One of the goals of building a well-off society in an all-round way put forward by the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is to form a relatively perfect modern national education system and a learning society with all-people learning and lifelong learning, so as to promote people's all-round development. This is an action guide for China's educational reform and development in the new historical period. Modern distance education plays an irreplaceable and unique role in the broad field of national education and lifelong education, and has been paid more and more attention by countries all over the world. Since 1999, taking the opportunity of "Training Mode Reform and Open Education Pilot Project of Central Radio and TV University" carried out by the Ministry of Education, modern distance education with RTVU education system as the main carrier has made positive progress in opening up schools and teaching modernization, realizing the leap from RTVU education to modern distance education marked by computer technology, multimedia technology and modern communication technology. The number of people receiving higher education through modern distance education accounts for more than 10% of the total number of college students in China, which is about10.9 million. Especially in 2004, with the large-scale enrollment expansion of colleges and universities, the number of online learning applicants has reached 17% of the total enrollment in that year, which is about 930,000, showing a rapid growth momentum. Modern distance education has become an important part of developing higher education and creating a learning society. 1 Basic concept of learning society The so-called learning society refers to a social development form based on universal education and lifelong education system, with learning as the leading way of life, production and development. It is a society where everyone learns and learning is everywhere. The brand-new value of learning society lies in making learning a way of life, an internal life, that is, the content that cannot be eliminated in the structure of life itself, because it introduces the dynamic learning process into community construction. Whether for individuals or society, learning is a process of development and an open system. Learning, as a basic way of life, is the embodiment of the harmonious development between man and the environment and between man and society. The basic model of learning society is to organically unite the government, enterprises, families and government organizations to establish an open learning system. In this system, learning and practice are organized according to the open development concept, and human resources are developed to promote social stability, ensure sustained and healthy economic development, and then provide a high-level human foundation for social development. In a learning society, learning has become a basic way of survival and development for people and even the whole society. The concept of lifelong learning has been recognized by all members of society. People's attitude towards learning has changed from unintentional to intentional, from passive to active, from narrow, passive and short-term behavior in the past, such as "learning officials", to conscious behavior of seeking knowledge and exploring life, and education has also changed from a society to. All social educational resources are open to all learners; The society implements the policy of encouraging learning, attaching importance to both academic diplomas and practical learning, creating an environment in which talents are fully utilized and paid according to their abilities. Learning activities have expanded from individuals to groups, and every family and various organizations in society have become learning families and learning organizations. As the ideal of an open and developed learning system, a learning society inevitably requires different groups of people, especially the on-the-job or unemployed, to update their knowledge in today's information society or the era of globalization, and at the same time provides various opportunities for re-learning and employment at different levels. Community is the cell of a city and the symbol of its development. Building a modern information network system in advanced learning communities and connecting international and domestic educational institutions can continuously provide new scientific knowledge and information resources for learning individuals. Learning in a learning society is an open and developing learning system. As a whole, continuous and comprehensive subject life process, the close relationship between learning and subject survival shows that no one has the privilege of not learning, especially in the open information age, everyone needs to learn. 2 Modern distance education and its development trend Distance education refers to a form of education in which students and teachers, students and educational institutions are separated or quasi-separated. It is generally believed that distance education has experienced three generations, the first generation is correspondence education; The second generation is radio and television education; The third generation is characterized by using computer network and multimedia technology to carry out teaching activities in digital signal environment, which is called "modern distance education". Modern distance education is a brand-new educational model with the development of information technology, which has some unique advantages compared with traditional education. It uses modern advanced information technology to implement zero-distance education, breaks the restrictions of time, space and objects, and can reach all corners of society directly and effectively, facing all social personnel. At present, more than 100 countries in the world have developed modern distance education, and their common characteristics are: 2. 1 The level of independent distance universities is improving and the number is increasing. 1969 after the establishment of the British open university, a number of distance universities with multimedia teaching were established in western Europe, North America, Asia and South America, which greatly promoted the development of distance education in the world. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 150 independent distance colleges and universities in the world. As more and more governments are interested in investing in modern distance education, the number of open universities will further increase. Due to the importance attached by governments in various countries to distance education, these established distance colleges have been developing and expanding, and the scale of running schools has been expanding day by day. Among them, "Giant University" 10 has more than 654.38+million registered students and is still expanding; At the same time, its school-running level has gradually improved. Take the Open University of Britain as an example. In the 1970s, it focused on the development of undergraduate degree education, with nearly 60,000 undergraduates registered at the end of 1970s. In the 1980s, while continuing to develop undergraduate education, the school vigorously carried out continuing education, including advanced certificate courses, short-term courses and special short-term courses, in order to adapt to career renewal, personal interests and solve social and community problems. In the late 1980s, the number of such students was equivalent to that of undergraduates. In the 1990s, its graduate education also expanded rapidly, with the number of graduate students increasing from 65,438 to 0,996, reaching more than 37,000. 