UNICEF's State of the World's Children Report 2005 was
released in Shanghai on Friday. The report outlines threats facing
children around the globe, including the lack of access to
information. Even in China, with its well-developed media
infrastructure, there are major regional and economic disparities
that are affecting the development of children.
Internet users in China have increased from 620,000 in 1997 to
over 87 million today, making the country second only to the United
States in Internet connections. But this massive expansion has been
uneven, so that the country's six most developed provinces,
municipalities or administrative regions have 50 percent of these
connections, while the six poorest account for less than
1percent.
The estimated 60 percent of the total Chinese population that
lives in predominantly rural areas has access to only 0.8 percent
of Internet connections. With information and communication
technology such an integral part of education today, this digital
divide will impact heavily on the development potential of China's
children.
By the end of 2000, a total of 70,000 primary and secondary
schools nationwide were offering IT education. Some 50 million
students per year have begun learning to use the 2.1 million
computers provided to these schools.
By 2003, more than 10,000 primary and middle schools in the
underdeveloped western provinces had been equipped with
computers.
Citigroup of the US is working with UNICEF to pilot an
innovative action research project in tele-collaborative learning
aimed at reducing the digital divide and improving education
quality.
Under this program, participating schools are matched with
partners to upgrade the quality of distance education. They will
have technology integrated into their curricula and eventually make
an important transition from teacher-centered to learner-centered
instruction in child-friendly learning environments.
Two Shanghai primary schools are participating in the
tele-collaborative learning project. The basic idea is to develop
IT links between schools in the more developed areas of Shanghai
and Guangzhou with schools in the poorer western provinces.
The project is piggybacking on the schools already participating
in a Distance Education (DE) project on which the Ministry of
Education (MOE) and UNICEF are cooperating.
As the IT infrastructure in western China is weak, not all
project schools have the same capacity to get involved. This year,
15 pilot schools were selected from three UNICEF-supported DE
project counties in Guangxi and two in Chongqing. In 2005, this
will be expanded to 50 schools under the MOE-UNICEF project.
Altogether the project is expected to extend to 10,000
students.
Eight partner schools have been selected from Shanghai, Anhui
Province and Guangzhou City to lead and facilitate the
tele-collaborative learning process. They will share their
experiences and educational resources with the project schools, and
will host the project schools on visits. The partner and project
schools will form an education community to undertake project-based
learning, co-construct knowledge, and learn from each other.
Other organizations and entities facilitating the project are
the MOE's National Center for Educational Technology and provincial
and county centers for educational technology. Eastern China Normal
University and Southern China Normal University are also working as
partners.
(China.org.cn December 10, 2004)