Information Technology in Education

Pang Wah-Fu

Bugs or no bugs, Pui Ching got the buck to fund the " P. C. Spirit- A Special project for reinforcing infornmation Technology to form a new school model towards 21st century".

In 1998 the Education Department granted HK$6 million to Pui Ching as the pilot school for information Technology in Education. Followed by HK$10 million from the Quality Education Fund for the comprehensive development of this special project.

The brochure of P. C. School Site of Information Technology distributed at the School Open Day on Dec. 19, 1998 outlined the plan as follows:

A) Six objectives

B) Phase I
a) Network system
b) Special class-rooms

Phase II
a) Teacher training
b) Teaching Administration System
c) Review

In order to prevent the early bird catches the" worm " careful selcction of suppliers is vital to the succes of this project. Virtually every cent spent on the hardware and soft ware is value for money. Indeed a fair number of IT personnel from major schools visited Pui Ching on the Open Day. They were interested to know the dedicated access to internet which is guarded by sophisticated firewalls & proxy system to guard against hackers & inappropiate access.

With the hardware in place, we should look at the use of this technology in term of training, sage and as an aid for teaching. Teacher training is important for the sake of applying it to convey knowledge and to be familiar with the technology. The technologies are great, but the people going to use them are most important.

As an aid for teaching more creative ideas and thoughts are certainly welcomed to further utilize these technologies for conveying, presenting knowledge and stimulate the students' minds and thoughts.

In creating such an innovative environment, Pui Ching is doing great in training/teaching next generation to be more easily adjusted to the new technologies and make them stand out in the crowd.

Upon the completion of this 2 years project we envisage that the school will gear up her students to be computer-literate, up-to-date and smart like  role models in this new information technology age.