In 2003, Hong Kong was one of the places in the world seriously suffering from the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). From March to April, schools were instructed to suspend classes to help prevent the spread of the disease. During the class suspension period, students were advised to stay home and they could continue their study through different distance education media. Electronic learning via the Internet played an important role in this period. However, without face-to-face contact among students and teachers, electronic learning would be very dry and boring. In addition, students might need some psychosocial assistance and support in this difficult period. Mentoring in electronic form is suitable for the exchange of both information and morale support.

In 1998, a Five Year Strategy outlined new initiatives for information technology in education (ITE) in Hong Kong schools. The 'vision' for ITE involved a 'paradigm shift' in teaching and learning activities, ' from a largely textbook-based teacher-centred approach to a more interactive and learner-centred approach'. However, strategies to bring about these changes were not elaborated. Two years later, when other educational reforms were proposed, it was recognised that current practices in teaching and learning would be resistant to change. Hence, an 'incremental and interactive approach' to change was suggested, in which 'generic skills' including ITE were to be gradually 'infused' into school curriculum over time. The research reported in this paper aimed to investigate whether an 'incremental and interactive approach' could be an effective way to promote greater use of information technology in history teaching in secondary schools. Over a two year period, a small group of teachers made personal decisions about using new technology in their teaching, then met to discuss what happened when they did so. Initially, teachers believed that ITE and PowerPoint presentations were synonymous, and that the role of new technology was to facilitate expository approaches to teaching. However, ideas about ITE gradually changed and teachers became more willing to try 'new' activities involving information technology as ideas about curriculum and pedagogy were examined. It is suggested that professional development activities which provide opportunities for teachers to investigate ITE could be an important initiative in implementing curriculum reforms in schools.

Creating, maintaining and working in e-learning environments is challenging and to date there has been little evaluation of the quality of such learning environments where educators are able to receive feedback on student's perceptions and adjust their learning environments accordingly. Current research, reported in this paper, looks at the use of an online survey instrument for evaluating e-learning environments. The instrument has been used in a number of learning environments, and in different countries with secondary and tertiary students in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The resultant statistics depict the actual and preferred learning environment of individuals and groups of learners giving valuable feedback to educators working in these environments. A number of examples are given to illustrate how educators can gather this data to evaluate the effectiveness of the e-learning environment. Adjustments can then be made accordingly to improve or adjust the learning environment.

This paper reports the process and experience of using digital portfolios in student learning in a large scale implementation in two professional English communication courses. An overview of the technical design and support in implementation is given, then the teaching/learning experience is described and the responses from students and teachers are summarized. The paper closes with reflections on the progress of the project.

This short paper reports the rationales and features of a web-based project which aims to create a comprehensive online platform to help the student-teachers to develop confidence and skills for the effective teaching of various science topics in schools through learning from and sharing with the peers. This online platform not only contains a data bank of video clips on some student-teachers' exemplary teaching performance in a local educational context but also provides a combination of synchronous or asynchronous communication channels for participants to share ideas and feelings. The merits of using this website for training science teachers will be discussed together with some initial findings on the evaluation of this project.

In 2003 a project Innovative Pedagogical Practice Online (IPPO) was undertaken to better understand and enhance the motivation and performance of parttime inservice teachers studying in a BEd programme, with the aid of computer-mediated communications (CMC). The research intended to trial the tailoring of teaching and learning environments through the inhouse courseroom Interactive Learner Network (ILN) to better meet parttime student’s needs allowing instructors to make more informed judgments with respect to workload, assessment modes, and delivery options. A preliminary analysis of the data (n=163) suggests that, while most students are able to locate information and resources electronically many students have reservations about the use and effectiveness of CMC. While students have technology skills and sufficent hardware at home to take advantage of flexible learning opportunities an attitud

In a university setting, information-gathering about content courses is essential if English for Specific Purposes (ESP) practitioners are to understand and fully appreciate the communication needs and difficulties of their students. Most importantly, this knowledge can lead to the design and delivery of more appropriate and meaningful academic language courses for non-native speakers The end result is an improvement in the quality of both teaching and learning.
This paper focuses on one phase of a three-year ethnographic study that I have been carrying out at The Chinese University of Hong Kong with the support of an Earmarked Grant (University Grants Commission of Hong Kong). Specifically I have been investigating the use of the case method in business administration classes in order to gain a better understanding of the linguistic and cultural difficulties involved with English-medium, case-based learning in this bilingual (Chinese-English) context, This data has provided direction for the design and implementation of an ESP business communications course at CUHK.