The 2007 International Conference on ICT in Teaching and Learning kicked off today at the Open University in Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong. Delegates were welcomed by the Prof John C Y Leong, the President of OUHK and the Chair of the Conference Organising Committee, Dr K S Yuen. The first keynote of the day was delivered byv Prof Leung Chun Ming, Vice President (Technology and Development) of OUHK, his speech looked to the trends and expectations of the the near and not so near future. Prof Shen Ruimin offered the second keynote. After a magnificent lunch at the MetroPark Hotel, we returned for the parallel paper sessions. The firsst few papers I attended really caugth my interest. David Woo talked about his practical work with students and some popular Web 2.0 technolologies. Peter Duffy (HK Polytechnic University) , an Aussie ex-pat, talked about his strategies for using YouTube in tecahing and learning. The really exciting session was offered by David Rossiter (HK University of Science and Technology) who showcased Gong, a podcasting import and export system he’d developed:
Gong is a free system for voice communication on the Web. It allows groups of people such as students and teachers to participate in discussion groups using their computers, using both synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous chat. It is commonly used by schools and universities for providing a ‘voice board’ for teaching purposes.
There are several different ways you can use Gong. All are free and unlimited: