On October 20, 2000, the Computer Centre had organised, in association with the Association of Fundamental Computing Education in China (AFCEC), the "Symposium on Fundamental Computing Education in Tertiary Institutes" at the University of Hong Kong. The AFCEC, which was founded in 1984, is a National Association of China with the mission of fostering the development and advancement of fundamental computing education in tertiary institutions in China. The association has a membership of over 300 universities and colleges. Most of its members participate actively in the Steering Committee for the Fundamental Computing of the State Education Commission and in the Committee on Grade Computer Examination of the National Education Examination Authority.
Both Professor Ian Davies, Vice Chancellor of HKU and Professor H Q Tan, President of the Council of AFCEC, who were guests of honour at the symposium, stressed in their speeches at the opening ceremony that information technology is of mandatory importance in today's society and the key to the future. They also shared with the delegates at the symposium that the mission of university educators is to ensure that our students will master good techniques on IT, so that they could survive and thrive in the new e-economy world and contribute actively to the society.
The symposium was a valuable occasion for colleagues at HKU to share with more than 160 delegates from China and Hong Kong on the experiences and methodologies in teaching fundamental computing at the tertiary level. The following keynote speeches were presented in the symposium:
Reflection and Reform of Computing Education
for Science Students in Higher Learning Institutes
Professor B Q Xie, Department
of Electronics, Beijing University
Continuing and Professional IT Education in
Hong Kong
Dr S M Shen, Deputy Director,
SPACE, HKU
Experiences in Facility and Support Provisions
for Web-based Course Development
Dr P T Ho, Deputy Director,
HKU Computer Centre
Design and Studies of University Network Teaching
Systems
Professor P H Shen, Director,
Computing and Information Management Centre, Tsinghua University
PI-Learning - A Pervasive and Interactive Web-based
Learning System
Professor F Y L Chin, Chair
of Computer Science, CSIS, HKU
An Evaluation on the Use of a Web-based Assignment
System for Fundamental Computer Education
Dr Wong Wai, Assistant Professor,
Department of Computer Science, HKBU
Dr Ng Nam, Director of the Computer Centre, would like to express his heartfelt thanks to the Council of AFCEC, in particular Professor Tan, for giving the HKU Computer Centre the privilege of hosting this symposium, to our Vice-Chancellor Professor Davies, for inaugurating the event and speaking at the opening ceremony, and to our Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Felix Wu, who hosted the lunch for the delegates. In addition, special thanks are due to Mr Lawrence Law, Director of Information Technology Services Center of HKUST, who arranged a visit to the HKUST campus for the delegates from China at the close of the symposium.
A photo gallery of the symposium is available
at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/symposium/symposium.html
and a video clip of the opening ceremony can
also be viewed at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/symposium/view.ram.
Anita Chan
Tel: 2859-2491
E-mail: cwy@cc.hku.hk