News

Today, we are living in a mobile world and our students are using their mobile devices to communicate electronically whenever and wherever they desire. To make use of the latest mobile technologies for their university learning and to take advantage of the high performance and reliable full campus WiFi coverage, CityU has launched the mobile-learning pilot scheme in Semester B 2010/11. Four departments namely EE, BCH, IS and AIS joined the pilot scheme for a period of two years. 275 units of Apple iPod Touch with 8GB memory and 127 units of Apple

/* The following article is extracted from the "Information Security Newsletter" published by the JUCC IS Task Force. */ Cloud computing is a computing style in which scalable and flexible IT functionalities are delivered as a service to external customers using Internet technologies. Cloud computing is not a revolutionary idea; Instead, it is an evolutionary concept that integrates various existing technologies to offer a useful new IT provisioning tool.

Due to a shortage of space, the university is exploring various ways to accommodate new staff and academic programmes. One way of tackling this problem is to adopt a “core-satellite” approach. The “core” represents premises in the Kowloon Tong main campus while “satellite” refers to remote offices and learning centres outside of the main campus. As the number of remote offices and learning centres rises, CityU staff and students are now spread across a wide geographical area in Hong Kong (see map below).

Overview Since the setup of student residence in year 2000, the number of users has grown from 800 to about 2800 this year. Furthermore, with the completion of phase 4 early next year, the number of residents will be further increased to around 3500. With the increase in the population and difference in network and application usage, it is mandatory for the Computing Services Centre (CSC) to regularly analyze the network traffic patterns in the student residence in order to allow better planning of network capacity and to establish baseline figures for proactively detection of impending failures or performance problems.

Administrators of three local tertiary educational institutions shared their technical experience at a forum to discuss crucial technology enhancements to support the new 4-year curriculum.At the forum “Academic Advising Delivery System Models,” held on 18 May 2011, the keynote speaker was Professor Jayne Drake, the immediate past president of the National Academic Advising Association and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts, Temple University. It was part of an instructional collaboration project, known as “Project 4Y,” in which City University of Hong Kong (CityU), the Hong Kong Institute of Education and Lingnan University are the member institutions.

Students at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) will be able to study and share knowledge anytime, anywhere under an innovative mobile-learning (m-learning) scheme offering access to hundreds of iPad and the iPod Touch.The aim of the pilot scheme launched last month is to promote interactive learning and knowledge exploration both in and outside the classroom. It also encourages teachers to devise activities to cultivate students’ potential and promote better communication between students and teachers.

In 2008, two undergraduate students at Stanford University, Kayvon Beykpour and Aaron Wasserman, created a collection of iPhone apps that provided campus and course information of the university.  With the support of Stanford’s Registrar, administrative features like add/drop courses and grade review became available, which made the apps an instant success on and off campus. Blackboard (Bb) Inc. saw the potential of this technology and acquired their company Terriblyclever Design, which became a division of Blackboard Mobile with two products – Bb Mobile Learn and Bb Mobile Central.

The practice of mobile learning has taken off in the beginning of this century when connection to wireless network, from a notebook computer or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), becomes practical in various locations. The introduction of 3G mobile networks and a new generation of smart phones, such as iPhone and Android phones, provide additional means to facilitate mobile learning. With the popularity of smart phones and tablet computers (e.g. iPads), improving the learning experience of students at CityU via mobile devices is an inevitable objective when setting our IT Strategy.

In early 2010, the University unveiled the Excellence in Research and Professional Education as CityU’s Strategic Plan for 2010 to 2015.  The plan positions CityU as a leading global university in the Asia-Pacific region, renowned for its excellence in research and professional education and outstanding scholarship in problem-focused research.  Building on the impressive success the University has achieved in the past, the plan defines a sharp and focused vision for the future of CityU.

Introduction Social media have become new ways we communicate with one another - both as an individual and as an institution.  As an individual, by using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blogger, Flickr, etc., anyone with an Internet connection now has the ability to create and maintain e-presence on the Internet via web browser or even mobile devices by sharing his/her content instantly with friends and followers around the world.