During the SAR outbreak in ong Kong, when all the schools and lasses were 
suspended, the Hong Kong Education City portal page view rate escalated from 2 million to 4.6 million a day. 42 online courses were made available for free to all 1,300 schools, with the support its partners. More than 70 ultimedialearning games were re-packaged, together with other online resources, encouraging asynchronous learning. The number of messages posted also hit a record high; senders ranged from group messages from university staff to short messages from primary school pupils. Hong Kong Education City is the largest education portal in Hong Kong, servicing 1,300 schools. Self learning takes place at the website for students and parents alike, while virtual classrooms have been set up for teachers to continue with current curriculum, training both parents and students during this time of national crisis. HKedCity is designed to promote IT in education and to build a one-stop education portal for teachers, students and parents. Through this network, the general public can share information, collaborate online and enjoy access to e-learning facilities. Market Place The HKedCity web site is now recognized as the largest and most popular educational web site in Hong Kong, with around three million visitors per day.
Who manages HK education City?
Founded in May 2002, Hong Kong Education City Limited (HKECL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Education and Manpower Bureau is responsible for managing the Hong Kong Education City (HKedCity) website and to uphold the
mission of promoting quality education and IT education in Hong Kong. The HkedCity is funded by the Quality Education Fund. Other major partners in this initiative include TechCreations Company Limited (TechCreation) and First Virtual Communications. TechCreations (http:// www.tech-creations.com/.) is an IT solution provider specialized in IT in education, infrastructure and security. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, First Virtual Communications (http:// www.fvc.com) is a premier provider of next generation web conferencing and collaboration solutions.
Why Hong Kong Education City?
The first wave of IT education in Hong Kong came in with the strategy Information Technology for Learning in a New Era’-1998-2003. The strategies emphasized on linking students to the ‘vast network world of knowledge and information to enable them to acquire a broad knowledge base and a global outlook’ along with developing in students ‘the attitude and capability for independent life-long learning’. The Hong Kong Education City portal eveloped as a response to the government strategy. The HkedCity was build as an education portal based on IRIS model (Information-Resources- Interaction-Services). The target audiences are the students for ‘Self-Paced Learning’, teachers for ‘Classroom Teaching & Professional Development’ and parents for ‘parenthood and life-long learning’.
