The development of the Internet has changed every area of people's lives, including, food, clothing, housing, habits, and others. Moreover, in the world of education, online education is also gradually becoming a teaching method; in the Web 2.0 spirit of interaction and sharing,  Internet teaching is beginning to change in essence and extend. Simultaneous teaching makes digital teaching more user friendly, closer to the situation inside a real classroom, reducing the isolation and loneliness of studying materials alone and strengthens the interaction between learner and peers and teachers. Today, the  number of websites using the Internet to teach is already in the tens of thousands, whether run by educational institutions or the public, every kind of educational institution is using a wide variety of methods to undertake educational activities; of course, the  rapidly developing “Chinese language study” trend is also sure to hitch a ride on this distance- learning train in future.

1.The Fermentation of Digital Chinese Study
Since, 2008, the Institute for Information Industry’s Digital Education Institute has been implementing the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission's Overseas Digital Learning Center Service Plan, assisting overseas Chinese learning centers to use technological equipment and online platforms  (e.g. the Moodle platform), etc through twice- monthly online seminars, improving the standard of teaching, vigorously promoting digital education, and promoting co- operation between domestic digital education companies and overseas study centers through distributing digital study products.
In 2009, taking the next step in holding the “Global Chinese Language digital learning materials application competition” activity and guiding overseas Chinese language teachers on the use of Taiwan made digital learning products to undertake Chinese language education, a total of 12 companies in the industry provided 18 kinds of experimental teaching materials, attracting more than 45, 000 online visitors to participate in this activity from 50 countries, in addition to more than 1.2 million visits! What's more, in 2009 the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission also began online teacher training, starting to use online platforms to conduct the training of Chinese language teachers, enabling teachers abroad to cultivate advanced digital teaching abilities by receiving training online, thereby greatly reducing the commuting and time costs produced by traditional teacher training.

Additionally, the III Digital Education Institute  also assisted the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission in their holding the “Overseas Business Management Workshop”, providing domestic companies with information on the situation of the application of Chinese language learning materials overseas, as well as encouraging domestic digital Chinese language companies and Chinese language study centers that are demonstration sites to hold discussions and providing related guidance, thereby promoting international exchange between the two groups.

2. The First Year  for Online Chinese Schools
The Overseas Chinese Commission strived to promote digital Chinese language education worldwide through the 2008- 2009 Overseas Digital Learning Center Service Plan, with the result that overseas Chinese language learning centers the world over have already changed from purely paper-based teaching methods to the digital education model. In 2010, to meet the digital education wave, “Chinese language distance learning,” will be promoted and 2010 has been designated  “First Year for Online Chinese Schools”, actively importing distance learning platforms, forming online teaching service teams and providing overseas study centers with a platform on which to conduct online Chinese teaching. Teachers can overcome the restrictions of time and space, teaching students from all over the world through the assistance of the service teams.

In terms of promoting this project, the III Digital Education Institute also set itself the objectives of enriching the distance learning models, teaching materials, and increasing the platform exploitation ability of overseas Chinese study centers. Online seminars are held twice a month, inviting teachers in possession of abundant experience of distance teaching and overseas teachers to teach distance learning models, assisting Chinese language teachers to become familiar with the use of online platforms. Also, the “Monthly Hit Star Activity” is held on the Huayu World website.  Taiwanese companies are invited to provide high- quality digital Chinese language learning materials to Chinese teachers so they can develop online teaching plans, allowing the objective of distance learning to be achieved!

As speakers of an international language, the Chinese speaking population is spread across the seven seas, and  so needs to overcome the obstructions of distance and restrictions of time all the more. Due to this, using distance learning platforms to conduct teaching, linking the strength of all the Chinese language study centers in the world and establishing the “Overseas Internet School” network, has ensured that Chinese language learning centers the world over are no longer restricted by temporal and spatial obstacles: whether they be the descendants of overseas Chinese or non- Chinese learners, everyone can easily learn Chinese! In 2010, by promoting this plan, every study center in the entire world held online teacher training, nurturing higher- quality digital Chinese language teachers and catalyzing the global surge of interest in learning Chinese!

3. Digital Chinese Language Teaching in the future
In the wake of the rapid advances of information technology, and the digital revolution sweeping the world, future Chinese language teaching will become even more of an “omnipresent” Chinese language study process: by combining distance learning platforms with physical classrooms, conducting synchronized worldwide Chinese study and expanding the regions where Chinese is studied. In response to the rise of the “mobile market”, industrialists will be encouraged to develop mobile Chinese language study material, such as: teaching material on the App Store; teachers will be able to use Chinese teaching materials from the virtual market as supplementary teaching tools, increasing the interest and diversity of teaching; adding the abundant Chinese language teaching courses teaching resources as well as lively, interesting  teachers' blogs on Huayu World, channels for self- study and mutual interaction with be provided to overseas teachers. By means of the provision of every kind of the above digital teaching, Chinese language teaching will achieve  “full- spectrum digital teaching”, as well as “omnipresence.”

The “2010, the first Year for Online Chinese Schools”, will begin a new era of distance learning in Chinese language study centers around the world, directed by the policies of the Overseas Chinese Commission, and implemented and promoted by the III. With the support of Chinese language study centers around the world, interest in Chinese language learning will be promoted and aim of a world of Chinese language study without borders achieved!