HKAECT International Conference 2023

Professor Ma’s research focuses on communication, information systems adoption, education technology, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. He has publications in international refereed journals, such as Computers and Human Behavior, Computers & Education, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, International Journal of Communication, Law and Policy, Knowledge Management & E-Learning, Information & Management, etc. He has been actively engaged in academic community. He participated and organized international conferences in technology and learning field, for example, International Conference on Applied Education, Technology and Innovation (AETI); HKAECT International Conference; International Conference on Blended Learning; International Conference in Hybrid Learning, and so on. He is the series editor of the Educational, Communication and Technology Yearbook series, published by Springer. He is an active independent reviewer for international refereed journals. As one of the top 1% of Social Science peer reviewers, he was recognised with the Publons Peer Review Awards 2017. He has been invited to deliver keynotes and talks by international conferences, educational institutions and professional field associations.

Keynote Title: Access to Information, Access to People, Access to Applications

Abstract

In the past three decades, information and communication technology (ICT) has developed rapidly. Since 1998, the number of empirical research studies on ICT and education has increased annually. This is particularly related to the growth of the Internet since 1995. In 1998, innovative ICT applications such as wiki, forum, and blogging emerged. Since the year 2000, social networking and social media platforms such as Friendster, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have emerged. Education has embraced the incorporation of these technologies into the learning process in order to enhance interaction and learning. We have occasionally lost our focus. Due to their unique characteristics, numerous studies attempt to establish a correlation between technology and learning performance, but they ignore the underlying learning theory. It is argued that learning theories proposed between the 1950s and 1980s guide the development of learning technologies that provide an environment conducive to learning, as opposed to the technology generating new learning theories. The keynote will attempt to review the evolution of ICT in education, as well as the relevant evolution of ICT research studies, with reference to the underlying learning theories. The keynote will conclude the comparison of these developments based on the framework of three major themes in the use of ICT and education: Access to Information, Access to People, and Access to Applications.

Dr. Xiaojun (June) Chen is the Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Associate Professor of Educational Technology in School of Education at St. John's University, New York, USA. She obtained her Ph.D. in Learning Design and Technology from Purdue University in USA, and Master of Education in Communication, Education and Technology from University of Manchester in UK. Dr. Chen is currently serving as President for Society of International Chinese in Educational Technology (SICET). Dr. Chen conducts research and publishes articles in the following areas: interdisciplinary team learning, emerging technologies in learning and globalization; technology integration and teacher education; and best practices in STEM education from interdisciplinary technology perspective. Dr. Chen has participated and led funded research projects, including National Science Foundation supported projects, focusing on interdisciplinary team learning and research, and she serves as editorial member and reviewer for international research journals.

Keynote Title: Cross-disciplinary Learning: Research, collaboration, and opportunities

Abstract

In this keynote session, Dr. Chen will discuss the topic of cross-disciplinary learning research and its implications for collaborations among scholars adopting technology into teaching and learning. Dr. Chen will share theoretical foundations of cross-disciplinary learning, research trends in this area, as well as innovative practices in multidisciplinary learning environments with ICT integration. Dr. Chen will also share empirical studies and lessons learned in learning design and technology through the lenses of cross-disciplinary team learning.

John Blake is a senior associate professor at the University of Aizu, Japan, a public university specializing in computer science and education. He teaches courses on thesis writing and natural language processing. He holds a Ph.D. in applied linguistics and master’s degrees in education, computer science, business administration and creative writing as well as a Postgraduate Certificate of Education. He was awarded Chartered IT Professional status and is a professional member of the British Computer Society.

