Development of ICT Supported Instructional Practice in China

Along with the process of social transition, educational transformation, and spreading of ICT in society, the development of ICT in education in China mirrors its international development. If we consider the proclamation that “computer education should start from children” by Deng Hsiao-ping as the starting point of ICT in education in China, it can be divided into four phases: (1) Instruction of computing as a discipline starting from the end of 1970s, (2) Computer assisted instruction and management starting from the middle and late 1980s, (3) national initiatives focused on ICT construction of infrastructure in education since late 1990s, (4) national projects of ICT in education focused on improving capacity of using ICT since 2005 (Huang et al. 2006).

Projects and policies

Since 1970s, a series of national projects and policies of ICT in education have been implemented, laying a solid foundation for its sustained development (Meifeng et al. 2009). From the changing process of education technology infrastructure in primary and secondary schools, China has experienced the development process of countries to promote the building of audio-visual education facilities to the computer and network-based modern education technology facilities. After the year of 2000, ICT in education in China has entered the phase of comprehensive and rapid development.

Requirements

Due to the implementation of national policy and the follow-up of government special fund, the launch of “school-to-school” project inspired a flood of the construction of ICT-based education in primary and secondary schools and the investments of ICT-based education also bullish all the way. For the clear and specific time requirements, a large number of schools began to speed up the purchase of equipment, build computer lab and construct the campus network and metropolitan area network (Huang et al. 2007).