ECE’s Dr. Jenny Yun-Chen Chan began a collaboration with Dr. Tomohiro Nagashima, an Assistant Professor from Universität Des Saarlandes in Germany. The two lecturers brought together their respective expertise in Early Childhood Education & Family Studies and Educational Technology & Computer Science in an interdisciplinary collaboration. The aim was to help their students learn about the use of technology for the education of young children, while learning about different cultures, languages, education systems, and practices at the same time.
The pair first collaborated in a Teaching Share at the ECE Department, discussing their ideas for this Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) activity with Department Faculty Members, in order to seek feedback. After that, Dr. Chan shared her research and perspectives on educational technology with Dr. Nagashima’s students in a guest lecture titled “Game-based Learning Technologies: Design Considerations and Research Possibilities”, in March 2023. The following semester, Dr. Chan will invite Dr. Nagashima to share his work on educational technology and its implications for early childhood education with her students.
The pair are also exploring possibilities of organizing synchronous and asynchronous activities for their students to meet and learn from each other. Dr. Chan explains that there are strategic benefits, in both content and inter-cultural learning, for students from both universities when a long-term collaboration is sustained between partners and looks forward to organizing more online activities with Dr. Nagashima for their students.
The guest lecture given by Dr. Chan is available for viewing at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LYlKj3Gwws
Written by Sofie Chua (schua@eduhk.hk), COIL Facilitator