Promoting Education Equity in Rural and Underdeveloped Areas: Cases on Computer-Supported Collaborative Teaching in China
Harrison Hao Yang 1 2 * , Sha Zhu 3, Jason MacLeod 1
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1 School of Educational Information Technology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, CHINA2 State University of New York at Oswego, New York, USA3 Wuhan Huada National E-learning Technologies Co. Ltd., Wuhan, CHINA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

In addition to the 37 million students attending rural schools, China operates ~67,000 one-teacher schools in remote and mountainous regions. Much research has concluded that these rural students are educationally disadvantaged in comparison to their urban peers, with impaction toward social stratification. Consequently, national policies have targeted such issues and begun implementing information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives to universalize the quality of educational services. However, it is well known that imbalanced or improperly utilized ICT resources may expand, rather than contract inequities. Therefore, our research examines two cases of uniquely large-scale educational ICT applications to showcase computer-supported collaborative teaching models with high potential from an equity perspective. Improved access in the quality of students’ education and teachers’ professional development opportunities among rural areas are the main benefits observed. Other developing countries with similar issues may replicate these technological approaches for balancing access to high quality educational opportunities.

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2018, Volume 14, Issue 6, 2393-2405

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/89841

Publication date: 10 Apr 2018

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