While much progress has been made in recent years to extend access to information technology, much work remains to be done, said Wang Zhuzhu, chancellor of the China e-Education Library.

In the past, Chinese schools did not have access to digital educational materials and information systems, Wang said. Increasingly, these types of resources are available, and in some places they are quite sufficient, but access to them is not evenly distributed across the country, creating a digital divide among schools, she said.

Huang Ronghuai, the president of the Education Technology Institute at Beijing Normal University, said China's Ministry of Education has developed some digital education materials under the New Century Internet Course Construction Project and the Higher Education Institute Best Classes Construction Project. These projects include online courses, case studies, and tests, among other materials

Starting in 2004, the Chinese government has instituted a plan of providing middle school and primary school education resources free of charge and this program has been smoothly implemented, Huang said. However, the level of investment in digital education materials is not enough when compared to the size of China's population, he said.

The use of technology has greatly benefited schools in remote and rural areas, helping to reduce the digital divide between these areas and China's wealthier urban areas, Wang said. Although the models for using technology in education and the content of educational resources need further improvement, initial results from these programs are encouraging, she said.