中国网络教育的潜力和困境

In a country as obsessed with education as China, it makes sense that online teaching has huge potential.
在一个像中国这样对教育着迷的国家，应该说网络教育是有巨大的潜力的。

Wealthy Chinese spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their children abroad for what they perceive as a better education. And China’s scale means online-education companies can serve vast audiences, justifying up-front investments.
富裕的中国人花费很多金钱送自己的孩子出国，接受他们眼中更好的教育。中国的规模代表着网络教育公司可以服务于一个很广的受众群，来证明预先的投资。

Online courses have huge potential in China, a nation obsessed with education, but it hasn’t taken off.
互联网课程在中国这样一个注重教育的国家有巨大的潜力，但是它的发展并没有进入正轨。

“Everyone is looking at education as the next frontier,” said Yat Siu, chief executive at Outblaze, a Hong Kong-based mobile games and animation company. “The challenge is how do we get people to transfer to the digital side. China is not quite there yet, but it will come.”
香港移动游戏公司Outblaze的董事长萧逸说：“每个人都将教育视作下一个前沿，而我们要接受的挑战时怎么将人们转移到数字时代。中国还没有走到这一步，但是会走到的。”

Online education has been slow to catch on in China even though the country has the world’s largest Internet user base and is the world’s largest smartphone market. Listed educational companies, facing pressure to generate steady cash flows, have been slow to invest in their online operations.
网络教育在中国发展得十分缓慢，尽管这个国家拥有全世界最多的网民，并且拥有最大的智能手机市场。上市教育公司因为在募集稳定的现金流方面面临压力，所以在投资互联网运营这一块进行得很慢。

Another reason is China’s education system itself. The country’s focus on tests means there is less need for interactive learning than in the U.S. system, which cultivates a wide range of interests and often seeks to accommodate different learning styles. In China, traditional programs that help with exams and job searches are still the most popular.
另一个原因是中国的教育系统本身。中国的应试教育意味着比起美国教育系统的广泛兴趣教育和经常寻求不同的学习风格，中国对于互动学习的需求很低。在中国，帮助应试和找工作的传统项目仍是最受欢迎的。

And there is a shortage of up-to-date technology. Relatively few teachers in China have access to technology necessary for online, interactive education programs.
同时中国缺少先进科技，相对而言，在中国几乎没有老师有资源得到必须的科技支持来进行网上的互动教育程序。

Traditional education companies have to adapt to the change, whether they like it or not. Yu Minhong, chairman of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., said recently at a forum that online education will account for 40% of the private education market in three to five years, from 10% now, and the company is positioning itself as a content provider.
传统教育机构不得不应对变化，不管他们是否喜欢。新东方教育科技集团的董事长俞敏洪在最近的一次会议中说过，网络教育将会在未来的3到5年中占个人教育市场的40%，现在是10%，而新东方将自己定位为内容供应商。

Attention needs to be shifted from offline to online development, otherwise New Oriental won’t survive, Mr. Yu said.
俞敏洪还说，注意力应该从线下教育转移到线上教育的发展，否则的话新东方则不能存活下去。

Changing views of education in China make a shift to more online education inevitable. Chinese students are becoming less fixated on tests. Parents are increasingly sending their children to English-immersion camps abroad rather than classrooms. Today’s children are more comfortable with e-learning.
中国教育观念的改变更多不可避免地转移到了线上教育，中国的学生也没有那么应试了。越来越多的家长们会送自己的孩子去国外的英语夏令营，而不是补习教室。如今的孩子们更适宜于互联网学习。

Although Chinese consumers are often reluctant to pay for things on the Internet, there appears to be a higher willingness to pay for tools, education and efficiency-improvement apps, judging by the top 100 apps in the paid categories for the iPhone and iPad.
尽管中国消费者经常不情愿为互联网上的东西付费，但他们更愿意为一些教育工具以及提高效率的应用软件付费，这一点可以从iPhone和iPad的付费类别前100榜单中看出。

“Once you put a device into a child’s hand, the ability to learn from it is very strong,” said Outblaze’s Mr. Sui, who has donated tablets to schools in Nepal. “Lectures are still most the most popular way of learning, but the system is now more about explanation and self-learning.”
Outblaze的萧逸曾给尼泊尔的学校捐赠了平板电脑，他说：“一旦你给了孩子一个设备，对于这个设备的学习能力十分强烈。课程讲座现在仍是最普遍的学习方式，但是教育系统现在更与解释问题和自学相关。”