Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-113).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-94).

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

本論文是針對博客應用於對外漢語教學進行的一次探索。以香港一間國際學校15位就讀于國際文憑課程中文語言B的12年級學生為研究對象，透過問卷調查、觀察以及面談的研究方法，瞭解博客輔助對外漢語教學的可行性以及在教學過程中對教師存在的挑戰，從而為未來對外漢語教師運用博客支援教學提供參考。 研究結果表明，利用博客輔助對外漢語教學，學生們對博客的參與情況普遍較好，博客可以作為其中文習作發佈的平臺，便於師生和同儕之間的互動交流、協作學習，學生們的中文寫作興趣和寫作動機也都因此有所提高，因而更加樂於學習中文。同時，在學生們進行博客寫作的過程中，教師博客對於學生們來說也具有一定的作用和意義，為學生們的網誌創作提供寫作素材。不過，在使用博客輔助對外漢語教學的過程中，教師同時也會面臨很多挑戰，教師要處理好博客可能會出現的技術問題以及合理設計在博客教學過程中所採用的中文課程，以加強學生的對外漢語學習動機。 由此，未來對外漢語教師在運用博客支援教學的時候，應謹慎選擇博客建立的網路平臺，對學生使用博客寫作進行適當的培訓和指導，同時亦可考慮將博客教學和正規對外漢語教學有機地結合起來。 This paper is an exploration of using a blog in classes of teaching Chinese as a second language. Fifteen Year 12 students who study in the Chinese Language B course of the International Baccalaureate curriculum from one Hong Kong International School are examined. Through questionnaires, observations and interviews, the study reveals the feasibility of using the blog in classes of teaching Chinese as a second language as well as the challenges that the teacher may face accordingly. Furthermore, the paper has also provided some teaching support for future teachers who want to apply blogs in teaching Chinese as a second language. The results show that students generally have a good participation in the blog. The blog, therefore, can serve as a platform to enable students to publish their Chinese work, and to interact and collaborate with teachers and peers. Students’ interests and motivations in Chinese writing are both increased. Meanwhile, when the students carry out the process of blog writing, the teacher’s blog has also played a role as providing writing materials to inspire students. Nevertheless, when using the blog to assist the Chinese as a second language teaching, teachers accordingly will face many challenges. As teachers, we should handle the blog’s technical problems properly and design appropriate Chinese language courses which can be perfectly combined with the normal Chinese teaching. Referring to the above results, the future teachers, who want to use the blog in classes of teaching Chinese as a second language, should carefully select the network platform to establish the blog. Also, some training and guidance related to blog writing should be given to students beforehand. Finally, teachers need to consider the way of combining blogs and the regular Chinese teaching together. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The project-based collaboration setting is becoming increasingly common at different educational levels. Recent years have witnessed the rising use of wikis as computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. However, reports on the application of wiki technology in facilitating collaborative projects at the primary level are few; in particular, information on the affordances and constraints of wikis at this learning stage is limited. Such information is essential for educators when planning and implementing wikis as an effective educational tool. This study aimed to introduce wiki technology to facilitate collaborative project-based learning (Collaborative PjBL) in a primary “General Studies” (GS) course and to explore the associated affordances and constraints. A total of 388 Hong Kong Primary-five (P5) students from 4 local Chinese primary schools used a wiki for their social science group project during their GS course. Adopting a mixed-method approach, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data were collected, including focus group interviews, students’ activities within the wiki platform, students’ reflections written on the wiki pages, and a questionnaire. These data were used to explore the affordances and constraints of the wiki for collaborative projects as perceived by the primary-school students, and to gain an understanding of students’ attitudes towards and perceptions of the wiki in general. The findings showed that the wiki provided five kinds of educational affordances, six kinds of technological affordances, and two kinds of social affordances. The affordances that were aimed for the collaborative PjBL task were therefore achieved. At the same time, constraints were found to be related to technological factors and users’ dispositions. To counterbalance constraints, teachers could select wiki variants and provide more scaffolding on the use of wiki during the process of project completion. Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the wiki were found to be strongly positive after the group project implementation. The research contributes to our understanding of the use of a form of social media, wiki technology, in primary education. On a theoretical level, it deepens previous research by identifying the categories of the wiki’s affordances and constraints for primary-school students’ collaborative PjBL. On a practical level, the pedagogical implications derived from this study may provide guidelines for primary-school educators to plan collaborative PjBL activities with wiki technology. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Philosophy

