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$74
PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
The third part of the question asks about the total number of participants of the 'Microsoft Office Made Easy' and the 'Introduction to Chinese Input Method' courses in the past year and the total amount of subsidies for 1998/99.
In 1998/99, the Science Museum organized the 38 computer courses mentioned above with 1058 participants. The total income arising from these was $138,912, and the costs for course instructors and assistants totalled $134,864. The accounts are more or less balanced.
The fourth part of the question asks why the Science Museum organizes courses on software applications related to Microsoft operating system only and whether it would organize courses for other operating systems and software applications.
Besides the courses on operating system developed by Microsoft, the Science Museum has also organized courses on operating system developed by IBM, which, however, have been discontinued due to inadequate participation. As for the courses currently organized by the Science Museum such as 'Learning Computer Together (Family Programme)', 'Learning Computer with LOGO', 'Understanding PC Hardwares' and 'The ABC's of Internet', none of them is based mainly on the products of Microsoft. Upon the upgrading of the hardware in the computer classroom by the latter half of this year, the Museum will consider organizing different kinds of courses on the latest operating systems and application programs. New courses under planning include 'Homepage Editor', 'HTML Scripting Skills', 'Java/Javascript Coding Skills', 'Network Configuration and Management', 'Introduction to Intranet and Webpage Server Set-up', 'Computer Music Editing', 'Computer Video Editing', '3-D Computer Design', 'Computer Animation Production' and different kinds of office, database, training and application software.
The fifth part of the question inquires about the number of computers currently provided by the Science Museum for the computer courses. It also asks whether these computers are only suitable for the operating system of Windows 3.1; whether other computer systems such as 'Macintosh' have been installed; when the computers will be upgraded and the estimated costs for upgrading them.
At present, there are 30 computers available for learners in the computer classroom of the Science Museum. As these computers were sponsored by a commercial firm years ago, they are of limited functions. Last year, the Department started to explore the feasibility of sponsorship renewal with the firm, which promised to provide a new sponsorship of upgrading the computers in the computer classroom and the Computer Hall free of charge. The proposed sponsorship will be submitted to the MUS S/C in June for endorsement. Under the existing sponsorship agreement, we can only have computers of a single brand in the computer classroom. However, in other areas of the Science Museum, 'Macintosh' and other brands of computers are available for use by visitors.
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