The use of technology has become increasingly popular in various education contexts. However, integrating technology into teaching and learning is not without problems. This study aims to understand the barriers of technology integration in Hong Kong primary school English education. Thirty-six in-service teachers of an e-learning training course participated in this study. Through a free-response survey, they reported the barriers of using technology in their day-to-day English teaching. The findings indicated that a lack of resources (e.g., technology resources and preparation time) and inadequate knowledge and skills of e-learning practices were the two most frequently reported barriers of technology integration in local schools. Based on the responses of the teacher participants, five recommendations were made to inform future practices of e-learning. These recommendations included using some low-cost technology tools, having a technology integration plan in school, ensuring students’ access to technology, improving students’ skills and attitudes of e-learning, and providing opportunities of professional development. Copyright © 2018 International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics. All rights reserved.

Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects on many aspects of our everyday lives. Changes have also been apparent in the field of teaching since most teaching now has to be carried out online. Despite its drawbacks, this forced change to online instruction and learning has helped me reflect on my teaching. Based on my experience teaching literature at a university in Hong Kong, this article aims to highlight the lessons learned from the transformation caused by the pandemic. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited.

To support young children's learning during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, preschool educators in Hong Kong were required to teach with digital technologies. In this study, 1035 educators from 169 preschools reported their views and practices in an online survey, which we examined via multilevel mixed-response analysis and thematic analysis. More than half of the respondents (53%) expected future online teaching to continue, and only 11% of educators believed that parents would reject this form of delivery. Administrators and teaching assistants were more likely than teachers to expect online preschool teaching to continue in the future. In addition, respondents with existing online platform experience, who taught the upper levels of preschool, or incorporated specific teaching practices (eg, after the online lesson, they assessed children and assigned homework tasks), were more likely than others to expect online teaching in the future. Many of these respondents also reported (a) difficulty with engaging their children when online and (b) inadequate support from parents for learning activities, which reduced the respondents' perceived likelihood of future online teaching. Administrators and teaching assistants were more likely than teachers to believe that parents would accept online teaching in the future. Respondents who felt they had inadequate training to teach online, children in families with inadequate technical skills and parents who believed that online lessons harmed children's well-being, were less likely than others to believe that parents would accept online teaching in the future. These educators believed that online learning communities could connect parents and schools and foster interaction that could help align with educator's support for children's learning needs. Copyright © 2021 British Educational Research Association.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected educational institutions and instructors in an unprecedented way. The majority of educational establishments were forced to take their courses online within a very short period of time, and both instructors and students had to learn to navigate the digital array of courses without much training. Our study examined factors that affect students' attitude toward online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is different from other online learning studies where online courses are mostly a method of choice, with suitable support from institutions and expectation from instructors and students, rather than a contingency. Under this specific environment, we utilized an online survey to collect students' feedback from eleven universities across Hong Kong. Using partial least squares for analysis on the 400 valid samples we received, we found that peer interactions and course design have the most salient impact on students' attitude, whereas interactions with instructors has no effect at all on students' attitude. Furthermore, we also provide suggestions on using the existing technologies purchased during COVID-19 for a more sustainable learning environment going forward. Copyright © 2021 by the authors.

Equipping with digital literacy and skills related to the latest digital technologies and integrating the new contents into the conventional curricula have been in high demand in recent years. Despite the potential educational benefits addressed by scholars, many pre-service teacher education programs in visual arts still have not established a revised curriculum which is designed to strategically integrate the new digital tools going beyond screen-based multimedia. This exploratory case study was conducted in a pre-service teacher program in visual arts in Hong Kong to measure the effect of 3D modeling software and digital fabrication technologies in developing creativity and problem-solving skills. The participants learned fundamental design theories, digital and physical crafting skills. Then, they were asked to create a functional design for daily life with a 3D prototype using digital technologies and hand-craft skills. The results of this study provide evidence for potential advantages in using 3D digital technologies both in virtual and physical dimensions. Despite the steep learning curve in learning 3D modeling software for the first few lessons, the participants’ level of motivation and engagement increased gradually. The participants’ response revealed that an understanding how things are made to work functionally helped them develop problem-solving skills and expanded the scope of creativity. The shortcomings such as going beyond technical tooling, equipping with sufficient devices and lack of resources for further application were addressed. Copyright © 2019 UCC March. All rights reserved.

