Access to education still remains difficult for many children in the world today, especially in remote and hard-to-reach areas. Schools in isolated regions routinely suffer from inadequate teaching resources and incomplete curriculum, resulting in a serious lack of high-quality education. Moreover, isolated teachers and students face even more challenges adapting to the digital age.
Under-resourced schools can be found in many places around the world, hindering the development of both students and teachers. Fortunately, new technologies are carrying superior educational resources further, providing students in secluded areas with more effective instruction while transforming the ways that teachers organize classes.
Making a difference in Yunnan
Spanning nearly 400,000 square kilometers, Yunnan Province in southwest China is home to about 48 million people, some of whom live in remote areas. This region proved to be an ideal setting to deploy a new approach in distance learning technologies.
In November 2019, a Hikvision project team delivered the first batch of equipment to the Central Primary Schools in Cangling, Chuxiong Prefecture in Yunnan. In this first step, Hikvision donated 16 sets of video-based distance learning equipment, allocated to four cities and counties in Chuxiong with under-equipped primary schools in their remote areas.
Host equipment was set up at the central school and remote display equipment at three of its auxiliary village schools. The three remote sites were networked to the central school, enabling interactive recording and broadcasting as well as distance learning sessions. This innovative approach began providing high quality sessions for students to learn online, overcoming limits of time and distance. In addition, education departments can also use the online classroom platform for evaluation of teacher performance and training.
This solution proved particularly useful for both teachers and students who once struggled with a lack of educational resources for “non-compulsory” subjects such as arts, music, and foreign language learning. The course sharing approach can help to balance teaching resources among multiple campuses, and between urban and rural areas. Now every child attending these schools has access to the fast-changing world and a future with more possibilities.
What Hikvision has done in Yunnan Province is a great example in this respect. “It’s really good to see our online classroom solution being used at these remote schools to create opportunities for quality education. By providing multi-site video systems, we can help the local students to better prepare for the future,” said a Hikvision engineer engaged in this project in Yunnan.
As innovative, internet-powered video technology removes barriers between near and far, remote teaching can vastly extend the reach of educational opportunities. Hikvision strives to bridge the gap between teachers, students and knowledge through meaningful innovations, and a future with better, equal education will be within our sights.