Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

2 . More schools around the USA are using online classes when communities run into troubles like wildfires, storms or water shortages.

In Jackson, Mississippi, a problem with the public water system left the city without safe water for several days. As a result, schools had to go online for one week in May. The time in online learning did not last long for the 20, 000 students in Jackson. Earlier this month, children went back to in-person learning when the city said water was safe for normal use.

However, online learning caused problems for children and teachers. At home, children attending online classes often had their whole family in the house. Early in 2020, school officials had high hopes for online learning. Since then, the problems with it have become clearer. The change to online learning has caused many students to fall behind where they should be in their studies. And it has added to new worries about students’ health.

In 2018, two powerful storms hit the same area, causing schools in some places to close. Some students were out of school for weeks. There were attempts(尝试) at online learning, but many children did not have laptop computers or other technology. For this reason, most schools tried to move students to other in-person buildings.

“Schools now will look first to online learning,” said Gary Henry. He is head of the University of Delaware and has been part of a research team studying online learning. For a period of a few weeks, he said it could be a step to keep students on schedule. But the pandemic(疫情) showed that it was not a good way over a long period of time. “It’s a difficult start,” said Henry. “It’s better to have the kids in the classroom so you can see how they are doing, and provide timely support to them.”

3 . How to Bridge the Digital Divide in Online Education?

Middle schools and primary schools in China will adopt online education when a lockdown starts, which has been a practice since the outbreak of Covid-19. Nevertheless, digital divide in urban and rural education has emerged. Some students in remote rural areas still have little access to the Internet. In addition, many teachers are not used to online teaching.     1    .

Government agencies and enterprises have taken immediate measures to provide targeted assistance with regard to the basic systems and services divide.     2    . Apart from this, China’s National Cloud-Platform for Educational Resources and Public Service and China Educational Television have been providing free online teaching and learning resources for primary and secondary school students.

    3    . The government has implemented policies of broadband(宽带) speed improvement and financial aid of mobile data payment for poor families. Many enterprises and charities provided support for students and families in need, donating mobile phones and laptops. The communications companies offered data allowance specifically for online classes. Besides, leading Internet companies have also introduced free online classes.

The Ministry of Education and schools have played their part to decrease the digital information literacy(读写能力) divide gap, too. They have either offered online teaching capability training packages or organized training sessions for online teaching.     4    . In the meantime, the public online classes have made high-quality resources from experienced teachers available across the whole country.

Online education during the outbreak of COVID-19 is an unexpected test.     5    . Fortunately, there has been enormous assistance from the government, enterprises and charities to help bridge the digital divide.

Education officials and industry experts are debating the future of online learning. The discussion is important because recently hundreds of universities in the United States have moved classes online because of the     1     of the new coronavirus.

For Asha Choksi, the rise of internet-based or online study programs has led to major improvements in higher education.

“What it’s done is, it’s actually given a lot more power to students in terms of how, when and where they learn,” the head of research for Pearson Education told VOA. Her company is     2     online learning programs.

Colleges and universities worldwide have been looking for ways to provide satisfactory education off campus and outside of     3     business hours. The decision by many schools in the U. S. to suspend in-person classes during the recent coronavirus crisis has shown how important online teaching can be. And demand for such programs is increasing.

The financial advising company Tyton Partners     4     the online program management industry at over $1.5 billion in 2015.

Choksi, however, argues that her company is     5     a path to higher education for people who might not have been able to get a degree otherwise.

Pearson Education is one of a growing number of companies that     6     with schools to create online study aids and full degree programs. Classes meet online through video     7    . In this way, students are able to     8     with each other and their professors even when they are far away from school.

Online learning also permits older students, who work, full-time and support families, to work on their education in their free time. It can be helpful for people who might have difficulty coming to a college campus, such as disabled students or those who live far from any college or university.

However, recent research suggests the majority of college students and professors prefer in-person instruction. In addition, some experts are     9     that companies in charge of online learning programs are not clear about the policies they have with the schools they serve.

Last year, the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research published two opinion studies on online higher education programs. Researchers asked over 40,000 American undergraduate students and 9,500 professors what they thought about these programs. In both groups, as least 70 percent of people said they prefer in-person     10    .

9 . Many summer camps have had to cancel their programming due to COVID-19. So we have found a great selection of virtual summer camps for your children.

Happy Camper Live

Ages: 5~ 18

Cost: $499 a month .

What is special about Happy Camper Live is that there are hundreds of camp adventures and experiences to choose from to offer your children unique camp experience. Children can make fun with a world-class athlete, play volleyball with a national high school champion and learn a new art, craft or musical instrument.

Smart Robots Virtual Camp

Ages: 7 ~11

Cost: $179 for two weeks

Campers will receive a smart coding robot of choice and learning materials and apps to get them started in this camp. This camp is made as much of a social experience as possible. At the end of camp, each child will be certificated as a “junior coder”，have made penfriends for life and have new skills and knowledge to bring into their classrooms in the fall.

Written Out Loud

Ages: 8~17

Cost: $250 per week

The storytelling school Written Out Loud has transformed its program to a virtual storytelling workshop. Founded in 2018 by a Hollywood film-maker, Witten Out Loud offers classes for children aged 8 to 17 that combine a range of disciplines such as creative writing, film-making and even improving comedy.

Got Game Summer Academy

Ages: 4~12

Cost: $195 for two weeks

With a focus on reading, writing and math, Got Game will help your children stay academically on track while still having fun in an energized virtual learning environment. Children will receive personalized attention from teachers while also participating in games that center around communication on group projects and building individual skills.