Smart schools bolster creative thinking
Net-enabled campuses combine new teaching and evaluation systems
Tang Dongyuan leads a futuristic life at a rural elementary school in Wuzhen, Tongxiang city, Zhejiang province.
On school days, when she arrives at the campus with her smart school ID, video footage of her entering the gate is captured by cameras and automatically sent to her parents via their smartphones.
As Tang enters the classroom, she can receive messages from her family simply by swiping her ID on an electronic screen at the entrance.
At the front of the classroom, the widely-used projector has been replaced by a giant 70-inch (178-cm) interactive screen, which delivers an interactive learning experience with the teachers. Like her classmates, she has access to emerging technologies such as robots, 3-D printers and drones.
And after Tang leaves school, her education continues. With a quick scan of a QR code set into questions in her homework, she can watch video tutorials created by her teachers.
Every day, she reads for about half an hour on a reading app before going to sleep.
“I am very much enjoying my student life,” says Tang, a fifth-grade student at Zhicai Primary School. “It makes studying much more fun.”
Tang is one of many students attending 10 schools in the city of Tongxiang benefiting from the Smart Campus initiative, a program aimed at solving practical education problems through the use of internet technology.
“The idea of the Smart Campus centers on a wellequipped campus environment, creative teaching methods and diverse evaluation systems for students,” says Lu Bingkang, vice-principal of Zhicai Primary School. “The goal is to nurture more creative students.”
In 2016, Tongxiang was made the pilot city for Zhejiang’s reform of educational informatization, or, the adoption of information technology in education. Since then, an array of effective approaches to improve education in the region has been implemented, which not only benefits students but also improves the lives of parents and teachers.
Early this year, education authorities launched the Tongxiang Education app with the aim of bridging the communication gap between parents and schools. By the end of October, over 8,500 teachers and 130,000 parents had installed the app, which now draws 70,000 average daily visits, according to the Tongxiang Education Bureau.
“Checking out video footage of my kid entering and leaving school via my smartphone reassures me in terms of personal safety,” says Shen Jia, the mother of a local primary school student.
Through the app, Shen sends reminders, such as “drink more water” or “pay attention in class”, to her child. She also receives a daily evaluation of her child from the school, which provides her with enough information to guide and further stimulate her child’s interests.
“Despite the fact that I am busy with work, I can still maintain close contact with the teachers via the internet,” she adds. “It feels like there is no distance in communication between me and the school.”
To deepen educational informatization and promote equal education, Tongxiang Internet School, a virtual education institution, was established in January.
Launched by the local education bureau, the school has hired nearly 100 key elementary school and secondary school teachers to conduct research and offer free livestreaming courses online.
Zhang Linjuan, who teaches English at Tongxiang’s Zhendong Primary School, is one of the teachers hired to do livestreaming courses.
When she first heard about the virtual internet school and livestreaming classes, she wasn’t sure about how to approach it.
“We started everything from scratch,” she says.
Step by step, she worked with other teachers to systematically design courses based on textbooks and create online English courses in her spare time.
Zhang says online teaching is a challenging but rewarding task compared with teaching English in traditional small classes.
Students from both rural and urban areas participate in the online courses. Since they have different knowledge backgrounds, sufficient preparation is the key to maintaining the quality of the teaching, she says. “It’s also a process of self-evaluation and self-improvement for me.”
By the end of this November, the school produced 312 livestreaming courses covering nine different subjects. The courses attracted about half a million hits in total. Students are able to access the courses via a range of diverse channels including smartphone apps, computers and smart TVs.
“Like other courses, English learning should go beyond traditional classes,” Zhang adds.
Tongxiang Internet School has also become a main platform to integrate education resources from different institutions including traditional, online and community schools in the region.
“Apart from serving primary and secondary school students, we also want to provide people from all walks of life a diversenetwork learning space,” says Shi Weiliang, director of the education equipment and information center at the city’s education bureau.
The Tongxiang Internet School has been working with schools in other cities, including Beijing, to exchange education resources online. Local students get the opportunity to learn from teachers in top schools outside of Tongxiang.
“It’s an effort to narrow the gap between urban and rural education,” Shi adds.
Since the launch of the first World Internet Conference, or Wuzhen Summit, back in 2014, the conference has reshaped various areas in the city including economics, medicine and agriculture. And the field of education has been no exception.
“One of the biggest benefits the conference brings us is the constant renewal of education ideas,” says Shi.
“We want our internet school to morph into a platform for lifelong learning for people.”