This pilot study investigates the impact of using mobile devices to facilitate the practising of scales and arpeggios. The AI application was designed by an engineer/musician in Hong Kong. This AI application enables students to practise, record themselves, view their mistakes and prepare for examinations based on the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s scales and arpeggios syllabus for five instruments (violin, flute, clarinet, trumpet and saxophone). This study (a) examines the progress of learners who use the application to practise scales and arpeggios; (b) observes how elementary learners perceive mobile practising in a virtual learning environment and (c) proposes a blended learning model that uses mobile practising with the support of AI. Copyright © 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a mobile User-Generated-Content (m-UGC) tool on enhancing primary students’ vocabulary learning motivation and learning outcomes. A total of 40 primary students in Hong Kong participated in this study. The results showed using the m-UGC tool could increase primary students’ learning motivation and significantly improve their vocabulary learning. Copyright © 2020 Yanjie Song, Yin Yang.

With the rapid development of technology, Early Childhood (EC) educators have been urgently required to appropriately integrate various and cutting-edge digital technologies to support the diverse learning needs of students in Hong Kong. The Future Classroom of EdUHK offers an opportunity for educators to integrate innovative toolkits to explore students’ potential learning opportunities, embracing their design thinking and creativity. This study applies an exploratory case study approach to learn the ways of improving students’ learning by using digital technologies in the Future Classroom, and develop practical toolkits for EC educators. Data was collected by activity plans, class videos, and students’ artifacts. Three students aged 6-8 in Hong Kong were invited to participate in this study. Content analysis was employed to analyze the effectiveness of the toolkits on students’ learning modal and engagement. The findings show that digital technologies can help change students’ learning modal from passive to interactive by stimulating multimodal learning, i.e. making an AR vocabulary card required modals of linguistic, gestural, visual, and aural. The toolkits can build a platform for design thinking and creativity, i.e. a map and digital story of the ocean were created by using a toolkit composed of 3D printing models, coding robots, and a digital book App. Students’ learning engagement can be improved by the toolkits, especially on the emotional aspect since they took the initiative to create their stories and characters at a later stage. Lastly, a list of practical digital resources is provided. Copyright © 2020 International Conference on Learning and Teaching.

Involving parents in their children's school-based English language learning is beneficial to learners' academic achievement as well as their language and literacy development. However, involving parents can be challenging. This study reports on one teacher's use of a digital learning platform, Seesaw, with his third-grade (7 to 8 year-olds) English language writing class in Hong Kong to address the lack of parental involvement. The platform became a space for parents to be involved in their child's school-based writing. It enabled them to view, like and comment in response to their child and other children's English work. Although parents were seen to be involved on the platform, it was observed they mainly viewed and liked rather than commented. Future pedagogical directions will be discussed with suggestions provided on how parents can be encouraged to take a more active role on such platforms. Copyright ©Sage Publications Ltd.

In recent years, the widespread growth of mobile-assisted language learning using apps has made English vocabulary learning increasingly accessible. This study investigated students' perceptions of a vocabulary learning app developed by the researcher as a tool to help them to improve their L2 receptive vocabulary. The app, containing 20 levels, works with both iOS and Android. The participants were 14 undergraduate students at an English-medium university in Hong Kong. A qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews captured a holistic overview and revealed students' perceptions of the app. The results suggested that Hong Kong university students have a strong motivation for acquiring an L2 vocabulary. Participants also indicated a preference for mobile applications using gamified features. The study highlights directions for future research into apps for English language learning. Copyright ©I G I Global.