This paper explores the elements of technology leadership practice in a technology-rich kindergarten in Hong Kong. The centre head of this technology-rich kindergarten, who keens on promoting technology use, has been selected for this study. The center head and three teachers voluntarily participated in an in-depth semi-structured interview, and observations have also been operated during class activities for further confirmation. Findings show that centre head applied strategies that empowered teachers to design creative interactive activities with digital devices for teaching and learning purposes, collaborate with parents through the use of social networking system, and use new technologies in team supporting system. Six key elements are revealed from this technology-rich kindergarten, they are network learning culture development, resources enrichment, leadership empowerment, vision settlement, target achievement, and team enhancement.
[Copyright © 2012, Infonomics Society.]

This paper reports and discusses the findings from a study exploring the use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for teaching and learning at a university in Hong Kong. Seventy-one undergraduate students enrolled on an English course participated in the study. A pedagogical framework is proposed to guide the design of BYOD-mediated lessons, and the potential of BYOD pedagogies to support teaching and learning is examined. Learning gains from BYOD-mediated lessons are reflected in students’ assessment results. Some merits and challenges associated with BYOD-mediated learning are emerged from students’ focus group responses. The findings contribute to an expanded understanding of the BYOD experience across educational settings.

This case study examines preservice teachers' integration of technology in teaching various subject domains. It aims to gain in-depth understandings of preservice teachers' pedagogical patterns for teaching through the theoretical lens of technological pedagogical and content knowledge. Multiple data sources were collected in a teacher education institution in Hong Kong. The teachers' pedagogical patterns vary depending on their instructional decisions affected by individual preferences, various subject cultures, and individual school settings. The patterns reflected various forms of technological pedagogical and content knowledge development in teaching different subjects. Implications for preparation of preservice teachers' pedagogy, teacher preparation, and development are also discussed.
[Copyright © 2016 The Author(s).]

This study aimed to investigate parents' understanding of, support for and concerns about e-learning and proposed a school–parent partnership distributing responsibilities to parents and schools based on the results of the study. A total of 61 parents from 21 schools in an e-learning pilot scheme in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire survey and focus group interviews. Results indicated that there was a high correlation between parental understanding and support for e-learning although parents demonstrated only a basic level of understanding. Four types of parental support and six major areas of parental concern were identified. These results shed light on the school–parent partnership whereby parents should implement a proactive e-learning policy at home to monitor, support and inspire e-learning. Schools should formulate a holistic policy to address parents' concerns responsively and proactively to gain support. Schools can enhance parents' pedagogical understanding of e-learning and address parental concerns through school–parent communication and peer support among parents.
[Copyright © 2017 Association for Information Technology in Teacher Education.]

This study investigates the acquisition of English word stress by ESL learners in Hong Kong, and assesses the efficacy of unlimited access to an online pronunciation tutoring programme. Twenty learners in foundation English language classes at the university level were recruited to participate in this study. Ten students were given an online programme as a supplement to a 30-hour English course, and were requested to practice on their home computers. Their development in spoken English was compared with a control group of ten students who did not use the online resource. The online programme My ET was evaluated according to Chapelle’s (2001) six criteria for CALL assessment. The learners were pre- and post-tested by two experienced raters of pronunciation. A questionnaire was then distributed to inquire into the pronunciation learning experiences and attitudes towards the online learning. Results indicate that the online pronunciation tutoring was fairly effective in improving the ESL learners’ ability to produce and perceive correctly different stress patterns in words, phrases, and sentences, and that students also had a positive attitude towards online pronunciation instruction and activities. The findings also reveal that practice with the programme was beneficial to those students who began the course with a strong foreign accent, but it was of limited value to students who began the course with better pronunciation.
[Copyright © 2012 http://www.tesoljournal.com.]

With the fast development of mobile technologies, mobile learning has been adopted by more and more students and staff in higher education institutions. However, most students and staff tend to explore mobile learning as individuals, and there is a lack of systematic exchange of ideas and strategies related to mobile learning among them. This chapter reports on a project on building a mobile learning community (MLC) to promote mobile learning in a Hong Kong tertiary institution. The research questions are as follows: ‘What are the key factors in building a successful mobile learning community?’ and ‘How can the effectiveness of the MLC be evaluated?’ The key factors identified in building a successful mobile learning community are recruitment of community members, establishment of a mobile learning community website as a platform for exchange of ideas, organization of sharing seminars/workshops, making an impact on students’ learning and on staff development. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the mobile learning community will also be deliberated. It is hoped that this chapter can provide some practical guidance and useful references for those who wish to establish a mobile learning community in their institutions in order to promote Scholarship of Learning & Teaching (SoLT).

The paper explores how Learning Study, a collaborative action research approach, can be integrated with eLearning activities to enhance personal knowledge management (PKM) competencies of pre-service teachers for effective instructional design and assessment for learning. PKM competencies are conceptualized as knowledge retrieving, organizing, analyzing and collaborative skills for effective learning. The study adopts Cheng’s (2011) PKM model to proposal a curriculum for developing teacher’s PKM skills through a teaching development project conducted in The Hong Kong Institute of Education. A Solomon four group quasi-experimental research design was adopted to collect data from pre and posttest of PKM measurement from the participants of the Learning Study course. All items were measured using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Another professional study course is set as the control group. Lesson observation and qualitative interviews were conducted to evaluate the development of the pre-service teacher. The effectiveness of the e-learning activities, the use of PKM tools and the collaborative action research approach were evaluated. Results showed that integrating learning activities in the Learning Study course had impacts on the retrieving, organizing, analyzing skills for instructional design and student assessment. A set of learning activities for planning the PKM curriculum could be articulated from the result of this study. For example, access databases and websites for information retrieval; operate electronic tools for information integration to design lesson plans; use spreadsheet and statistical software for data and information analysis to assess student learning problems; use collaborative PKM tools to support both synchronous and asynchronous communication for the purpose of collective learning; and construct knowledge that is based on an appropriate understanding of the nature of data, sound inference

With the rapid development of sophisticated technologies, many innovative e-Learning tools or applications with increased inter-activities and improved features have been adopted in tertiary institutions. This paper serves as a platform for industry and academia to exchange higher education practices in innovative course and programme design. We investigate current practices in tertiary institutions with e-Learning technologies and applications to enhance academics’ teaching excellences and research capabilities in order to achieve social, cultural, environmental, or economic impacts. In particular, we investigate all public universities and one private college in Hong Kong in terms of various e-Learning technologies. The results demonstrate that all these e-Learning technologies for being used in higher education help to enhance teaching and learning experiences, and make it more efficient and effective. Students can also benefit from these e-Learning technologies to become life-long learners. Moreover, by taking a closer look at current e-Learning technology trends, we list some possible e-Learning applications and tools that are expected to surge in the coming years.