Introductions - Hong Kong

LEE Fong-lok,HongKong - fllee@CUHK.EDU.HK


Subject: Self-introduction
Name: Fong-lok Lee
E-mail address: fllee@cuhk.edu.hk
Self-introduction: Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Research Interest: Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Learning and Instruction.

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Fong-lok LEE
Department of Educational Psychology
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong.
Phone: (852) 26096977; Fax: (852) 26036129
URL: http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~fllee/
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Nigel Bruce - njbruce@hkucc.uku.hk


Dear IAS-CR4 Organisers,

i. INTRO:

SUBJECT: My subject is the use of computers (from Word Processors, to E-mail and the WWW) to enhance academic communication in English (or other FL)-medium tertiary contexts.
NAME etc.: Nigel Bruce, Principal Language Instructor in the English
Centre, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
E-mail address: njbruce@hkucc.hku.hk
Subject: INTRO: your name, organization/country

ii. SELF-INTRODUCTION:

Following preliminary development of an online writing resource for social science students, I have just been awarded funding for a 2-year (initially) curriculum development project aimed at developing an environment and support for enhancing the online transaction of academic communication - both between teachers and students, and among students. The project has two primary goals:
1. to develop an ed-tech environment which encourages and supports (in material ways) the learning process, with an emphasis on the negotiation of meaning and the writing of assignments in a 2nd/Foreign language context
2. to work towards a change in the culture of response to student writing in tertiary pedagogical practice - notably to encourage a movement away from post-mortem writing response twoards greater attention to a student's engagement with an assignment DURING that process. In other terms, a movement away from summative assessment towards formative feedback and proactive guidance.

I have been prompted to join in this debate by the apparent absence of mention (in your announcement) of this dimension of the potential of online computers to change university teachers' writing-response relationhsip with their students. My own context is in addressing needs in an ESL-medium system, but I can envisage the potential for changing practices in Higher Education generally. I suggest that online computing can maximise the output of the teacher, ensuring a degree of shared dissemination of insights and ideas across a student population (i.e. the avoidance of redundant re-making of the same points to different students). In simple terms, each students would get more stimulation from the teacher, but the teacher's output/workload would not increase by a similar factor.

I will be able to submit a more detailed case during the period of the online conference.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Nigel BruceEnglish Centre,
University of hong Kong,
Pokfulam Road,
HONG KONG
E-mail: njbruce@hkucc.hku.hk
Fax: (852) 2547.3409

Nick Noakes - lcnoakes@usthk.ust.hk

I'm Nick Noakes and I work at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) [email:lcnoakes@usthk.ust.hk]

I work in the field of ESL in the Language Centre at HKUST.

I am particularly interested in the use computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a medium for engendering co-operative/collaborative learning and learner autonomy/self-direction, both for language learners and for language teachers, and as a means of expanding peer learning networks.

I am currently in the process of setting up an ESL course to be run totally online as well as taking one module of an MBA course online. I have already used a number of different CMC technologies with learners and for my own professional development.

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* Nick Noakes *
* email: lcnoakes@usthk.ust.hk *
* webster for: http://lc.ust.hk/ *
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