Social and emotional dynamics have an impact on students' learning processes in online-learning situations. This study explores university students' emotions and trust levels resulting from collaborative communication behaviors when they interacted as part of a Food and Tourism course in Taiwan and Hong Kong. More specifically, students' emotions and trust levels were investigated and were founded to have varied over the course of the study. Results show that the Taiwan-based participants seemed to express their emotions more strongly than the Hong Kong-based ones. Both the Hong Kong and Taiwan groups generally felt satisfied, excited and curious, whereas they were sometimes perceived to be dispirited, insecure and angry while the project was in progress and at the end of the project. The three sources that caused most emotional comment were "self", "social" and "others". When it came to dealing with emotion, most students tried to solve problems by themselves. They believed that they had the ability to solve the problems and held themselves responsible for dealing with their own emotions. The pair trust survey shows that both groups gave positive responses for all items, but there seemed to be a gap between the perception of pair trust and the reality of dealing with emotion.
[Copyright of TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology is the property of TOJET.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.tojet.net/]

Some past studies find that older students have more confidence in using technology for learning than younger students but some other studies find the opposite result. However, it is found that there are a few researches studying on the age difference in the perception of using technology for learning in Hong Kong. Therefore, the aim of the study is to examine the age difference of confidence in using technology for learning in the Hong Kong higher educational institutions. In this study, it employed a survey methodology to collect a total of 211 questionnaires from one of the universities in Hong Kong. The findings show that older students had more confidence in using technology for learning than younger students.
[Copyright of TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology is the property of TOJET.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.tojet.net/]

Lynch and Purnawarman (2004:50) point out that "a solid electronic portfolio can show reflection, evolution of thought and overall professional development". Research shows that electronic portfolio assessment, if implemented thoughtfully, can successfully engage learners in critical thinking and problem solving, promote lifelong education, encourage self evaluation and allow learners to have a higher degree of control over the learning process (Pierson and Kumari, 2000; Mason, Pegler, and Weller, 2004). Given the value of electronic portfolios, there has been growing interest in using electronic portfolio assessment to support teacher education (Lynch and Purnawarman, 2004). In this paper, we discuss on-going efforts at the University of Hong Kong to design assessment tasks for a language awareness course entitled "Pedagogical Content Knowledge". The final-year student teachers taking the course are required to compile an electronic portfolio based on their reflections on the relevance and applicability of the issues relating to dealing with the content of learning in pedagogical practice discussed in the course. This paper sets out to describe and analyze issues relating to the design and implementation of the assessment, focusing specifically on the challenges that the research team faces. In our paper, we draw on a range of data, including student teachers' feedback on the assessment and in-depth reflections of two student teachers after the assessment to critically evaluate the extent to which the assessment has achieved the intended learning outcomes. The reflective study shows that apart from technical support, methodological and psychological preparation designed to help students to take on a more active role in the learning and assessment process are also needed to help students to perform effectively in the computer-supported assessment. Implications are drawn for those who plan to conduct electronic portfolio assessment in higher education.
[Copyright

Current computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research has identified various potentials of technology for language learning. To realize and maximize these potentials, engaging students in self-initiated use of technology for language learning is a must. This study investigated Hong Kong university students' use of technology outside the classroom to self-regulate their language learning. It showed that these students were actively engaged in the use of technology, but there were variations both among the students and in the aspects of language learning that they opted to support using technology. More importantly, this study unraveled the factors that influenced their selective use of technology in language learning.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2011.568417]

Elements of popular culture, in particular the film and song genres, have already been integrated into the senior curriculum in Hong Kong. While academic researchers advocate the inclusion of online social networking and video gaming as curricular alternatives to connect learners to digital literacy practices, its reception by teachers has yet to be fully explored. This paper reports on an action research carried out by 34 Hong Kong English teachers on video gaming and social networking. Though the teachers believed their students frequently engaged in such popular activities, they had strong reservations concerning classroom application, in particular the values of online gaming and the dangers of online social networking. Through a survey, interviews, lived experience, online journal entries and responses and reflection, these teachers explored the two popular cultural practices for personal experience, pedagogical potential and professional development. The teachers' own private engagement with such popular cultural activities did not necessarily favour pedagogical consideration. The paper also discusses the pedagogical implications of seeking alternative popular cultural activities for language learning and teacher training.
[Copyright of Pedagogies: An International Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2011.554625]