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Kids explore digital world
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Li Dan
WHILE most children sign up for winter holiday courses in martial arts, musical instruments, painting and calligraphy, a small group has instead delved into the virtual world of the Internet.
On the fourth floor of the municipal astronomical museum building, over a dozen children ranging in age between 4 and 13 were so intent on their screens that they scarcely noticed the appearance of a Shenzhen Daily reporter at the Intel-Great Wall Little Doctor Computer Workroom.
Sponsored by the Municipal Juvenile Activities Centre, this workroom was created only last month and presently provides two courses, in homepage design and computer-assisted publication. The children I met there were learning to find materials on the Internet and publish their own newspaper. “Perhaps it is still far from a newspaper in the real sense, but they learn things fast and progress every day," Miss Yang, the instructor, told me with pride. The other class has fewer students, most of whom are fifth-graders and above, for homepage designing is a little bit too difficult for small children.
The workroom provides free courses on weekends. So far, lectures have been given on such basic operations as using Windows 98 and Internet Explorer, and obtaining a personal E-mail account. According to Yang, children are eager to apply what they learn at the workroom. “Many of them have found it great fun," she said. “They opened E-mail accounts and sent E-cards to friends to mark this festive season."
Integrating fun into the process of instruction is the guiding principle of the workroom. Vivid graphic teaching materials are being ordered from Shanghai and Beijing, and a computer-assisted painting competition for children is already underway.
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