2.2 Universities actively develop distance education, and the advantages of traditional education and distance education complement each other. With the development of information technology and its penetration into the field of education, more and more colleges and universities have entered the ranks of developing distance higher education and applied modern educational technology to transform distance education. According to a recent survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the number of colleges and universities providing distance education is increasing rapidly, accounting for 60% in Canada, 40% in France and 75% in Britain, while most colleges and universities in Sweden and the United States are conducting distance education. Some colleges and universities offer both traditional face-to-face courses and distance education courses, that is to say, according to the requirements of different courses, some will go to school and adopt traditional educational means. For courses that do not need to go to school, distance education will be adopted, and the school will provide necessary support services. Traditional education and distance education have formed a complementary pattern. 2.3 The application and update of high and new technologies have been accelerated, and the degree of modernization has been improved. From satellite TV technology to network technology, multimedia technology is more and more widely used in distance education, which greatly enriches the way of teaching information dissemination and creates favorable conditions for the formation of interactive teaching situations in distance education environment. Teaching software compiled by multimedia technology can synthesize information such as words, images and sounds according to teaching requirements, and form an interactive environment for human hearing, vision and even touch, so that students can study under the strong stimulation of various senses. Computer network technology is combined with it to form an open multimedia network teaching system, and all online users can share teaching information. Virtual classrooms, electronic libraries and simulation experiments can all be built on the Internet. Students can study online, do homework, do experiments and accept tests and course evaluations at any time. They can also communicate with teachers and classmates through message board BBS. 3. The role of developing modern distance education in the formation of a learning society 3. 1 provides an ideological basis for a learning society. In the information society, people's living and working environment is changing faster and faster, and they need to face the emerging new knowledge and technology. One-off school education is increasingly unable to meet the lifelong social needs of individuals. Only by continuous learning can we keep up with the rhythm of life and work. Vigorously develop modern distance education and provide equal learning opportunities for all learners. The opening of educational resources, educational objects and educational time and space has made it possible for the public to learn for life, thus firmly establishing the concept of lifelong learning among the members of the whole society and making people realize more and more that the purpose of learning is not only to master knowledge, but also to learn how to learn. The purpose of education is not only to impart knowledge, but also to cultivate students' ability. The function of education is not only to preserve, spread and carry forward existing knowledge, but also to create new knowledge, new thinking and new values. Finally, it provides a broad ideological foundation for a learning society. 3.2 Providing technical support for a learning society The real start of modern distance education in China was marked by the birth of 1979 National Radio and TV University, and it entered a period of rapid development in the 1990s. Later, in order to meet the needs of knowledge economy and information society in the 2 1 century and China's participation in economic globalization competition, the Party and the state further put forward the development strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, and in view of the characteristics of China's vast territory, large population and unbalanced economic and educational development, vigorously develop modern distance education as an important measure to improve and develop the potential of human resources and meet the needs of social development. It not only gives great support to the development of modern distance education from the macro policy, but also invests a lot of money and manpower to build the educational environment needed by modern distance education. In 2003, China Education and Research Computer Network (CERNET) and China Education Satellite Broadband Transmission Network (CEB-sat) were completed. CERNET has built a 20,000km DWDM/SDH high-speed transmission network covering nearly 30 major cities in China. The total capacity of the backbone network can reach 40Gbps, the transmission rate of the backbone network can reach 2.5Gbps, and the medium and high speed 155M regional network has connected 35 key cities; The campus networks of more than 0/00 universities in China have been connected at the rate of 100 ~1000 Mbps. The satellite broadband multimedia transmission platform of China Education TV Station has been built and realized the high-speed connection with CERNET, initially forming a modern distance education and educational information network platform with interactive function. Together with the 67 universities participating in the pilot of modern distance education and the original TV University education system covering the whole country, a modern distance education teaching transmission channel integrating Skynet, Ground Network and Human Network is unimpeded, which provides strong technical support for building a lifelong learning society. 3.3 Providing systematic services for a learning society In modern distance education in China, the levels of running schools are diversified, the types of running schools are diversified, the categories of running schools are comprehensive, the teaching methods are modernized, and the learning forms are autonomous. Among the 67 distance education pilot universities approved by the Ministry of Education, the academic level includes postgraduate education, undergraduate education, advanced undergraduate education, general junior college students and second degree. Professional settings have covered 57 majors in ten categories; We are exploring innovative teaching mode, from teaching-oriented to learning-oriented. By combining the practice of modern distance education in China with the experience of modern distance education in the world, the formal education and informal education, general education and vocational education, academic education and non-academic education in China are organically combined to form a grand educational pattern of individual initiative, community strengthening, school linkage and social learning; China's educational structure and educational resources are merging with each other, forming a horizontal flow and free conversion among various forms of education, and forming a social education network that is organically linked with each other. This educational network provides systematic services for a learning society. 3.4 Means of providing fair education for a learning society