On the interactive whiteboard of Class No. 1 of the first grade are images of musical instruments, such as horns, violins and drums, along with the sounds they produce. Students have been asked to match the instruments to the sounds. Several students eagerly volunteer to go up to the board. The child who is selected comes forward, stands on a stool and uses his finger to drag the images of the instruments to the boxes corresponding to the right sounds. The system provides immediate feedback, with applause at every correct pairing.

Class No. 2 of the second grade divides into groups to draw various delicious snacks. The teacher then projects groups of the children’s drawings onto the smart board, and has the students vote electronically on which is most appealing. The system immediately breaks down the voting with a bar chart. Spirits in the classroom run high. Using the same system, Class No. 2 of the third grade is competing to solve math problems the fastest. Each student solves the problems on a tablet computer, and the system automatically measures the time elapsed and notes whether the answers are correct or not. Once all a student’s answers are correct, his or her name immediately appears on the board.

By first watching a demonstration on their computers and then conducting an experiment themselves, students in science class more easily gain an understanding of the principles of magnetism.

Zuo­ying Elementary took its first steps on the path to e-learning when it was designated an “information technology seed primary school” in 2002. From 2006 to 2008, with assistance from Microsoft, it introduced various educational innovations and become a “school of the future.”

In 2009, when it was designated as an “e-bookbag demonstration school,” it issued netbook computers weighing 1.3 kilos to its students and embarked on digitized education.

Currently, the entire school has been outfitted with projectors, interactive whiteboards, desktop computers, visualizers and other “e-class” equipment. These were matched with various software programs, including an e-bookbag program and various programs for mobile learning. Meanwhile, netbook computers, tablets and other forms of mobile technology have also been put in the hands of children at the school.

“Various approaches all lead to the same place,” observes the principal, Tian Fu­lian. If you know how to make good use of these tools, they will improve your learning. But if you don’t know how to use them, then they’re not going to be of any help at all. “E-learning depends on students and teachers first gaining a facility with digital tools, an understanding of innovative educational methods and an ability to create educational content. Only with that foundation will the tools then help teachers to create richer educational environments with less effort.”

“It’s easy to operate, so you save a lot of time writing on the board,” says second-grade teacher Guo Qing­zhi. “You can even enlarge areas, so students can see them more clearly!”

As for the e-bookbag, there are clear pros and cons. Children in the lower grades have more problems operating the platform. “The passwords to the accounts have more than 10 letters and numbers,” says first-grade teacher Chen Qiu­rong. “Just teaching them to correctly enter a password takes up a whole class period.”

For the older students there are some concerns about losing the ability to write well. “Handwriting skills have atrophied, and with math there is a tendency to skip over steps in calculations,” says ­Zhang Yu­fen, who teaches students in higher grades.

One can make an analogy to the 132 mango trees planted on the campus: If you want to enjoy lush greenery and sweet fruit, then you’ve got to pay the price of spending time raking up tree litter.

Generally speaking, most students have been making clear academic gains in the time since the school introduced mobile learning. Zeng Cheng­liang, the school’s curriculum director, notes that the students in the creative curriculum groups have shown marked progress in their critical thinking skills and their creativity. They also display much greater command of both software and hardware than most children their age. And when they go on to junior high school, they also demonstrate greater collaborative and presentation skills.

Any endeavor is tough at the beginning. It is true that in the early stages of experimentation, the workload on teachers increased, and the students, who needed time to adapt to a new learning platform and new hardware and software, fell a little behind. But after becoming familiar with the system and overcoming the technical difficulties, they have come to realize: “It was all worth it!” So say these pioneers in e-learning at Zuo­ying Elementary!