The EdTech Heroes Award aims to encourage K12 education institutes in Hong Kong to integrate technology applications to make teaching and learning more effective. We are inviting school leaders (Principals or Vice Principals) to apply. The questions focus more on the rationale, design, planning and implementation process rather than the outcome of the edtech initiative. We welcome schools that are at an early stage of using edtech to apply. We intentionally design the form as a learning journey by embedding the ISTE Standards for effective applications of education technology. By completing the application form, you will learn the best practices for integrating edtech in teaching and learning.

Application Instructions

This form includes multiple-choice questions, comment boxes for you to explain your choices and options to attach supplementary information (e.g. photos, videos, slides, survey results and data sheets etc). It may take 1.5 hours to finish the application. You will receive an email acknowledgment upon your submission. (Please allow a few minutes to receive the acknowledgement).

Please complete the form in ENGLISH. You don’t have to finish the application in one go. You can save the draft and come back to finish the application form before the submission deadline. Please scroll to the bottom of the form to assess the SAVE function. Then an email with a link will be sent to you so that you could come back to finish the application. We encourage you to look through the questions to have a big picture before answering the questions.

Deadline for entries: 7 July 2023

A. Describe Your EdTech Initiative

Please provide a brief summary (about 300 words)  of your edtech initiative, including:

• the edtech solution
• the responsible team members driving the initiative
• the target and number of users
• how did you come into contact with the solution
• the implementation partner (if any)
• how was the initiative funded
• when the initiative was introduced

This will not be evaluated but will provide an important context for our understanding. You may attach a video, photos or other information to facilitate our understanding. 

B. Theory of Change (25%)

Theory of Change is an organization’s theory about how things are going to change as a result of its efforts. It’s essentially a philosophical roadmap to guide organizational decision-making. It aims to articulate the big-picture concepts of an organization’s work. You can use this model to develop a strategy by defining a long-term goal and working backwards by formulating preconditions and anticipated outcomes.

C. Stakeholders Engagement (20%)

Stakeholder engagement is a process that schools can follow in order to listen to, collaborate with, or inform (or a combination of all three) their existing stakeholders (teachers, students, policy makers, etc.). This process entails identifying, mapping and prioritizing stakeholders to determine the right edtech for effective learning and teaching while making the best use of available resources.

For stakeholders that you rate 3 or above, please explain how you engage them in your edtech initiative. You may attach a video, photos or other information to facilitate our understanding. Please limit your answer to no more than 100 words for your explanation of each stakeholder group in one paragraph.

D. Choosing the Right Technology Solution (15%)

A right edtech solution selects the product that seamlessly blends digital tools and technology skills into learning with features that promote design and customization of learning episodes in ways that align with research-based best practices, including those rooted in learning sciences.

Edtech can also help teachers provide learning experiences that are relevant to students of many cultures, backgrounds, and abilities, and support learner motivation and agency in the learning process, which is also known as inclusivity.

For user experience, a good edtech product is supposed to help teachers quickly and reliably achieve instructional goals and use assessments to generate data that inform teachers about student knowledge without any threat to the safety of privacy and data.

With regard to technical support and integration, the product should work well with other technology systems, provides the right kind of customer support.

For considerations that you rate 3 or above, please explain how your edtech initiative may help to achieve the objective. You may attach a video, photos or other information to facilitate our understanding. Please limit your answer to no more than 100 words for your explanation of each consideration in one paragraph.

E. Effective Implementation of Technology (20%)

An effective implementation of technology can create a shared vision for transforming student learning with participation from all stakeholders and align that vision to established frameworks or standards.

A right edtech should be set in a place where schools reorganize the conventional model of education and set up a mechanism for data collection and assessment. With the technology infrastructure in place, schools can provide support to students, teachers and other stakeholders on how to use technology in appropriate ways.

For continuous learning and improvement, schools should stay current with research for continuous improvements and encourage experience sharing among educators both inside the school and outside with peers.

For considerations that you rate 3 or above, please explain how your edtech initiative may help to achieve the objective. You may attach a video, photos or other information to facilitate our understanding. Please limit your answer to no more than 100 words for your explanation of each consideration in one paragraph.

F. Notable Experience and Milestones Achieved (20%)

9. Please share in no more than 300 words your most important learning from your edtech initiative, including the successful and not so successful experiences. You may attach a video, photos or other information to facilitate our understanding. (10%)

10. Please share in no more than 300 words the milestones that you have achieved so far. The milestones should be aligned with the objectives in Q 1 - 5 and the metrics in Q8. Examples of milestones may include but are not limited to:

• improved student motivation
• better teaching and learning experiences
• improved learning outcome, greater job satisfaction for teachers
• more efficient school administration
• cost savings etc.

The milestones can be qualitative or quantitative. You may attach a video, photos or other information to facilitate our understanding. (10%)