Teacher Feature: From Hong Kong With Love

Ip Man Chun, Edmond is a social worker providing services for youth, a specialist in boardgame education and gamification, and works closely with schoolteachers in Hong Kong in terms of providing material about personal growth. Read on to find out how he uses Deck.Toys as an educational gamification platform to foster connection amongst secondary school students.

Deck.Toys: Hi Edmond! Great to have you all the way from Hong Kong! Tell us more about yourself.

Edmond: Hi everyone! I am not a teacher but a social worker in Hong Kong, providing services for youth, especially students in secondary school. Instead of counseling and group works, I usually work with school teachers, in terms of personal growth education. Also, I am a specialist in boardgame education and gamification, publishing a book about using boardgames in social work practice. 

With my knowledge in gamification, I recently work with teachers and programme leaders in Education Bureau. We developed a few boardgames to use in the subject “Life and Society” (for Secondary 1-3), helping students to understand emotions and other issues about personal growth.

Deck.Toys: How long have you been using Deck.Toys?

Edmond: I started using Deck.Toys in August 2020. Initially, I only wished to pick a fun tool or platform instead of only using PowerPoint in teaching youth, especially during Covid-19 when there were no physical lessons but only online classes. Deck.Toys helped me a lot when lessons were delivered via Zoom as well. I became a Pro Plan user in October 2020!

Deck.Toys: We are happy to hear that! Do you have any particular experience to share whilst using our platform?

Edmond: Oh yes! Due to Covid-19, the secondary schools in Hong Kong carried half-day lessons, starting from September 2020. All extra-curricular activities were stopped or changed to online-basis after school. It was quite difficult for class teachers to familiarize with their students, especially the newcomers (the Secondary 1 students). So, I worked with the school social worker and form masters to design a deck using Deck.Toys about school life. 

This was a remarkably interesting experience! We invited the principal and other subject leaders to record videos and put it in the deck which we sent to all Secondary 1 students. As a result, the students knew more about their school, for example the school history, the school song, how to borrow books in the school library, what society does the school have, and even how much does a chicken wing in the school tuck shop cost!

Deck.Toys: It sounds like the students enjoy using Deck.Toys!

Edmond: They love Deck.Toys so much! In fact, I created several decks which are then played in an escape room format. I put the students into teams via the breakout rooms in Zoom. In the breakout room, one student will play the role of a leader and project the deck to play with his or her teammates. With competition between teams, students start to talk to each other, giving their opinions while guessing the answers. The more they communicate amongst themselves, the better the connection they have with each other too! 

It’s not just the fun factor – my decks are educational as well on social aspects which require deep reflection from the students. Here’s one escape room I made on Sham Shui Po:

https://deck.toys/a/XyHvabll5

“尋找失落的寶物” means “looking for the lost treasure”. This is like a community field study on Sham Shui Po which is a poverty-stricken district in Hong Kong. After playing the deck, students will know more about the poor living standards there; for example how high the house rent is compared to other districts in Hong Kong, and how bad the living situation of people here is. Many of the students reflected deeply after going through the deck, and they were motivated to with plans and actions to help the needy thereafter. 

Deck.Toys: What are the features that you find particularly useful with Deck.Toys?

Edmond: There are several features I personally found valuable and useful:

• The Activity Entry Lock & Lock slide app – These locks made the Deck.Toys more like a room escape game. My students and youths love the challenge! Keying in the right answer for lock makes them excited too.
• Embed GIF/Video/Youtube Links – It’s so easy to add different pictures or videos in Deck.Toys! I always add a YouTube video in the Slide Activity. I just have to copy the link and most importantly, I can pre-set the start and end the video at any time.
• Teacher’s View – I can monitor students in real-time, which helps me know who has finished the tasks and how they progress with the activities. I once found that many students spent too long on a particular slide activity, which meant that this activity was too hard, so I reviewed my deck design for the next batch of students.

Deck.Toys:  We are so glad to have you share your experience!

Edmond: You are most welcome! I really love Deck.Toys and hope others can benefit from my sharing!

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