Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2001

Receiving the IT Achievement Award A t about the same time, Hong Kong saw the emergence of many ISPs, some o f which provided Internet services to students. But the j o b o f the Un i v e r s i t y was far f r om finished, as the Ho n g Ko ng Internet was littered w i t h a lot of trashy websites and irresponsible information. The University believed it had the responsibility to guide students in the proper use of the Internet. Prof. Wong Po-choi of the Department o f Information Engineering was then appointed as the coordinator of the Hong Kong School Net to help develop it into a healthy cultural medium for the younger generation. Starting from 1997 ， a series of programmes wer e launched to improv e the services, provide features such as e-mail and news groups ， and promote different inter-school exchange activities. Within a year, the Ho n g Ko n g School Net earned a very good reputation and was chosen as the winner of the Hong Kong Information Technology Achievement Award (Education) in 1998. Building the Hong Kong Cyber Campus Prof. Wong said that the Hong Kong School Net does not only offer Internet services like an ordinary ISP. It is also an Educational Service Provider (ESP), while the Hong Kon g Cyber Campus, which is under its operation and management, is an Educational Content Provider (ECP). T h e H o n g K o n g C y b e r C amp us was established in mid-1998 under the j o i nt effort of eight local tertiary institutions and w i t h funding support f r om the Universit y Grants Committee. Two further grants f r om the Quality Education Fu nd enabled it to provide more educational information and news about educational activities , and to enhance online exchange and academic discussion among teachers and students. Currently over 800 primary, secondary, and special schools are connected to this cyber campus. The Hong Kong School Net in turn helps the Quality Education Fund to develop an online resource centre ( http://qcrc.qef.org.hk/) to support teachers in the use o f multimedia teaching. The centre w i l l collec t and categorize online teaching material s for ease o f sharing among teachers and to help them manage their own teaching resources. Starting o f f as the p l a y t h i ng o f teachers and students o f computer-related subjects, the Internet has developed into a common tool for information search, and a new mode o f teaching and learning. By the year 2000, the Hong Kon g Internet has also evolved int o a cultural platform on whic h young people can explore knowledge , publish their works, and solve problems w i th others in an interactive mode. Prof. Wong said, 'We encourage schools and teachers to get connected. We are developing quality education websites and designing online teaching applications in th e hope that Hong Kong w i l l have its own cyber campus that is stimulating, informative, and interative.' Prof. Wong Po-choi IT: The Name of the Game 11