MIT App Inventor and Hong Kong Jockey Club Announce Joint Project

May, 2016

The MIT Appinventor Project is proud to announce that we have been selected by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to join them in a four-year program to promote “Coding Education in Primary Schools” for Hong Kong. The program is a research partnership of the Trust with MIT, the Hong Kong Institute of Education and the City University of Hong Kong. It will design, test, and analyze the impact of a curriculum that uses MIT educational computing technologies—MIT Scratch and MIT App Inventor—to enhance computational thinking, computer coding proficiency, and interest in computer science among upper-level primary school students. This research and development will be based on pilot classroom instruction in 32 “network” schools and several Hong Kong community organizations during the 2016-2019 academic year. The program will provide curriculum materials, comprehensive teacher development, co-teaching support, and resources for parent education. If there is evidence of success, the ultimate goal is for the curriculum to be adopted territory-wide throughout Hong Kong.

For the App Inventor project, this is an extraordinary opportunity for us to explore how primary school age-students can use mobile computing to improve their self-image as active learners and their sense of mastery and empowerment in a world being transformed through information technology.

App Inventor is a joint project of the MIT Computer Science and Information Laboratory and the MIT Media Laboratory. For more information see appinventor.mit.edu.