 Educational Technology in China Adam Hotchkiss

Chinese Schools  Most are boarding schools – students arrive on Sunday and leave on Friday  Some teachers stay in the dorms with students and some go home  Students have three class times during the day: morning, afternoon and evening  Most classes are students per room.

Chinese Education  Culture is very competitive amongst students  Goal of parents and students is to get into top universities  Focus of instruction is on memorization and learning of facts  Because of focus, classroom instruction is heavily lecture based.

Classroom Technology  Students typically do not have any technology except for computer labs. Cell phones stay at home during the week.  Teachers have a desktop in their office and a laptop for use in the classroom  Some rooms have SMART Boards fixed and then some portable ones are available  Wireless is available in limited places on campus

Technology in Instruction  Very little technology is used in teaching except for what the teachers use.  Because of the focus of education (memorization) and large class sizes, student collaboration as a teaching model is not used. To the Chinese, it’s impractical.  Computer classes are held in labs, but typically are only for Office Suite instruction

Technology for Collaboration  Collaboration between students, classes or schools is rare. Because education is highly competitive and fact-based, collaboration is not needed.  No instances of students writing to others, ing, Facebook, etc. are common for school-related work  Teachers collaborate online some between each other through systems made available