T HESE old Zhuang minor- ity farlllers’houses have three stories一Pigs，hens and othef farnl胡imals are kePt on the first floor， fam- ily members live on the seeond and grain and eorn are stored on the third. “It’5 a Pretty smart design beeause it saves sPaee and 15 very environmental- ly一friendly，”observes 11一year-old Tang Zijun，fifth一grader at Haizhuzhonglu EI- ementary Sehool in Guangzhou and one of the Provineial eaPital’5 10 million 比5 idents. Tang 15 eommenting on the Power- Point Photos of Zhuang abodes she has just reeeived from Tong Jingyan，a PuPII at Jingxi Experimental Primary Sehool in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region 688 kilometers west ofGuangzhou. Meanwhile，TOng Jingyan 15 at his home in the eounty town ofjingxi，whose 580，0(X) PoPulation 15 99 percent Zhuang minority，scrutinizing Photos of an old Guangdong fannhouse taken by Tang 21- jun on a reeent school field triP. “The eeiling 15 high enough to allow a breeze to blow through，and there are three layers of entranee door to ensure safety，”says Tong.“1 think it musr be very eomfortable indoors一eool in sum- mer and warrn in winter. No need for an ai卜eondltioner.，， This exehange rePresents just one sma!!!Ink in the United Nations Chil- dren’5 Fund(UNICEF)distanee educa- tion Projeet launehed last year. It involves 15 poverty一strieken Primary sehools in Guangxi and Chongqing and seven bet- ter equiPped，more generously funded counterparts in Guangdong，Shanghai and Anhui.GrouPs of students from eaeh school have been doing research on local housing，exehanging ideas and diseuss- ing their findings in a ehatroom on the Projeet website(www.isnet.orgen). Students from both Guangxi and Guangdong have taken weekend field triPs out to rural areas，taken PhotograPhs of rural dwellings and interviewed 10- eal residents.They have found all the information they need on the Internet. Teachers in both Places have helped Pu- Pils eomPIle the data they have gathered into PowerPoint Presentations to show to their online friends. This housing Project has given Tong Jingyan a new outlook on history. “1 think ourfo邝fathers worked with the environment in a far more intell卜 gent way than we do today，”says Tong thoughtfully.“This Projeet has been like an online time traveling treasure hunt. Tang has shown me how to use OICQ(an instant messaging Program)，and how to find information through online search engines like Baidu and Sina.It makes the work mueh more straightforward.” The Pietures of skyserapersT’a ng 21- jun has sent to Tong are also a source of amaZement to the Zhuang boy，who has never been to a big eity. “They’re like rockets on the road. My head wouldn’t 90 baek far enough to see the toP of one.If it did，1 might fall over…，’. Besides exehanging information on their homes，students from different sehools have worked together on de- signing the Distanee Edueation Program 1090.Zhang Jing of Xinjing Central EI- ementary Sehool in Guangxi drew the faee of a ehild，but his on一Iine friends at the Luying Elementary Sehool in Anhui Provinee weren’t satisfied with it.“W匕 diseussed it online and finally decided to make the eyes into eomPuter miee，to stress the importanee ofcomPuters inour 1 ives，”exPlains fifth一grader Zhang Jing. The ehildren then eame uP with the slogan:Hand in hand for a better world. Says Annette Nyquist，the UNICEF distanee edueation Projeet official，“It’s imPressive how well the ehildren mas- ter these information teehnology skills， but most signifieant 15 their eagemess to learn and eooPerate with one another.” The Projeet 15 a eooperative venture between UNICEF and the National Cen- ter for Edueational Teehno1Ogy(NCET). It 15 hoped that，with the helP oftheRMB 1 .85 million(US$237，《洲X))funding from the US CitiGrouP，the great digital divide between eastern and western China may be narrowed. The number of Chinese with Intemet aceess rose to 1 1 1 million at the end of 2005，and 64.3 million have broadband access，aceording to figures released by the China Internet Network Infor
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