Tablet PCs make Chinese classrooms more interactive

Teaching with tablet PCs has been adopted in over 100 primary schools in Shanghai, according to sources at an ongoing Shanghai Education Expo on Sunday.

An open class for Grade One students from the Mingde Foreign Languages School was staged at the expo to showcase the teaching style. The English class was held without paper or a white board, but everyone got a tablet.

They were installed with software applications for Oxford English textbooks that offer users interactive activities and sound.

When a teacher asked a question, some students raised their hands but others tapped their tablet screens to give the answers.

Luo Minming said after the class that games on the tablet attracted him to learn English.

Zhao Huanhuan, the teacher in the showcase, said applications make interactive teaching easier. There is more playing and singing in class.

Publishing houses are starting to team up with software developers to come up with teaching applications.

Sources with the four-day expo said that apps have been developed covering all English and Chinese poetry textbooks from grade one to nine.

Despite the claims, parents at the expo expressed worries that tablet PC teaching would harm the eyesight of children who already spend long period sitting in front of screens at home.