1、Higher Education Online: Cross-Cultural Reflections on The Chinese SituationJill Slay, Flexible Learning Centre, University of South Australia, The Levels Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia. jill.slayunisa.edu.auKeywordsAustralia, China, Cross-cultural, Online Learning Environment, Higher Educ
2、ation.AbstractThis paper, the result of 2 months collaboration in teaching and research at the Shandong Institute of Architecture and Engineering, gives a joint Chinese/Western perspective on the current role of the Internet in Chinese Higher Education. It gives, from a Chinese perspective, an overv
3、iew of the current development of the Internet in China and gives some examples of its usage in Shandong Province. It also provides a Western perspective on the Chinese higher education system and some interpretive tales of Chinese students and their computers. It also examines the changes which wil
4、l be necessary both in pedagogy and technology, to allow to medium be used to its fullest potential as China develops.The Internet in China - A Chinese PerspectiveRecent DevelopmentsThe development of the Internet in China has, until recently, lagged behind that of the West. The earliest campus netw
5、orks were constructed at Qinghua and Beijing Universities in 1989 (Li 1998) but it was not until 1994 that the Chinese Education and Research Network (CERNET) project was initiated. This project currently has: established a national network with a Centre in Beijing linking eight regions, and providi
6、ng a central connection to the Internet HREF1 established ten regional network nodes developed Chinese language Internet applications and resources Its funding model moved from government-funded to self-funding by the universities in 1997. Important projects in hand are the development of a Chinese
7、search engine, net -compass, teleconferencing tools and virtual libraries. It was planned that during 1998 all 1023 universities in mainland China would be connected to the Internet, with library catalogues, databases and university admissions systems all beginning to come online during this period.
8、Experience in Shandong ProvinceShandong province is one of the biggest states in China with a population of 80 million people. Its income is dependent both on agriculture and industry. Its IT infrastructure is well developed and the province took part in some early experimental ventures in electroni
9、c commerce. The Shandong Institute of Architecture in Jinan joined CERNET in 1985 in the early years of CERNETs development, and WWW and e-mail access has been provided to the college in this way. Recently the government has offered widespread public Internet access to Jinan (the provincial capital
10、city) through its national telephone companys CHINANET. This public access is planned to be available to the whole province by the year 2000.Major difficulties are experienced with the take-up of both CERNET and CHINANET services. Although there are 50 colleges of Higher Education in Shandong provin
11、ce, only 3-5 of these are actively working with CERNET. The rest are still involved in discussion and research. (It should be noted that networking with Universities is basic when compared to Western norms - an example is of a College with a student population of 6000+ being connected to the Interne
12、t by one modem)In the first three months of CHINANETs activity in Jinan (population 6 million), only 500 people registered to use their service, even though it was free. The major reasons for the lack of interest in these services are firstly the fact that CERNET connections are charged at long-dist
13、ance rates and CERNET is not subsidised by the Chinese government. This provides greater difficulties for the smaller Universities and Colleges that are funded by the poorer provincial governments rather than the richer national government.The second reason is that many users are not attracted to th
14、e WWW because there is very little Chinese language content. In fact,90% of users surveyed in recent research carried out by Professor Gu Yi Zhong at the Shandong Institute of Architecture and Engineering, solely use e-mail and no other form of Internet protocol such as http (ie. web pages) or ftp.
