The picture shows the Longjiafang teaching site of Xinxu School, where the teacher uses "Banbantong" to teach students. Photo by Yang Xiongchun
A rural school in Yongzhou City, Hunan Province introduced online lesson resources
One screen opens more than one window (Decoding·Online Education)
Our reporter Wang Yunna
Core reading
What can one network cable and one screen bring to teachers and students in rural schools?
Xinxu School in Xinxu Town, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, with the help of information-based teaching methods, introduced high-quality educational resources, to a certain extent, made up for the shortage of teachers in rural schools and improved the quality of teaching.
Xinxu Town, Lanshan County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, borders Linwu and Jiahe counties in Chenzhou City. Xinxu School in the town is a nine-year rural school. The school has a total of 1363 students, including 993 elementary school students and 370 junior high school students.
Duan Shengwen, principal of Xinxu School, believes that running a good rural school and keeping students is not only due to the dedication and responsibility of the teachers, but also inseparable from the informatization of education. “Each classroom is equipped with a touch screen computer connected to the Internet. Connected with the world beyond the mountain".
Changes in a rural teaching site
"Teacher, what does Shitakelang look like?" At the Longjiafang teaching site of Xinwei School, the second-year class teacher Long Zhongwu was teaching the Chinese text "I am a little bug". When reading about Shitakelang, a student was curious. ask. Long Zhongwu "comes well prepared." He pushed the two blackboards aside, revealing a computer screen, and clicked to play the video of Shit Kelang carrying food. The children watched with gusto and quickly mastered the knowledge in the book.
This all-in-one computer is a "class-to-class" multimedia teaching equipment. Since 2011, Lanshan County has allocated a certain amount of funds each year to equip local primary and secondary schools with "class-to-class access". In 2016, Longjiafang used a 65-inch large-screen all-in-one machine in the Longjiafang teaching site. Long Zhongwu was happy, "It's much easier and the result is twice the result."
Long Zhongwu is 52 years old and has been teaching at the Longjiafang teaching site for nearly 30 years. At present, he and a substitute teacher are each responsible for one grade and shoulder the responsibility of a general teacher. This also means that all the courses in the class are taught by him alone.
"Monday to Friday, starting from the morning reading at 7:45 in the morning, 4 classes in the morning and 3 classes in the afternoon, you have to write a lot of content on the blackboard with chalk." Long Zhongwu said, taking into account the farming of most students at home When the parents are busy at noon, they have no time to look after their children. He will organize the students to go back to school for a nap, "The children rest on the desks, and I sit on the podium to correct the homework."
What puzzled Long Zhongwu was that he was not proficient in every subject. He came across a music class, "I can't sing, so I'm afraid that I'll spoil my children." In desperation, he asked for help and asked the school headquarters to arrange The music teacher comes to the teaching point to give lessons.
With the "Class-to-Class", Long Zhongwu Society downloads free high-quality courseware from the Hunan Basic Education Resource Network, which not only saves writing time on the blackboard, but also enriches the content of each class.
"When encountering more abstract content or difficult knowledge, I will prepare pictures and videos in advance. The class will be more attractive and the students will be more interested in learning." Long Zhongwu said that he doesn't need to worry about the two music classes every week. Through the big screen, the children in the class and the students in the headquarters of Xinwei School can have the same music lesson.
The effect of a labor class
In the first half of this year, Li Zixuan, who was in the third grade of elementary school at Xinxu School, has been taking online lessons at home. According to the school's requirements, Li Zixuan used his mother Li Lijuan's mobile phone to watch the online class "Labor is the most glorious". Before long, the family's three acres of land will be ready for spring plowing. Before his mother could speak, Li Zixuan took the initiative to pick up rocks and clear weeds. This surprised Li Lijuan.
Li Lijuan is a local villager who rented a house in front of Xinxu School. When her husband goes out to work, she devotes herself to the education of her children. In order to teach her children well, she will do her best to speak some truths. But because of the low level of education, sometimes the mouth is worn out, and the child is not very able to listen.
"What kind of online class is this?" Li Lijuan turned on her phone and read "The Most Glory of Labor" from start to finish. After reading it, she felt that "the truth is indeed better than what I said."
This is the "I am a successor" network class in Hunan Province initiated in the process of educational informatization exploration. It covers ideological and political education, mental health, life safety, scientific and technological exploration, culture and art and other courses. It takes the form of recording and broadcasting. It will be broadcast on Saturday through Hunan Educational Television Station and some online platforms. So far, courses such as "Me and My Motherland" and "Work is Most Glory" have been broadcast.
The online classroom is not about propagating the subject according to the book, but inviting representative figures in various fields to tell the story vividly. "The online classroom is as good-looking as TV dramas and variety shows, and the children love it from the heart." said Guo Xiaofang, the head teacher of the online classroom and teacher of Changsha Yuying School.
This class also reached Duan Shengwen's heart. Among the children studying in Xinxu School, 2/3 are left-behind children. "The online classroom can make up for the mental vacancy of left-behind children to a certain extent, guide them upward to be good, and buckle the first button in their lives." Duan Shengwen said.
The expectation of a principal
What role can informatization teaching play when rural schools are well run? Duan Shengwen has a great say on this issue.
He is a native of Xinxu Village, Xinxu Town. He stepped onto the podium at the age of 20 and was almost 30 years old. From "small section" to "old section", he has been teaching in rural schools in Lanshan County. In 2011, he came to Xinxu School as the principal. Xinxu Town is a large agricultural town, and the school carries the hope of farmers’ children out of the mountains. "The quality of teaching in rural schools is one foot higher, and the gap between urban and rural areas has a chance to narrow by one foot." With this concept, Duan Shengwen worked hard.
I arrive at school at 5:30 a.m. and leave until 9 p.m., leading the teachers to grasp the teaching and learning style. Since 2014, the school has clearly improved. Every year, more than 20 people are admitted to the provincial key middle schools, ranking among the best in the county's rural middle schools. Some of the lost students gradually returned: in the 2014 school year, there were only more than 260 junior high school students, and in the 2020 school year, there were 370 junior high school students.
Although the source of students has improved, compared with schools in the city, Xinwei School still has a shortage of teachers. Informatization of education can make up for the shortcomings to a certain extent. "'Banbantong' brings some high-quality resources to the classroom, and teachers need to carry out some basic classroom organization, such as initiating discussions." Duan Shengwen said.
To make good use of "Banbantong", in Duan Shengwen's view, still needs a process. Some teachers are accustomed to traditional teaching methods, and they are resistant to operation at the beginning; some young teachers rely too much on electronic teaching and do not know how to teach without multimedia; whenever there is a technical problem with the equipment, many teachers Will not be processed, resulting in unable to continue the course.
Duan Shengwen believes that "class-to-class access" is just a teaching aid. To use it well, the key is that the teacher must master the "degree" of use and combine online and offline teaching.
Starting in 2015, the Yongzhou City Education Bureau has promoted the construction of "networked schools" throughout the city, using the Internet to carry out remote interactive teaching and teaching research between high-quality urban schools and weak rural schools. At present, Xinxu School is also installing cameras, microphones and other equipment, and will soon be connected to the online joint school classroom.
In recent years, Duan Shengwen has had the opportunity to learn from some city schools from time to time. Faced with the gap with urban schools, he realized that online joint schools may be "very useful." "At that time, our students will be sitting in the classroom, and they can also hear the famous teachers outside class." Duan Shengwen said, "Teachers can also learn good teaching methods and improve their teaching level."