Educational uses of participatory web tools among Chinese students

The development of the Web, since its inception in the early 1990s, has provided many new possibilities and affordances for learning. The innovation in learning and teaching ought to be based on a rich understanding of how students utilise new technologies to support and to evaluate learning gains, and what organizational support is available or needed, with the focus placed on students' learning experience. Higher education institutions in the UK are confronting cultural complexity more than ever before: the enrolment of foreign students has been making a significant contribution to the institutional income. Because a significant proportion of learners in UK higher education come from non-western countries such as China, it is of importance for universities to be sensitive to the varying degree of experience as well as skills associated with educational technologies prevailing among these international students.