Enhancing Openness of the City through Open Textbooks: A Hong Kong Initiative

藉開放教科書提昇城市開放度－香港締新猶

李錦昌(Kam-Cheong Li)

《城市學學刊》 4卷2期 (2013/09) Pp. 157-189

摘要

一個城市的開放度有賴於也反映在其教育的開放度中，藉分享一個與地區或本地教育的開放度密切相關個案，探討及分析在香港的新項目—「開放教科書計劃」。本文首先追溯近年有關開放教學資源的發展趨勢，並闡述開放教科書的性質、特點和相關理論。教育界已漸明白開放教材在提昇教學效能上的巨大潛力，因此，發展教學資源及在開放授權條款下發放教材已成為趨勢。本文探討在眾多城市中常見的共同教科書問題。教育界逐漸體會開放教科書不僅對傳遞教學內容尤其有用，更能一併解決教科書價格高昂、教材未能有效率地更新等問題。許多開放教科書項目因此應運而生。在探討香港發展開放教科書的背景後，本文闡述為香港所有學生、教師及有興趣參與人士開發的開放教科書項目，以及計劃及其現時發展。並且，本文概述開發教學資源的倡議不僅為了解決城市正面對的問題，還要配合數碼化時代的有效教學。本文還介紹及分析為滿足香港學校和大學需要而設的開放教科書項目各組成部分，以及評估其成效的可用準則。

關鍵字

城市開放度 ； 開放教學資源 ； 開放教科書 ； 教材發展 ； 城市發展

並列摘要

How open a city is to a large extent relies and reflects on its educational openness. This paper shares a case study which is closely linked to regional or local educational openness. It reviews and analyzes the development of a valiant on-going project to develop an open textbook system for Hong Kong. This study first traces the recent open movement regarding educational resources, and explains the nature, characteristics and related theories of open textbooks. The movement to develop educational material and distribute them under an open license has gained momentum as educators have come to realize the immense potential of such open materials in enhancing educational effectiveness. This paper then examines the textbook problems which are common across a broad spectrum of cities. Educators have found that open textbooks are a particularly useful form of content delivery, and serve as a solution to the problems of high textbook prices and difficulties for efficient updating. This has led to the growth of many open textbooks projects. After examining the background for developing open textbooks in Hong Kong, this paper gives an account of the plan and development of an ambitious project to set up an open textbook system for all students, teachers and interested parties in the city of Hong Kong. It outlines an open textbook initiative which is intended not only to solve problems confronting the city now, but also to achieve effective teaching and learning in the digital era. The various components of the open textbook project, which are designed to address the needs of Hong Kong schools and universities will be introduced and analyzed and means to evaluate its success are outlined.

並列關鍵字

city openness ； open educational resources ； open textbooks ； material development ； city development