Earlier this June, Immersive Education Academy (iEd) was invited to host an education symposium on facilitated by officials from the Guangzhou Municipal Education Bureau. Principals from the Guangzhou public and private schools were invited to attend the panel discussion. The event covered themes relating to innovation in education, English learning and teaching, the development and use of online learning in the public schools, hybrid learning models, and incentive programs for students.



iEd is grateful to the Guangzhou Municipal Education Bureau for inviting us to host officials and principals in this regular education exchange. Sharing the experience and working together in cross border projects is an important part of iEd’s vision to help develop a model for online learning in Hong Kong and mainland China. 
 

This May, students from all over China will join Immersive Education Academy’s Pre Camp English Enhancement Program. This program is designed for students preparing to go to the United States for the summer at several summer camps across the country.

Immersive Education Academy has provided the Pre Camp English Enhancement Program for the last 3 years. It is offered for winter and summer camps and has included over 500 students. Students as young as 7 and as old as 15 will take part for 4-8 weeks before their departure.

For some campers, joining the summer camps in the U.S. will be their first experience in the United States. These camps act as a way for students to build their independence, make friendships and become well rounded. English plays an important role in facilitating their experience as communication is vital to their experience with local campers and camp counselors.

Interest in American summer camps has been growing over the past years, partly fueled by increased interest in having diverse experiences. Similarly, since many families are considering higher education in the United States as an option, early exposure in the United States helps with the eventual transition to the U.S. education system.

This summer, Immersive Education Academy will begin development of a series of virtual reality experiences designed for English learning. This virtual series will include situational learning exercises, location tours, and cultural arts performances. The production of these virtual reality experiences will be developed in cooperation with Vancouver based LNG studios.
 


Virtual reality experiences will be used to supplement the normal English programs that we offer to schools. Experiences will be varied and will be offered periodically throughout the program semester schedules.
 
The development of virtual reality in English learning is in part because virtual reality equipment is becoming more accessible. Since virtual reality equipment has become cheaper, anyone with a headset can now tap into its potential at home or at school.
 
We hope that by introducing virtual reality as a supplemental learning tool in our English programs, more students will get a unique learning perspective. The ability to immerse people in an unfamiliar situation or let them visualize things in new ways makes virtual reality a natural learning tool.
 
These virtual reality experiences are expected to be launched later this year.

Immersive Education Academy is pleased to have had the opportunity to lead a training seminar for local public school teachers and administrators at the Hong Kong Education Bureau. The training seminar focused on trends and the future direction of online learning, advantages and limitations of online learning, and how iEd’s online English program has been used for English learning in the schools so far.

Included in the event was a hands-on demonstration of iEd’s online learning platform and the features it offers to teachers and students. Not only does the platform act as a content management system for a variety of learning materials, but it also provides schools with the option for live learning with foreign instructors.

Accompanying iEd were guest speakers Lo Kon Ting Memorial College’s Ms. Gloria Tam (Vice Principal) and Sun Hoi Director’s College Ms. Queenie Man (English Teacher). Both teachers discussed the implementation process of the online program into their schools and how it has since been adopted. In addition, both teachers discussed the results of the online English program and feedback from parents and students.



iEd deeply appreciates the Education Bureau inviting us to talk about our program and online learning. We hope everyone will benefit from our shared experiences and that we can continue to help transform how students learn. Special thanks to Ms. Tam and Ms. Man for joining in the training seminar and sharing their school’s experiences.

The Hong Kong Education Bureau is inviting Immersive Education Academy to lead a training seminar on how e-learning platforms can be used to facilitate the teaching and learning of English in secondary schools. This event will take place on January 19, 2017. We’re excited that the event has quickly filled up and will be attended by 30 teachers at the IT in Education Division Headquarters. The seminar will include introductions, exchanges of ideas and practices regarding e-learning.

Vice Principal Ms. Gloria Tam and English teacher Ms. Queenie Man have also been invited to give a testimonial about their experience with iEd. Both teachers are from the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals’ Lo Kon Ting Memorial College and Sun Hoi Directors’ College respectively, and have used iEd for the past 2 years. Aside from providing teacher and student testimonials, Ms. Tam and Ms. Man will talk about how they implemented the iEd program at their schools and their ideas on online education.

An exclusive number of teachers get to spend an afternoon learning how iEd’s platform can facilitate their teaching needs for English subject. Teachers will get to view an in-depth demonstration of iEd’s platform with real world examples followed by a Q&A session. The goal of this learning session is to introduce potential models for online education to more teachers and schools, and show how they can be seamlessly integrated into current secondary school curriculums.

The Education Bureau has made great strides to facilitate the implementation of e-learning into the public schools. We appreciate the Education Bureau inviting us to present our program as a potential model for more schools in Hong Kong. We hope everyone will benefit from our shared experiences and that we can continue to help transform how students learn.

For more information, you can visit:
https://tcs.edb.gov.hk/tcs/admin/courses/previewCourse/forPortal.htm?courseId=EI0020160377&lang=en