| The China Education and Research Net work (CERNET) is offering a completely new form of education for Chinese students, through computers and Internet technology. Li Xing, director of the CERNET Centre, said students are not waiting for formal classes to begin to get information or become knowledgeable about a subject. "Students are no longer passively learning from the teachers, but acquiring knowledge of their interest through the network," said the professor of Electronic Engineering Department at the Qinghua University on the celebration of the CERNET's fifth anniversary last week in the Beijing Science Hall. This form of education has greatly inspired the students. In August 1995, the first BBS in China debuted on the CERNET with the sheer efforts of the students from the Qinghua University. Through the address of www.edu.cn, increasing number of Chinese students are using the CERNET to exchange latest information of their majors and views of the society and the world. Last year, Chinese universities went on-line for the first time to recruit freshmen. Such practices will become routine by the Ministry of Education. Moreover, the net has become an effective channel between school authority and students. "Our university has raised the food quality at our canteen with the students' advice," said Li with a smile. The CERNET offers more than just better food. As Vice-Minister of Education Wei Yu put it, the dawn of the new century sheds light on ever fierce competition of development based on information technology. "This is an opportunity that China can't afford to lose," she said. "The infrastructure building of the CERNET is sure to ignite rapid growth of education software, long-distance education and related areas." Championed by the Ministry of Education, the CERNET is the brain-child of over 200 young scientists from the 10 top IT universities in China. It has linked 550 universities, middle and primary schools, reaching 2 million users in over 80 cities across the country. The band-width of domestic connections on the CERNET is 64K and the average transmission speed is 4-8M. This month, the CERNET established a 155M high-speed connection between Beijing and Shanghai, after such links with Wuhan and Guangzhou, said Wu Jianping, director of the CERNET Expert Committee and backbone of this education network. At 128K of band width, the CERNET connects the United States, Europe and other major international networks at 10M speed. China still has a long way to go to catch up with advanced nations in the digital world, said Vint Cerf, "Father of the Internet," in a special video for the CERNET anniversary. While there are 100 million net users in North America and 40 million in Europe, the Asia Pacific region has only 28 million users. As the population of Chinese net users grows each year, in just a decade, Chinese net surfers will exceed the population of the United States, said Kilnam Chon, director of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), one of the world's leading groups in search of the next generation of today's Internet. "For one thing, there won't be many net addresses left in 10 years," warned the professor from the South Korean University of Kaist. "If China doesn't hurry up to join the world digital community now, you won't gain the equal footing to share the rights and take responsibility in the not too faraway future." But Li Xing is confident: "With the government's support, we are capable of establishing the same advanced network with the United States in about a decade." |
