."

Introducing e-textbooks also means greater reliance on information technology, says Raymond So, dean of the School of Business at Hang Seng Management College. Insufficient preparation can be attributed to the lack of IT support in schools. This will hinder the development of e-textbooks.

(HK Edition 12/15/2015 page13)