15、They mainly use e-mail for the purpose of communicating with overseas colleagues or businesses. There is little acceptance among users for what is seen as foreign, and hard-to-translate, content.The third reason is that the technology involved with the Internet is difficult for users both inside and
16、 outside of the University to deal with. Many find it impossible to use or install, given their lack of background in modern (ie Windows) software and hardware.Higher Education in China - A Western PerspectiveChinese Teaching PhilosophyThe higher education system in China, and other parts of Asia, i
17、s still very different from that in the West in many respects. Underlying the teaching framework of many modern East Asian countries, such as Korea and Taiwan as well as the Peoples Republic of China, is a basic Confucian perspective. This is exemplified as follows. It has been said (Hong, 1991) tha
18、t “respect for the elderly and books is the central idea of Chinese education.“ He also states that this “ also means respect for authority, classics and experience“. This tends to lead to principles that include “striving for perfection that causes reflective cognition style.“ Caution and modesty a
19、re also described as virtues in the classroom. Hong also states that methodologies used to achieve learning traditionally include “copying, repeating, reciting and memorising“ with “strict training in basics“ as necessary approach. So learning outcomes of the teaching process include an awareness of
20、 moral and ethical values and a good understanding and respect for the body of knowledge of a given discipline.Western education has many models of teaching. And, as has been written elsewhere (Slay, 1997), many of these have been used as an underlying basis for Web-based instruction. These range fr
21、om social models such as group investigation and personal models such as nondirective teaching through to behavioural models such as simulations and personal control.Zhang & Collis (1995) identify six teaching models commonly used in China today. These can be stated as follows: Transmission learning
22、 Guided self-directed learning Guided discovery learning Circumstantial learning Collective learning The expectation therefore in China is one of a largely teacher-centred transmission of knowledge and strictly guided “active“ learning.Reflection on Higher Education in ChinaThe following three stori
23、es are taken from some interpretive tales which I wrote after two separate periods of studying and teaching in China. They draw a picture of the role of the computer on campus in Nanjing Normal University (1995) and in Shandong Institute of Architecture and Engineering (1998) and give some insight i
24、nto the life of some students and their thoughts and expectations.A Visit To The Computer Centre 1995I managed to pay a visit to the University Computer department (I was a Computer lecturer myself at the time in Australia). This was a definite culture shock. The computers, 386s and old at the time,
25、 were kept in a special air-conditioned and carpeted room. People wore white coats and slippers if they wanted to use them. Most students (and only the best study computers) were doing basic Basic programming. I tried to investigate whether they used Windows, or anything modern, but the lecturer was
26、 only interested in the length of computer courses in Australia. There seemed to me to be no parallels in our courses at all. The students seemed only to learn Basic programming I wondered what job this would qualify them for! . It seemed to that things like word processing the Chinese have a specia
27、l keyboard and it takes 5 keys together to create one character were a matter for female secretaries and did not enter the arena of the university. I tried to explain the issue of the computer as a tool but I could see that the body language was saying Crazy Westerner! when I tried to put across the
28、 concept of teaching less-able, or even all students, to use computers. Computers are for the young and highly intelligent in China.A Visit to the Internet Centre 1998It was surprised to find the computer was still as remote as ever from the everyday life of the average student. Computers, 486s by n
29、ow, still lived in splendid isolation in carpeted rooms, and students still wore special slippers to use them. Still no Windows and still basic Basic.I had imagined that the cutting edge of technology would be a little different to that which we had at home. I was a little surprised though to find o
30、ut the process which I had inadvertently become involved with. I worked for six weeks with some highly creative young teachers to try and develop an intranet from an old CAD classroom (486s with no hard disks), one modern Pentium in a building several hundred metres away, one modem and a collection
31、of legal and not-so-legal software. The Internet Centre turned out to be a heavily guarded room about the size of an average Western kitchen with a little row of computers along one wall, filled with a large collection of discarded technology and useful pieces of wire.Major problems for the Chinese
32、academics was their lack of ability in reading English as the install dialogue boxes sped past on the screen. The problem for me was that I read Chinese much more slowly than they could read English. All the online-help in the world did not help us, installation was a slow process! We often laughed