Under the trend of ICT implementation in education, students’ learning becomes highly reliant on ICT. A student will thus suffer in his / her learning process if he / she lacks the chance of using ICT at home. This is what a divide in student’s learning is. As the occurrence of this divide is due to digital ICT devices and its effect is focussed on students’ academic performance, such divide is termed as digital divide in education (DDE). To bridge this divide, most governments around the world have spent a lot purchasing hardware for schools and even assisting students from low income families to have computers at home. The divide, however, still persists. Nowadays, almost all students have the chance to use ICT. If a student is skilful in using ICT, he / she can learn more effectively by searching useful materials on the Internet. Otherwise, the student may lose his / her learning path. Thus there is a divide in learning between the skilled and unskilled students using ICT. In addition to the learning-related usages, recent studies showed that most students mainly use ICT to play games or for social communication. The divide in learning still exists and shifts to the difference between the students who use ICT for their learning and those who mainly use ICT for other purposes. Moreover, even some of the students using ICT for their studies, such as doing assignments, may use it inappropriately for copying and reassembling materials from the Internet as their assignments for submission. Such surely impedes their learning. The divide in learning then extends to whether students use ICT appropriately. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of DDE on students learning in terms of four facets: the chance of using ICT (access disparity), the skilfulness in using ICT (skill disparity), the ways in using ICT (usage disparity), and the appropriateness of using ICT (ethical disparity). The objective is three-fold. The first one is to examine whether the four facets of DDE affect students’ academic performance, the second one is to investigate whether the four facets are interrelated, and the third one is to explore the factors contributing to the four facets empirically. After reviewing various literatures, the potential factors are categorised into three groups: students’ personal factors, environmental factors, and ethics-related factors. A survey has been conducted to achieve the objective. A pilot test was carried out first to check the reliability and validity of the designed questionnaire. 825 valid responses were obtained from a set of random samples taken from Secondary 2 students in Hong Kong. Statistical methods are employed for investigating the relationship between the four facets and also the factors of each facet. The analysis results indicate that the latter three facets are the main constituents of DDE, significantly affecting students’ academic performance. The facets are also interrelated in a sequence. There is a significant effect of skill disparity on the other two disparities, and there is also a significant effect of usage disparity on ethical disparity. A number of key factors were also found for the facets, including students’ gender, SES, ICT experience, and also their parents’ parenting styles and ICT abilities. Their peers’ behaviour also plays an important role in affecting their appropriateness of using ICT. A number of policy implications are then proposed according to the results, in terms of financing approach of government (e.g. direct subsidy scheme), revision of curriculum, and enhancement of parenting skills. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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This study explores how to integrate faculty-initiated Internet-facilitated international academic partnerships into their local university environments. Recently some faculty have begun initiating international partnership activities which carryout their university's research, teaching, and service missions. These partnerships (including courses, projects, or entire programs) are considered by their initiators to benefit both faculty and student development. Faculty see the Internet as enabling them to construct interactive and collaborative virtual forums where disperse student and faculty bodies can co-engage in exciting international research, teaching, and learning opportunities. This study aims to encourage the development of Internet-facilitated international academic partnerships so that more faculty in all disciplines are supported by their local institutions to better integrate their partnerships. Presently, partnerships are not well integrated. Impart this is because the Internet as a communication tool is relatively new phenomenon. However, it is also due to the tendency for faculty level partnerships to be overlooked by higher levels of university administration. As a result, the value of Internet partnerships has not yet been explored in relation to their local institutional missions. This study therefore consults faculty with experience partnering online in order to garner faculty insights pertaining to partnership integration. The results help to determine (1) core characteristics of these faculty-level partnerships (2) faculty motivations for initiating them (3) university environments implicated by integration and (4) identify faculty support and development opportunities appropriate to support integration.

The purpose of this study was to describe and improve understanding of adult students' experiences of learning in an interactive computer-mediated communications context in a distance education environment. Within a constructivist perspective, the theoretical framework for this study was based on collaborative learning theories.The study setting was an eight-week, Internet-based undergraduate/graduate distance education course, Sociology of Poverty, sponsored by a medium-sized midwestern university. The computer-mediated course was designed by the instructor to support active and collaborative learning among students at a distance.Study participants included two graduate students and five undergraduate students who volunteered their participation. One professor delivered course and Web-site instruction, aided by one technical assistant. In this descriptive study, responses of participants were collected through a series of individual interviews, field observations, student learning journals, and the researcher's field journal. Evidence collection focused on learners' responses to the synchronous and asynchronous (e-mail messaging) computer-mediated communications of the distance education setting.Identified were cognitive and affective learning strategies, and descriptions of students' meaningful receiving and expressing experiences. Two cognitive learning strategies were identified: Management of personal resources and management of technology. Two affective learning strategies were identified: Management of self and management of others. The computer-mediated educational context was found to have influenced students' cognitive and affective experiences of learning, and synchronous computer conferencing was judged a potentially motivational and effective tool for interactive learning in a distance education environment. Important impacts on students' learning experiences included learner characteristics, the design of the Web-based course and its computer-mediated components, the structure of interactivity in the computer-mediated communications, and the moderation of the weekly synchronous computer conferences. Conclusions and recommendations of this study focused on these five influences.Implications for future Internet-based distance course design and development included the need for opportunities for students to establish connections with peers early in the course and the need for learner input into course content. Further research requirements revealed included student collaboration in a computer-mediated environment, student-teacher power relations, moderation of synchronous computer conferences, and the integration of online experiences with community-based field experiences. / Department of Educational Leadership