Distance learning, or education via set TV programs for elementary or middle
school kids has been proven effective since the outbreak of severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) as their parents keep them away from crowded
classrooms.
Lu Chang, a pupil from an elementary school attached to the prestigious
Qinghua (or Tsinghua) University in the national capital, could not go to school
to study or play games with her fellow kids, like many other pupils over past
few weeks.
Though isolated and confined to her own home, Lu finished all home
assignments with the assistance of on-line lessons or television tutorial
programs.
She has also made friends with a few children of her age on theInternet and
accessed a wide range of interesting knowledge via websites.
Holidays for these school kids began mid April as one of the prompt
preventive and control measures taken by school authoritiesagainst the SARS
disease.
In the hard-raged capital of Beijing, related education departments launched
special television programs called "Classrooms in the Air" for over 1.7 million
school kids from elementary and middle schools from May 6 to 25.
Other media, including on-line tutoring and Internet courses, were also
promoted to support self-study.
To date, elementary school pupils and middle school students inBeijing have
been gradually returning to school group by group. And the distance learning
they experienced, nevertheless, has lefta legacy.
Zhao Ying, Lu's mother and also headmaster of her school, was both delighted
and surprised at the wonderful effect of distance learning on her own daughter's
education.
"It has not only provided a simple, auxiliary means of education, but poses
a serious challenge to our former educationalmodes and even theories," school
headmaster Zhao said.
TV education programs from a distance first emerged in the country in the
early 1990s. More than 20 domestic colleges and universities have issued formal
academic credentials to those amateur learners who passed exams through distance
learning.
However, on-line education has produced a little evident impacton the
elementary sector, leaving most primary and middle schools on the margins of the
Internet era.
Li Lu, headmaster of Beijing's No. 65 Middle School, acknowledged that kids
often had little self-control ability or itis a little difficult for them to
behave properly.
"They are apted to be distracted by games and interested in unhealthy
information on websites, which parents and teachers dread most. It can also
explain why distance learning from TV programs remains low-level in China," Li
said.
Nevertheless, the kids' superb performance with this type of learning during
the SARS epidemic peak period has helped ease the worries of educational
workers.
"School kids could arrange study by themselves and work very hard and their
study efficiency has been greatly enhanced," said Zhao Ying, adding that her
pupils could adjust their schedules in compliance with their respective progress
for on-line courses.
In addition, the website has attracted children with teachers dressed up
neatly and more colorfully on line and courses designedin game formats.
"The discovery of prime importance is that many kids have improved their
self-study capacity. Students used to be infused with knowledge passively are
turning to a more initiative attitudein learning," said Li Lu, who found over 90
percent of his students had done well in their homework.
By the end of 2002, China had had 20.83 million computers linked to the
Internet with more than 59.1 million users. Some 70 percent of the households in
the country's medium and big cities had computers.
And Ninety-six percent of college students and 80 percent of middle school
kids in big and medium-sized cities have access to the website.
The rapid growth of website use is based on the popularization of telephones.
Sources from the Ministry of Information Industry indicate that the total number
of phone users across China reached 447 million in the first quarter this year.
All families in Beijing and Shanghai municipality have telephone potential.
A number of noted educators claim that distance learning might pose a
challenge for students weak in self-discipline. Some othersargue that study at
school is the most essential for the students to learn face-to-face
communication and how to get along with others.
However, many experts predict that remote education will remainin spite of
the ebb in the number of SARS cases. "There are still so plentiful resources on
the Internet waiting to be used in education," Zhao said.
