Smart Pens for Online Chinese Lessons: A Teacher’s Perspective
“Could you take a photo of your work and send it over?”
This is a familiar request during online Chinese lessons. A child stops writing, photographs the page and sends it to the teacher. The teacher then opens the image before offering feedback. If the photograph is unclear, another may be needed.
These steps interrupt the lesson and make it difficult to follow the work as it develops. Could smart pens for online Chinese lessons make that process smoother while children continue writing on paper?
During my visit to the Global Smart Education Conference 2026 in Beijing, I saw a smart pen demonstration that caught my attention. It showed how a teacher could view students’ handwriting remotely while they continued writing on paper.
This is a possibility I am exploring, rather than a system we have introduced into Nili’s lessons. The teaching examples below are imagined applications, not results from a classroom trial.
How smart pens could support online Chinese lessons
The system demonstrated uses a rechargeable smart pen and paper printed with a dot pattern. According to the demonstration, teachers could prepare dot-pattern versions of their own PDF worksheets for children to write on.
Whether families could print these reliably at home would depend on the system’s printer and setup requirements. The connection equipment and software would also need checking before a home trial.
With the demonstrated system connected, the teacher could follow the handwriting digitally and switch between individual students’ work. This interested me because the starting point could be Chinese comprehension exercises and writing materials we already prepare.
Seeing where a child needs support
Imagine a child who begins a sentence and then stops. Seeing the unfinished line gives the teacher a specific starting point for a conversation:
“Do you know what you want to say next, or are you unsure how to write the word?”
The answer matters. A child who cannot recall a character may need a brief prompt. A child who is struggling to organise an idea may benefit from explaining it aloud first.
A visible pause is a reason to ask, not a diagnosis. It could reflect careful thinking, uncertainty or an interruption. The teacher would still need to ask and listen rather than assume that a child needs help.
A Chinese comprehension example: making evidence visible
If the platform allows selected responses to be shared, teachers could use them for a focused discussion. Here is an imagined exercise for primary Chinese learners.
In a short passage, a boy notices that his classmate has forgotten her umbrella and walks her to the bus stop under his umbrella. The question asks:
“你从哪里看出小明关心同学？”
(What shows that Xiaoming cares about his classmate?)
One response might be: “小明很关心同学。”
(Xiaoming cares about his classmate.)
A more specific response might be: “小明看到同学没有带伞，就撑着伞送她到巴士站。”
(When Xiaoming saw that his classmate had no umbrella, he sheltered her with his umbrella and walked her to the bus stop.)
The first answer repeats the idea in the question. The second supports it with an action from the passage. Displaying the two answers without students’ names could help the class discuss what makes an answer specific and supported by evidence.
Children could then return to their own answers and improve them. The value would come from the teacher’s questions and the children’s revisions; the pen would simply help make the work available for discussion.
Supporting Chinese composition without interrupting every sentence
The same approach could support Chinese composition. For an imagined scene in which a child is waiting anxiously, compare “他很紧张” (He was nervous) with “他紧紧握着书包带，不时望向门口” (He gripped his schoolbag straps and kept looking towards the doorway).
A teacher could ask which actions help the reader picture the character’s feelings. Children could decide whether a suitable action would strengthen their own description, rather than copying a model sentence into every story.
Being able to follow several students’ pages could also help a teacher decide when to respond. A shared difficulty might call for a short group explanation. An individual question might be enough for a child who needs a small prompt.
At other times, a child needs uninterrupted time to finish a paragraph. Commenting on every sentence could break their concentration. A clearer view of students’ work should support that judgement and leave room for independent writing.
What I would test before using smart pens at Nili
Before introducing a system like this, I would want to test it with our own Chinese worksheets and a realistic home setup. The questions would be practical:
Does the pen capture children’s handwritten Chinese characters clearly and consistently?
What printer, device, software and connection equipment would families need?
What would the pen, replacement materials and platform cost?
Is preparation manageable, and what happens if the connection drops?
How is students’ work stored, who can access it, and can names be hidden when answers are shared?
Does the routine reduce interruptions and help the teacher give useful feedback?
A demonstration can show what is possible. A classroom trial would be needed to understand whether it works well for our learners and their families.
The possibility that interests me is straightforward: children continuing to practise handwriting on paper, with their teacher better able to follow the process and offer guidance when needed.
What does your child find most difficult about writing during online Chinese lessons—sharing their work, asking for help or staying focused? These are the everyday experiences I would want any new tool to address.
This is the second article in my Beijing conference series. Read Teachers Keep Learning, Too: My Visit to Beijing for the background to my visit.
In the next article, I will explore how lesson recordings and AI-assisted analysis might support teachers’ professional learning.
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