This article reports on the results of a qualitative interpretive pilot study investigating the role of comic strips on tertiary ESP learners’ motivation and discipline-specific language learning. The participants were 10 third-year students enrolled in two discipline-specific English courses at a university in Hong Kong. The results show that integrating multimodality through comic strips helped to transform the traditional delivery of instruction and also motivated and facilitated learners’ understanding of discipline-specific concepts and vocabulary. Participants also indicated that technology contributed to more student agency and fostered language creativity as they expended more effort in their learning. The findings suggest the need for ESP teachers to explore technology and integrate creativity and multimodality in the delivery of discipline-specific course content. Copyright © 2021 Asian ESP Journal.

Purpose: A growing body of research has focused on the topic of inclusive education for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. At the same time, few scholars have explored the role technology can play in enhancing inclusivity within the context of quality education. This study examines how the differentiated use of technology that takes into account disparities in prior knowledge can benefit students of different learning backgrounds.Design/Approach/Methods: This study adopted an experimental design to investigate how content-specific and content-neutral technologies can be strategically used to support the classroom discussions of Chinese and ethnic minority students' learning Chinese language and mathematics. One hundred and twenty-one secondary school students participated in the study. Each student was randomly assigned to a condition, in a 2 (ethnicity: Chinese vs. ethnic minority) × 2 (content: content-specific first vs. content-neutral first) design.Findings: The study found that (a) for Chinese language lessons, ethnic minority students preferred to learn with content-neutral and content-specific technologies in prediscussion and postdiscussion activities, respectively; whereas the Chinese students' preferences were the opposite and (b) for mathematics lessons, both groups of students performed better when content-specific and content-neutral technologies were used in prediscussion and postdiscussion activities, respectively.Originality/Value: The study presents five practical suggestions for the strategic use of technology in inclusive classrooms in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

This article reports findings of an 18-month research project, funded by the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom (UK), to develop understanding of pedagogical differences in employing emerging technologies with transnational doctoral students. The focus of the research is a Professional Doctorate course delivered by a UK-based university and taught in Hong Kong (HK) by UK academic staff over four weekends each year, with supervisory support throughout the academic year by tutors based in the UK. The research investigated the use of different technologies to enhance the learning experience of the students through three cycles of action research. While literature is extensive in using technologies in learning and teaching in the West, and in teaching international students, there is a lack of research focusing on employing emerging technologies with transnational students in Asia. A multilayered approach to data collection through observation of software analytics, questionnaire and focus groups has resulted in the introduction of new technologies, through which a community of practice, encompassing students in HK and the UK, has emerged. This article reports a new evidence-informed framework which contributes new knowledge and moves current discourse forward.
[Copyright of Technology Pedagogy and Education is the property of Routledge.]

This paper discusses how IT changes the way of teaching and learning of music composition at school. Four music teachers in Hong Kong took part in a series of semi-structured interviews. They described how they had employed IT in teaching music composition and what types of musical products their students were able to create. It was found that the teachers were simply substituting IT for paper and pencil to notate musical pieces, and they were using a rather traditional “practice and drill” approach to teach music composition. A teaching framework, called Pedagogical Framework for Music Composition with Information Technology (PFMCIT), was thus formulated. The purpose of the framework is to promote the more effective student-centered approach in teaching music composition. It is hoped that the framework can help to improve pre-service and in-service music teachers’ knowledge and skills in the area of IT-assisted music composition education, and to establish a better technological environment for teachers to develop students’ creativity. Copyright © 2012 International Society for Music Education (ISME).

In Hong Kong, preschool education is not included in the formal education system. However approximately 95% of children as young as 2 years of age attend either kindergartens or child care centers (Rao & Koong, 1999). Parents and early childhood educators in Hong Kong have been enthusiastic in their support of the inclusion of computer activities in programmes for young children. Chinese parents expect their young children to learn with computers, and anecdotal evidence suggests that they are eager to enroll their child in a kindergarten that provides computer activities. This has given rise to some important issues, and it is suggested here that early childhood educators and parents need to rethink the rationale underpinning the use of computers with young children. In particular, they need to consider whether computer activities are in the best interests of parents, kindergartens or young children. This paper will report a summary of the current status of computer learning environment in kindergartens using the Kindergarten Profile (2000) by Committee of Home-School Operation. There is a need for early childhood teachers and parents to understand how the children’s learning occurs and the factors that maximize the benefits of these learning experiences in such innovative program with ICT.