Teaching English to 180 Children in Rural China

Last semester (spring 2017), we rolled out our videolink program to four schools, two in Henan province, one in Anhui, and one in Fengxian. We trained over 100 volunteers who taught over 300 students. These numbers were a huge increase from the two limited pilot programs we had done in the fall of 2016, and we really learned a lot about running a successul videolink program. 

Firstly, we learned that it is actually possible to rely on the internet to conduct live English classes using remote teachers. Our biggest fear was that our volunteers would suffer too many connection problems and teaching English online - which relies heavily on audio and video - would not be possible. However, we estimate that around 80% of our classes were completed without too many problems, which was a great result.

 Secondly, we learned that, despite the focus on technology, it is the human element that makes a videolink program truly successful: a huge thanks to all our volunteers, classroom teachers and, of course, our wonderful students, who all took part with great positivity and commitment.

 This coming fall semester, our motto is simple: "Grow a little, improve a lot"! As I write, a videolink colleague is visiting a very remote rural school in Sichuan province in the hope that we can partner with them and add one more school to our roster. At the same time, we are working hard to iron out some of the bumps we experienced last semester, such as in scheduling and communication. With one more school, and more volunteers than last semester, we hope to show steady growth this semester and, all being well, expand more in spring 2018. We have a list of schools who need and want our help, and believe we can sustain and expand our program to teach English to hundreds or even thousands more students.