Rise and Rise of the Cyber Scholar
By Liu Dongchang –Director of Peking University Soft Power Research Centre
Modern life would be incomplete without all the "must haves"; the cars, air-conditioners, televisions, fancy clothes, and everything that disposable income buys.
The struggle for survival, though, is never more acute than in poverty-stricken developing countries. But simply maintaining a lifestyle or even merely striving to "get ahead" in the developed world, where the trappings of modern life and luxury are more evenly distributed, still comes at considerable expense.
As the costs of living spirals, we become, more and more, slaves to the system. Increasingly we find ourselves "money rich" but "time poor", so that a typical employee in the developed world is stuck in the rut of working ever harder to maintain a lifestyle, but having less and less time to enjoy it.
Though the universally recognised path to a higher living standard is education, no matter where one resides in the world, tuition is always subject to the availability of access, time, and money.
Technology to the rescue
Q. What does a Singapore production planner, a Malaysian student, a New York City account executive, and a Sydney musician have in common?
A. They’ve all joined a growing band, who have turned their backs on traditional education, to embrace distance learning over the internet. And according to those surveyed, this is not a 2nd Class learning experience.
As both the PC and internet continue to grow in universality, we are seeing more and more people turning to the net to study everything from Anthropology to Zoology.
While having access to suitable courses is often noted in the survey, TIME POVERTY is the most frequently quoted impetus for taking on web-based education.
Commonalities exist, but the difference between web-based tuition and traditional schools is also stark. Reliable traditional instruction is largely unavailable (depending on your location), or is frequently costly and inconvenient. On the internet the school comes to you – with classes scheduled at a time most convenient to you – rather than on a fixed, rigid, inconvenient schedule that would not be suitable for a shift worker, for example.
So, internet technology featuring one-on-one tuition, group classes, and even podcasts, is increasingly becoming the instruction method of choice, particularly in the burgeoning Chinese language instruction market. Given the enormous potential market for Mandarin instruction, subsequent to China’s economic rise, it is clear that traditional education will be unable to meet the demand for instruction.
In 2008, Teng Tek Yee, CEO of MyChineseLearning.com, recognised that the time had come to take Chinese-as-a-second-language worldwide. So, partnering with Peking University’s Chinese Government Cultural Development Research Center, they jointly developed a program which provides anyone with an internet connection, and a yearning to learn Chinese, with tailored one-on-one personalized training, provided by their own personal experienced native-speaking teacher. The same technology can be scaled up to provide a virtual classroom environment for group or corporate learning needs.
"Ours is not a lot different from a regular school", says Teng. "We make progress reports, set exams, and require homework. And in the virtual classroom setting, though noisy classmates won't be a distraction, you can raise your hands to answer questions, communicate with your classmates, write on the board, and even better, express your mood".
The classes are well received and students enjoy the flexibility that net classes offer. Students and culture buffs are among those learning Chinese online, but there is also a solid business sector; career improvers, managers, and globetrotting road warriors: some seeking a way to improve employment prospects, some seeking a tool that will bring them closer to closing an important business deal.
According to Singapore production planner Travis Gwee, he chose to learn Mandarin with MCL online, as he describes it, "from the source". He controls the schedule, and likes the way he is able to receive more personal tuition, matched to his learning pace.
NewYorker Paul Luong finds the classes challenging, but is intending to travel to China in the next 2 years. As a nightshift worker, control over his schedule is critical. He needs to tie in his academic pursuits with the need to get uninterrupted sleep. He also likes the fact that no travel is involved, which gives him an impressive saving in cost and time.
San Franciscan Kevin Lee’s stated reason for choosing online learning was for "the convenience it offers". He also stated that the online learning experience is "so sophisticated and immediate now, that I feel just as comfortable learning with a teacher online as I would in a classroom"
Is Distance Learning the key to education in a busy modern-day society?
Computers are practically ubiquitous, though the average worker is probably putting in more hours today, rather than less. We are all time-poor in the modern era so net-based education is set to explode. Even Ivy League institutions are publishing courses on the internet now. Anyone with an eye out for the internets’ "next big thing" might well draw a sort of "snail mail vs. email", or "video killed the radio star" conclusion, to a comparison of online and traditional education.
For MyChineseLearning, the internet provides everyone the means to gain Mandarin fluency quickly, accurately, and affordably; all in the convenience and comfort of their own home. For those keen to learn Chinese, distance learning over the internet looks like the killer app. - and the vehicle most likely to carry Mandarin on its Great Leap Forward.