I. Digital Storytelling Service-Learning for Language Learning, Creativity and Intercultural Communication
This presentation shares our experience of running an undergraduate service-learning course over the past three years, in collaboration with the Christian Action Centre for Refugees. Through a series of storytelling workshops and the co-creation of digital stories with asylum-seeking refugee children aged 7 to 15, our students not only explore different types of stories, creative uses of English, and digital tools (e.g., digital recording devices for podcasting, GenAI for illustration), but also develop intercultural communication skills and foster empathy for diverse local communities.

We will showcase some of the meaningful collaborations between our students and the refugee children, and discuss how storytelling, hands-on learning (experiential learning), and community engagement can become powerful tools in language education, extending students’ language use beyond the classroom and offers practical insights that can be adapted to various language teaching contexts.

II. Why Are We Even Here? Rethinking the Purpose of a Degree and Learning in the Age of AI: A Student-Lecturer Dialogue
In an age where generative AI can produce essays, solve problems, and complete assignments, students and educators are increasingly questioning the value of higher education: if AI can “do the work,” what then is the role of learning?

We explore this question in this presentation, in the form of a reflective dialogue between a student (Sherilyn) and a lecturer (Eric) from a language degree programme at PolyU SPEED, a Hong Kong self-financed higher education institution. In our dialogue, Sherilyn will share her concerns about the meaning of learning at the tertiary level — the pressure to perform, the temptation to shortcut, and the desire for authentic intellectual growth. Eric, a language educator with a deep interest in tech-enhanced teaching and learning, responds with pedagogical insight and practical strategies grounded in educational research and teaching practice.

Through this dialogue, we argue for a fundamental shift: from designing education for “doing” (completing tasks, achieving grades) to designing education for “becoming” (nurturing learning experience, developing thinking, empathy, character, and transferable understanding). Here, we invite teaching practitioners and educators to reconsider how curriculum and assessment can better capture the learning process — not just its outcomes — in order to support transformation, reflection, and meaningful engagement in the AI era.