NANJING: Four-year-old Zhang Yuchen draws a picture for his kindergarten on a purple computer.

"We have a small meadow here and our teaching buildings are there..." he tells his friend, sitting with him on a double bench seat at the front of the class, as he moves images around the screen with a mouse.

"It is a lot of fun," Zhang said.

His teacher is introducing the main buildings and surroundings of the kindergarten to the class, asking them to draw a map of them.

All of it is being done on computer.

This was part of the "Little Explorer" programme initiated by the Ministry of Education and IT giant IBM in kindergartens throughout the country in 2001.

It aimed to encourage kindergarten teachers to create and reform current teaching methods through information technology.

Zhang's school, the Nanjing No 1 Kindergarten, has six such "Little Explorer" facilities in its function room.

These facilities are specially designed for children aged between three and seven years old.

"Computer education should be incorporated into kindergarten teaching as a medium to pass on knowledge," said Feng Xiaoxia, professor of children's education at Beijing Normal University.

As head of the programme's expert panel, Feng has been observing its operation for three years.

She presented an assessment report at a conference last week in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province.

With more urban families having computers and access to the Internet, children have gained access to information technology at home.

Some kindergartens have started computer courses, but teachers there are not always skilled in how to actually use them in class, said the conference.

The event was attended by more than 200 kindergarten teachers, educators and officials.

Most teachers say computers have been useful auxiliary tools.

Wang Xia, a member of the expert panel, concluded that using computers has intensified students' interest in learning and enhanced their creativity.

A teacher surnamed He from Lanzhou Military Area Command Kindergarten in Northwest China's Gansu Province, thought that using them had seemed to lengthen the children's attention span.

He said that in normal classes, the average attention span was five to 10 minutes, but with computers, it lasted another five.

Children in He's kindergarten usually have computer classes twice a week.

Fan Ting from a Kunming kindergarten affiliated to the Yunnan provincial government found that using computers plays an active role in helping children develop drawing skills.

The audio-visual images and rich colours of the software inspire their artistic imagination and enable them to express their ideas more easily on screen.

Li Tianshun, deputy director of the Basic Education Department of the Ministry of Education, was confident about the success of the programme.

"I hope teachers can accumulate more experience and apply it in future teaching in wider regions," he said.

"Little explorer"

The "little explorer" programme - using information technology in kindergarten teaching - was launched nationwide in September 2001.

The equipments include computers, furniture and softwares.

Each has a wipe-clean plastic surface and membrane keyboard and 15-inch colour monitor.

About 329 kindergartens in the country including the Nanjing No 1 Kindergarten have received donations.

More than 80,000 children like Zhang Yuchen now have classes from once a day to once a fortnight. They use the equipment to learn mathematics, science, English and drawing.

An assessment report carried out by Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University and Southwest China Normal University gives guidelines on teaching in terms of class length, frequency, teachers' instruction and integration in the curriculum.

Professor Feng Xiaoxia said it had been suggested teachers shorten class times to 15-20 minutes to protect children's eye sight.

Some useful software has been installed, and the report encourages teachers to create more activities by using computers and software on their own initiative to make their classes more fun.

Zhongshan District Kindergarten in Dalian, Liaoning Province, has designed new classes based on the software. It invited parents to play with children to identify the direction the course was heading in.

Victor Kuo, manager of IBM's China's University Relations Department, has been overseeing the programme since the very beginning.

"More importantly, teachers should be inspired to explore new methods and teaching concepts to develop children's intelligence, and computers are one of the important tools," he said.

But there are different views.

Zhang, from another Lanzhou kindergarten, told China Daily that a poll carried out by his school found that some parents did not like their children to attend computer classes.

"Only about half of the parents agree to let their children attend the course," Zhang said.

The main fear is that children will become obsessed with computer games and neglect their studies.

But some parents have come back to the school to ask if their children can be included in the course, feeling it broadens their perspective.

"They are very active in class and ask a lot of questions about the software," Zhang said.

Feng, from Beijing Normal University, admitted there were no direct figures to show that using computers would improve children's intelligence.

"But we should give children guidance instead of preventing them from using computers blindly, because information technology has become part of our life," Feng said.

(China Daily 11/20/2004 page3)