Promoting an online educational platform could be viewed as part of the national defense industry and as a way to counter Chinese “united front” tactics if all children in China could learn from the platform, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
Ko made the remark at a panel with Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) at the Education For Sustainable Development Forum in Taipei.
As the theme of the session was about how cooperation between society and the public sector can foster educational innovation, Ko cited as examples the Taipei CooC Cloud, the city’s online learning platform, and the process of improving connectivity in schools.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Receiving an education used to be a tool for social class mobility, but as the Internet became popular, it is now people without access to online resources who lose their competitiveness, so the Taipei City Government has allocated NT$1.6 billion (US$52.3 million) to accelerate the process of improving connectivity in schools, Ko said.
A total of 236 schools in the city are to be equipped with high-speed fiber-optic Internet connections, all classrooms are to have wireless Internet connectivity and all students from the third grade up are to have a tablet device to enhance digital learning, he said.
The city government in 2016 also established the Taipei CooC Cloud, which offers a variety of e-learning and teaching resources through a cloud-based database, Ko said, adding that teachers are encouraged to upload their course videos so they can be shared with students and teachers nationwide.
The Taipei CooC Cloud is a demonstration of the nation’s soft power, he said.
“It could be considered part of the national defense industry, because if we allocate NT$10 billion to develop interactive education and all children use the platform, this would counteract Chinese ‘united front’ tactics,” Ko said.
Excluding China, there are about 60 million people who use the Chinese language, including Taiwan’s 23 million people, he said.
If the central government used just 10 percent of the national defense budget to promote online interactive education, such soft power could be even more powerful than direct arms development, he added.
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