week 7- task 2

http://www1.worldbank.org/disted/Technology/broadcast/tv-02.html

China: Its distance higher education learning

Because the population was so high in China, this was probably the best way of getting the education to the masses quickly and easily, I do not believe this would have been received as greatly in Britain for instance. Although I do know in 6th form in a school near me, a psychology A level was taught completely by television and this put a lot of people off doing the course, as they felt they would not feel motivated to go because there was no teacher actually physically in the same room as them.

I like the fact that they cater for all types of jobs, the four levels show that they are taking into account the different jobs that are available, for instance the classes ran by mines and large factories, may help people more skilled at there jobs and therefore there is no sign of it being completely elitist, although of course, you have to have gone to school, but you don’t have to be the brightest of the bunch, you can be a skilled workman as well as some one who has brains. For instance they do both courses in Mathematics and all sorts of Engineering. A student in Britain would probably learn through and apprenticeship or at college, it is less likely that they would go to university to do this. The fact the there is the opportunity to speak to a tutor face to face and the opportunity to take part in practical if you are doing a course that needs this, is pleasing to me because, when initially reading this I did worry that students wouldn’t necessarily benefit from this way of teaching, because without feedback they would not necessarily know whether what they were doing was correct or not. It is similar to the Australians distance learning in this way, in that all though initial there is no face to face contact, there is always the opportunity to do this and to get the help that you need from a lecturer. Although the difference here is that there are lots and lots of students around you, who you may be able to talk to, where as if you are learning on the internet alone, in Australia you do not always have this opportunity.

It is interesting the fact that they allow early school leavers to take the exams and enter the universities, I assume this means that they are under 18? If so I think this is a good thing, not every one is cut out for school, but learning skills and practices that they will be able to use when working are very useful. I suppose the equivalent of this in the UK is college, but the word “university” has very different connotations to college, especially in the UK, I wonder whether the same applies in China, do Universities have different connotations around them to colleges are they maybe respected slightly more in certain fields of work?

It is clear that this kind of education has helped the industries within china immensely, but there is obviously still some work to do to improve the system, but isn’t that the same in most educational systems around the world.