SARS' rampage lasted nearly four months, marking a critical moment in our history. While the disease was spreading, people's hearts were united, the medical sector was fighting a courageous war, the education sector did not cease to function because of the suspension of classes, and Information Technology rose to the challenge. The Hong Kong Education City Ltd. deployed interactive video technology to create a series of real time video interactive classrooms (i-Classroom), and sectors of society responded with tremendous enthusiasm: teachers, social workers, doctors and psychologists volunteered as guest speakers at HKedCity. They told stories to young children on the Internet, taught exam skills for the Certificate of Education Examination, gave lessons on Chinese, English and Mathematics, and offered opinions from a professional psychological point of view to help students and their family in crisis management. With a self-learning timetable, i-classrooms and learning resources, students were able to communicate with their teachers and continue with their studies at home. This was the idea of "learning beyond the school".

During the period when classes were suspended, our page view rate escalated from 2 million to 4.6 million a day. The number of messages also hit a record high; senders ranged from group messages from university staff to short messages from primary school pupils. Irrespective of the length of the messages, they all showed a collective determination to beat SARS. Although we could not, being covered up by masks, utter words of encouragement to the patients face to face, nor could we say "thank you" to the medical workers, we were able to rally around them on the Internet. That was a memorable moment, a moment to be cherished; it was a testimony of Hong Kong united in the face of disaster.