GEOCOMPUTING EDUCATION: THE HONG KONG EXPERIENCE 
Chiu-ming LUK 
Department of Geography 
Hong Kong Baptist College 
HONG KONG 
(ISPRS Commission VI) 
Kowloon, 
Abstract 
This paper aims at reviewing education 
experiences in Hong Kong on aspects like 
remote sensing, computer cartography, 
and G.I.S. Altogether, there are four 
sections in the paper. The context in 
which rising concerns on geocomputing 
education is first laid out. Then, I 
shall present an overview of educational 
efforts to disseminate these training at 
the tertiary level. Following that is 
an indepth analysis on the problems 
(both economic and structural) facing 
educationists here. My concluding 
section will discuss issues related to 
the initiation and expansion of 
geocomputing education in Hong Kong. 
Their implications and relevance to 
other developing areas will also be 
discussed. 
Key Words: Cartography, Developing Coun- 
try, Education, CIS/LIS, Re- 
mote Sensing 
The advent of a computer age has been 
evident among Western countries. In the 
Asian setting, while full computeri- 
zation in all aspects of life is still 
something futuristic, the impact of 
computers on different aspects of work 
is receiving growing attention. This 
paper deals with the issue of 
geocomputing, an area where its develop- 
ment is rapidly gaining ground in Hong 
Kong. 
In this paper, geocomputing education is 
broadly defined to include formal 
training in courses related to remote 
sensing, geographic information systems, 
computer cartography, and the like under 
geography and surveying or mapping 
curricula. The current situation of 
geocomputing éducation in Hong Kong will 
be reviewed. 
My discussion is divided into four main 
parts. The context of the development 
of geocomputing, curriculum efforts, 
problems facing, and implication issues 
will be discussed in turn. 
CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT 
144 
Nowadays, more and more people are 
convinced that the last decade of this 
century is already an information age. 
In specific terms, this is characterized 
by the tremendous amount of information 
created and utilized in people's daily 
lives. Part of the reasons why such a 
proliferation of knowledge occur is the 
widespread use of computers: machines 
which store and manipulate information 
at tremendous speed. With this current 
revolution in computer technology, we 
are just at the beginning of changing 
our lifestyles to accomodate the impact 
of computers into our daily lives. 
Two evident trends in the computer 
industry help promote its wide prolife- 
ration. One is the rapid decline of 
cost for the purchase of a computer 
setup. Nowadays, a IBM-compatible 
microcomputer with basic peripherals 
like a mouse and a printer is well 
within the price range affordable to 
general users. The old XT and AT models 
are now replaced by 386 and 486 ones. 
Machines on Macintosh platform are also 
cutting their prices to enlarge their 
market share. These are given even more 
impetus with the rising performance of 
microcomputers. In terms of processing 
speed, storage, analytical abilities, 
today's micros have well surpassed those 
of minicomputers of the past. Work 
hitherto performed on mainframes or 
minis can comfortably be done on micros. 
Here in Hong Kong, the government has 
been active in persuading our indus- 
trialists to follow a "high-tech" 
approach in renovating Hong Kong's 
industries, thus paving the way for her 
to perpetuate its economic lead in 
Pacific Asia. At the educational front, 
Hong Kong is on the verge of great 
expansion in programs related to 
information technology, both "at tertiay 
institutions , and at . technical 
institutes. A recent release by the 
government indicated that student intake 
of such programs at .government funded 
institut-ions will rise from the present 
1,750 to around 2,700 by the academic 
year 1994-95 (Ming Pao Daily, 9 May 
1991). Likewise, enrollments of related 
pro-grams at technical institutes were 
expanded from 1,730 for the year 1990-91 
to 3,345 in 1991-92. The trend towards 
extensive computerization in all walks 
of life is crystal clear. 
Recent infrastructural plans for Hong 
Kong give a great push for computer- 
related work in the educational sphere. 
While regular training in professions 
like architecture and engineering has