Dr. Blake is the director of the Texts and Tools (TNT) lab, which focuses on creating practical online tools that help people learn English. The tools created often detect and/or visualize particular language features. His research primarily draws on corpus linguistics to analyze texts and computational linguistics to create rule-based and probabilistic-based pattern-searching tools or pipelines. He has published research articles in top-tier journals, such as the Journal of Education Research and the RELC journal, and in the conference proceedings of Interspeech and Speech Prosody. John was brought up in England, but has spent most of his adult life in Asia, He has worked in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Keynote Title: Noticing language patterns with intelligent CALL

Abstract

The proposition that “noticing is a precursor to learning” underpins teaching philosophy statements of educators in many different disciplines. This is often the case for language teachers who design activities to enable learners to notice language features, such as lexical sets or grammatical structures. The choice of teaching approach affects how learners are engaged in the act of “noticing”. Behaviourists, for example, may focus on the stimulus to develop appropriate responses. Advocates of discovery and data-driven learning may encourage learners to form and test hypotheses. Drawing on the work of Vygotsky, technology may be used to mediate the act of noticing, and thus assist in scaffolding learners through their respective zones of proximal development.

Intelligent computer-assisted language learning (iCALL) uses natural language processing pipelines to help language learners. This presentation focuses on harnessing iCALL tools to identify and visualize language patterns in texts to help learners understand and use English. I will describe and explain a number of tailormade iCALL tools developed to help learners of English understand and use language. The open-access tools to be introduced include the Feature Visualizer and the Pronunciation Scaffolder. The Feature Visualizer was created to help writers understand the generic integrity of short research articles. This platform primarily uses rule-based parsing to highlight prototypical language features in a small bank of annotated research articles. Learners can reveal and hide the features and access multimodal explanations on demand. The Pronunciation Scaffolder annotates submitted texts using symbols, font size and colour. These visual prompts help language learners read presentation scripts and other texts aloud more appropriately

I conclude by arguing that with the power of artificial intelligence and easy access to huge datasets, intelligent CALL is set to transform language learning.

Sarah OLIVE (@DrSarahOlive) is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Sciences at Bangor University, UK. She was previously a Megumi Visiting Professor of English at Kobe College, Japan, and Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of York, UK. She has an international reputation for researching and teaching at the intersections of education, Shakespeare, and literature in English. Her books include Shakespeare in East Asia Education co-authored with Kohei Uchimaru, Adele Lee and Rosalind Fielding (Palgrave 2021), as well as Shakespeare Valued: Education Policy and Practice, 1989-2009 (Intellect 2015). In 2022, she authored a Welsh Government report on Impacts of the global pandemic on teaching literatures in secondary schools in Wales, with co-investigators Mary Davies (Swansea) and Gwawr Maelor Williams (Bangor). Her editorial roles include Lead Editor of the international, peer-reviewed journal Jeunesse: young people, texts, cultures (University of Toronto Press). She is also the Founding Editor of the British Shakespeare Associations free, online, cross-sector publication for educators Teaching Shakespeare.

Keynote Title: From digital stage to digital page: using theatre streaming services and collaborative bulletin boards to teach undergraduate English Literature students in Japan

Abstract

The global pandemic saw theatre lovers and educators internationally engaging with theatre streaming services, for pleasure and for pedagogy, as in-person performances were suspended. Before the pandemic, I had used institutional subscriptions to services like Digital Theatre Plus to show students productions from British theatres. I had joined digital humanities scholars writing about productions streamed into cinemas and schools. When the pandemic struck, I routinely streamed productions by the National Theatre in London and Schaubühne in Berlin in leisure. When conferences went online, their evening entertainments followed suit: performances from across Asia were shown as part of the World Shakespeare Congress (online) and Asian Shakespeare Association (hybrid) conferences in 2020. These experiences inspired me to incorporate more streamed theatre in my classroom practice on campus. Such impulses have been described in English as ‘Covid Keeps’: practices adopted as an emergency response to the pandemic that you choose to continue even after its restraints are removed. A year’s teaching at Kobe College, in Japan, from 2022-23, gave me the opportunity to use digital theatre across courses spanning all years of undergraduate education. Influenced by John Biggs’ idea of Constructive Alignment, I sought to incorporate using theatre streaming across the learning objectives, activities and assessments. Accompanying this, I used the collaborative virtual bulletin board Padlet, instead of the usual VLE. In this talk, I draw from autoethnographic research methods to critically reflect on the successes and challenges of incorporating these technologies into an English as an Additional Language educational setting and make recommendations for future practice.