Learning Mandarin Chinese, Online, In the 6th Grade?

Posted on February 4, 2008 by David Gray

This Special Report appearing in Ohio’s Chillicothe Gazette jumped out at me because of its reference to the teaching of Mandarin Chinese via distance learning technology. As you may already know, that’s of interest here at UMassOnline and a topic that’s been featured in a previous post about UMass Boston’s programs for the study of Chinese culture, commerce, and language. In that post, entitled “Dean Dirk Messelaar: A Visionary Builder of Bridges to China,” Dean Messelaar remarks, “…UMass… has become one of New England’s major resources for teaching and learning about Chinese culture, language, and business, especially in meeting the need for secondary school Mandarin teachers. Why is that important? Because in New England alone there is an estimated demand for 300 to 400 Mandarin teachers… the nationwide demand is for a number in excess of 2,000. That’s just one of many clues implying the growing US presumption of China’s emerging global importance and dominance.”

The importance of this Chillicothe Gazette special report is three-fold. First, it shows we’re not the only ones to recognize the growing demand for people with Mandarin Chinese language skills. Two, the students featured in the news item are learning this language via distance learning technologies from a teacher based in Columbus. But thirdly, the students in this instance are in the sixth grade!

In my view, it is impossible to read something like this and not see the sweeping trends in online education as well as the momentum the concept is gaining across all levels of education. In six years, these sixth graders will be on their way to college. Where they go, how they decide to go there, virtually or otherwise, and what they will expect and demand to find in the way of educational offerings is being shaped now based upon the online revolution they are participating in today. Tomorrow will be a very interesting time, indeed.