Welcoming Address by Mr. Howard C Dickson, Government Chief Information Officer, at the IT in Education Symposium 2007
02 - 03 - 2007

Dr Fox, Professor Law, Mr Yip, Mr Ng, Mr Wardlaw, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon! It is my pleasure to welcome all of you to the Information Technology (IT) in Education Symposium 2007.

A Canadian company known as Dofasco used to have as part of their logo "Our business is steel, our strength is people".

There is no question that the business of education is all about people but I would argue that your use of information technology has become a critical strength that can make the difference.

Before I begin, I must admit to my lifelong interest in education as my wife Helgard has truly captured everyone and everywhere she has taught. She would have assisted here…but she has a class.

However, we must be clear that your role as educators is not to create hardware, software and communications experts. Technology is not the challenge; changing legacy attitudes is !

Society needs people who know how to research, deal with ambiguous information and who are able to place firm conclusions in a meaningful context.

They will also need the poise and language skills to have the confidence and courage to offer fact-based, independent and incisive advice but also....

....the cultural wisdom and discipline to pursue loyal implementation and accept decisions responsibly.

The right education should build an awareness of both the problems and opportunities around us while developing a healthy impatience for change…. balanced by the realities of gradually building public support for those changes.

We need to open up our younger minds to the need to continuously move forward with their assumptions and values; building on them and not just adhering or protesting blindly.

Our society is moving online and it is not entirely my fault. The changes are enormous that we started to unleash in the 60s with the early commercial applications of computers.

Along the way we have had to encourage traditional practitioners and professionals from all walks of life who were serving a limited range of offerings to a few people, and yet some are still clinging to their perception of this romantic past.

Do we really want to go back to a daily 5 hour banking window and monthly paper statements? Or buying tickets every time when traveling on MTR? Or perhaps air travel pricing based on international bureaucracy?

Information Technology now leads changes; we have already passed the time when a personal computer was an adjunct and only played a minimal role in facilitating teaching and learning. Information Technology brings about transformation. We are delighted that educators have recognized and cherished the opportunity to transform teaching and learning in schools by providing their leadership to the full potential of Information Technology.

The wave of transformation will continually change schools and propagate all the way to classrooms, teachers, and students alike.

Information technology enables a wider range of offerings to a much larger population who are anxious to participate more fully in society.

We miss the personal touch in many services from banking to health care and travel. But the older modes of these offerings are no longer affordable and justifiable if at the same time we are going to reach more people with more services, content and scope.

Does the same apply to education ? Are we still hoping that the values of our traditional schoolmasters of yesteryear, along with their limited range of subjects, will somehow be still prevail for our children while enabling them to compete in the new, cyber inclusive and dependent society ?

How do we transform "digital kids" into enlightened, continuously learning, challenging, yet self-sufficient, networked adults ?

Surely we must enable the teaching profession to get out from under their administrative and marking burdens. Can we expect both the traditional job and the preparation for the information technology based job to be achieved from the same human resource base ?

I would argue that these societal changes are worthy of investment else we will not be leaders but followers.

The Government sees its clear role in bringing about IT-enabled transformation both within the Government and in the wider community by setting out relevant public policies and strategies. In a few months my Office will publish the 2007 Digital 21 Strategy to outline our blueprint for Information Technology development in Hong Kong so as to pave way for the coming decade.

Building on the success of the HKedCity platform and Centres of Excellence on IT in Education, I understand that the EMB will soon consult you on its third Information Technology in Education Strategy as well. I encourage you to note these developments and of course, your participation would be most treasured.

In the budget statement this week we have announced a dramatic commitment to providing WIFI/wireless access in public buildings and spaces. Free wireless access in public places will enable the internet to reach out to all Hong Kong citizens, including students coming from low-income families.

Last but not least, Information Technology will never replace human interactions and your valuable role as educators. Our aim should be use Information Technology to facilitate those interactions as we develop our next generation into responsible citizens of society.

I wish you every success with your challenges and trust that you all find the discussions at the Symposium fruitful and enlightening.

Thank you.

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