Under the guidance of the strategy of “Informatization Driving Education Modernization”, Yichang actively promotes the new management and teaching mode with local characteristics and constructs the modern education information system of high level and high quality.

　　Building Education Metropolitan Area Network in Yichang.

　　Yichang Education Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) refers to the Education Private Network which connects the internal transmission network of all levels in education-related executive departments, various educational institutions and primary and secondary schools together via the backbone network. The education MAN will push forward the modernization of education.

　　In recent years, Yichang has launched the construction of education MAN to unify and standarize all sorts of education networks. By the end of 2012, education MAN center has been completed, and networks of affiliated schools have been connected to the center; by the end of 2013, education MAN sub-centers will be settled in five districts of Yichang, Zhijiang, Dangyang, Yuan’an, Xingshan, Yidu and the High-tech Zone, and the networks of the primary and secondary schools within the domain will be attached to the sub-centers; by 2014, Zigui, Changyang and Wufeng will construct sub-centers and the networks of the primary and secondary schools in these places will join up the sub-centers; by 2015, networks of all state-run kindergartens, large private kindergartens and secondary vocational schools will be connected together. By then, the construction of education MAN will be completed, so will be the construction of websites in Yichang.

　　Education MAN Adopts Leasing Services

　　The construction of MAN and websites is the major part of the development of education modernization in Yichang. It is an education informatization project which is large in construction investment, high in technology and strict in construction quality.

　　According to the previous corporative pattern between the Government E-Department of Yichang Municipal Government and the network operator, education MAN adopts the way of leasing service which means that the network operator takes charge of all the hard and software construction of networks outside the campus network and the service fees will be paid by the government and the education system departments. In the first three years, they need pay for the network construction and services. In the forth year, only service charge is paid. After three-year’s payment for service, property rights of equipments will belong to each education department. Bandwidth costs will not be calculated separately according to the rule of paying for service with free use of bandwidth.

　　One District and Two Counties Have Completed Education MAN.

　　With the support of the Government E-Department, the Municipal Education Bureau plans to integrate the program and implement step by step.

　　The construction of education MAN of Yichang has started since 2013. By September 30, 2013, 52 schools in the urban area have joined in the MAN and started running. Another 25 schools shall finish this by the end of October. So far, Yiling District, Xingshan and Changyang have launched the education MAN. Construction plans of Zhigui, Yuan’an and Xiaoting will put into effect at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. By the end of 2015, the education MAN will cover the whole city.

　　The education WAN of Yiling District consists of three subsystems including the data center system, video teaching and the campus safety video monitoring system, as well as the application software system. There are 55 video teaching systems in the whole district, which meet the needs of the long-distance real-time interaction by the transmission of voice, data and images. This new mode of teaching interaction presents the whole teaching process to the teachers, reduces the training costs, improves the participation of teachers and optimizes the use of education resources.

　　In Xingshan County, 1.2 million RMB has been invested in the construction of education MAN. In the next three years, 5 million RMB will be added to build a first-class education MAN among all the mountain counties in Hubei Province.

　　In Zigui County, the construction of education MAN has also started in its full swing, application terminals of education and teaching have reached the target of universal access.

　　(By Mei Yunxiong and Zhou Hong)