HONG KONG International School's Bulletin Board Service (BBS) has developed a strong following among students, teachers and parents, and the people behind it are trying to generate wider interest in using the service as an educational aid.
The school's Dragon BBS, which is managed by nine student system operators, is in its third year of operation.
''We have had a huge response from students,'' said the school's technology co-ordinator, David Elliott.
''We thought of it initially as a project for technically oriented and advanced students but it has become a community resource for teachers and students. It is highly motivational.'' There are about 1,300 users of the International School's BBS - about a third of the student population of 650 use it while the rest are parents and outside users.
The most obvious educational application of the Dragon BBS is in its conference set-up, where students and teachers communicate on curriculum subjects in purpose-built files. Students can pass ideas to their teachers for comment and receive assignments using the system.
Many students also use the conference facility to bounce ideas off each other. Popular recent topics have included issues related to Amnesty International, the environment and the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China.