33、at the problems because we were all engineers and computer scientists. Not really the type of people who are famed for their linguistic abilities, but the monopoly of the Internet by the English language is certainly a problem in China.I left before the networking was done. I did manage to complete
34、a bilingual virtual library and an English home page for the Institute (with the help of some young teachers) and to teach a couple of them to use FrontPage. I gave lectures to many of the final year students and their teachers. Certainly no lack of enthusiasm here - just a lack of technology and En
35、glish teachers!Meeting Students and Doing ResearchI met many delightful students. Scores of them very willingly let me interview them to allow me to complete some research on the effects of culture on students understanding of scientific concepts. I spent hours talking to them, going out to parks to
36、 have my photo taken and speaking English to people who, although they had a 7000 word English vocabulary gained over seven years, had never spoken to a Western person before. I was recruited to run a twice-weekly English language club. In China, this sort of informal language class is called an Eng
37、lish corner. So I became the third official member of the Little Red Hat English Corner and have the hat to prove it.Little Red Hat meetings were strange. The first one was arranged for my first Tuesday evening in Jinan. I was escorted to the class by the two founder members, Yan and Jie, who became
38、 good friends. .We climbed the stairs to a 3rd floor classroom at 7.00 p.m. in the dim light of some dusty neon tubes. As we walked along the empty corridors the smell of toilets, pervading the dusty night atmosphere, wafted in front of our noses. I entered what I presumed would be a traditional cla
39、ssroom with student arranged before me in rows and found a candle-lit room with the chairs creatively around. In front of each chair, strategically placed on a desk that had been arranged in a casual fashion, was a plastic cup of jasmine tea. I could recognise my place, however, because there was on
40、e place that had two cups, one of tea and one of coffee. I recognised the honour in the underlying metaphor, the coffee was a sign of recognition, an acknowledgment of my westerness.(When I saw the coffee close-up, I squirmed inwardly. I knew I would have to drink it, there was no way I could avoid
41、it, but this was an example of the local Chinese coffee, grown on Hainan Island, way down south. However long it is percolated or filtered, there never seems to be any method of removing all the grounds. They seem to settle in the mouth and on back of the tongue whenever you drink it, and they take
42、a long time to remove. This too could be a Chinese metaphor about western influence. However long you percolate or filter out the western influence, the grounds of it still remain.)There were something like 100 students in the room, and I was overwhelmed to think that I was the first native speaker
43、who some of them had seen, let alone talked to. I found that Yan and Jie had arranged a program of set speeches to which I had to respond. I wanted to listen to the students all the evening, because they had obviously picked their stars to perform on the first night. The highlight of the evening to
44、me was Sheng Bo, a very traditional boy. He had the softest roundest face I had ever seen, and sang Edelweiss for me in the highest male voice imaginable. I had not imagined that I would be required to sing, and actually refused. I talked about computers and the West because I had not actually known
45、 what else to prepare for the evening.I decided immediately that I would restructure the program if I were going to find myself acting as an informal English teacher (I had actually come to do research in the use of the Internet in higher education!). I felt the most important exercise would have to
46、 be practice in speaking the language, and learning new vocabulary. I spent the next few weeks talking to them about the things that teenagers really need to know - slang, fast food, boy friends and girlfriends, student life and how to get on with your parents - much more relevant than a rendition o
47、f Edelweiss.Students would stop and talk to me all the time. They just did not seem to be able to really understand what we Westerners are like. Some were surprised that I had not used a gun, that I had children who (usually) obeyed me, that I was married and not contemplating divorce. It seemed to
48、me that this is a generation with a poor understanding of Western society and values, living in a culture which is deeply and firmly rooted in its own history. They seem to learn and understand Western science and desperately want (and deserve to have) the material rewards which can be reaped from i
49、t. This is a generation in transition which is considering, if not publicly then privately, which direction to take next and how to make links with the West without taking on the mantle of Western culture.Chinese Teaching Practice and Computer Based Education.The combination of a Confucian philosophy and commonly accepted teaching models means that, in universities and colleges, all subjects are taught lecture-style to large groups. Although it is recognised that online teaching requires changes in basic educational practice, these changes have not generall
