ABSTRACT
Morning rush hour at Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui station: an enormous underground station where two metro lines intersect. A seething mass of people streams over the walkways to the exits or to connecting trains. All around, large signs proclaim: ‘Look where you’re going, not at your iPhone’. And the warning is pertinent: as they walk, 80% of the commuters are checking their email, holding face-time conversations, watching films, playing games, or sending text messages. There is no place with a higher density of iPhones, notebooks and laptops than the Hong Kong underground. Young people are constantly submerged in a digital world, whilst children aged three play with notebooks: one could hardly imagine a generation living a more virtual lifestyle! Based on this, one might assume that in Hong Kong, the digital university is just around the corner. But this is far from being the case; indeed, questions to this end are met with astonishment. Online courses and blended learning are all very well, but the campus university is as firmly established as ever – and there are good reasons for this.
