[GSE2023]Global Smart Education Conference 2023 Opened in Beijing - Working together to Create a Better Future of Smart Education for the Benefit of All Mankind
date：2023-08-23 14:52author：adminsource：Smart Learning Instituteviews：
The Global Smart Education Conference 2023 opened in Beijing on August 18. With the theme of "Education Transformation and Data Governance", the conference invited experts, scholars and front-line teachers from education, technology, and business circles at home and abroad to discuss the strategy and promotion path of the digital transformation of education, focus on the mechanism of technology-enabled education, and explore the construction of a regional smart education ecosystem and learning society. In this way, they can think about the growth of the digital generation and the innovation of evaluation methods, and share new theories, technologies, ideas and outcomes of smart education. The conference attracted more than 300 international and domestic guests, and over 1,200 on-site participants.
A Group Photo of Guests at the Opening Ceremony of the Global Smart Education Conference 2023
Advancing the strategic action of educational digitalization to develop smart education through innovation
The digital transformation of education is systematically planned from the strategic level, implementing the digitalization process of all factors, all processes, all services, and all fields in the education system. Smart education is its target form. The UN Transforming Education Summit indicated that the power of digital transformation must be fully harnessed to ensure that quality education and lifelong learning are made available to all as a common good. The Chinese government has proposed to promote educational digitalization and build a society and country of learning where lifelong learning is pursued by all.
Chen Jie, China's Vice Minister of Education and Director of National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO, delivered a speech. He said that as a new form of education in the digital age, smart education is an inevitable choice for us to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. In recent years, AI technology has developed rapidly, demonstrating its increasingly broad application in education. Since AI technology and digital transformation of education are in the ascendant, data governance has become a topic that we must pay great attention to and address. The Chinese government has always given priority to education in social and economic development, attached great importance to the key role of digitalization in driving educational reform, and formulated a national strategy for the development of educational digitalization. Our ongoing efforts in implementing the strategic action of educational digitalization have been rewarded with tangible results. The Chinese government has strengthened infrastructure construction, established a high-quality support system for educational digitalization, and built a national smart education platform to expand the supply of quality educational resources. In addition, more effort is being made to vigorously promote the deep integration of digitalization with educational and teaching reform, create a new form of modern education, and actively carry out international cooperation in digital education. Chen put forward three proposals: (1) Strengthen policy dialogue to drive educational reform. China is ready to work with governments and international organizations to build a platform for policy dialogue and exchange, and to have in-depth exchanges on new ideas and strategies for smart education, as well as policy issues such as planning, standards, data governance, and security ethics. Moreover, we will jointly explore scientific paths and effective policies for the development of smart education to create a better future of smart education for the benefit of all mankind. (2) Strengthen resource sharing to promote equitable and inclusive quality education. We advocate building a public service platform for digital education resources that serves lifelong learning for all in accordance with the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and work together to encourage more people from more countries to participate in the development of quality education resources, so that smart education is made accessible to all. (3) Strengthen cooperation in capacity building to facilitate teaching reform. Further expansion of international cooperation in building teachers' capacity for smart education is necessary to help teachers grasp the core essentials of smart education and master key skills in digital teaching. In the meantime, we must build platforms and expand channels for teachers to exchange experience in teaching reform, and conduct collaborative educational research and curriculum development among countries.
Ma Jun, President of Beijing Normal University, pointed out that normal universities naturally connected basic education and higher education, and played a pivotal role in improving people's digital literacy, deepening the digital transformation of education, and building an education power. As the earliest modern institution of higher education for teachers in China, and the leading normal university in teacher education, Beijing Normal University has actively implemented the demonstration project for educational digitalization strategy in recent years, carried out the "Internet + Education" reform and innovation action plan, and vigorously enforced the project to build a stronger teacher force, in an effort to facilitate the sharing among all of the fruits of digital development. He proposed to continuously promote the original innovation in basic research, and the ecological upgrading of intellectual technology, effectively serving the modernization of education. Normal universities are expected to enhance information commonality and resource sharing, improve the ecosystem of teacher education through complementary advantages, and accelerate the quality and balanced development of education. We must do more to allow diverse learners to improve their knowledge and understanding in the broad digital space, develop their thinking and skills, learn communication and collaboration, and become truly usable talents for the future.
Zhao Qinping, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, emphasized that education transformation must rely on scientific and technological means, and that data governance would be a crucial part of this. In the era of intelligence, learners expected a more flexible, ubiquitous and networked environment of smart learning to realize cooperative and inquiry-based "real" learning by combining virtuality and reality. Zhao argued that we are making the leap from VR 1.0 to 2.0, and that VR would increase the characteristics of intelligence, interoperability and evolution on the basis of immersion, interactivity and conceivability. The virtual-real connected objects of "ubiquitous networking" will be extended to the digital twins of physical objects, human avatars and digital native objects, opening up a road of hope for the shared survival and free shuttle of human beings in the physical world and the digital world. In the future, VR 2.0 will be integrated into a new-generation learning environment to better help learners learn more easily and effectively and be better invested.
Tackling the learning crisis together to drive educational reform
Strengthening international dialogue and cooperation in terms of digital education is conducive to pooling the efforts of all countries to jointly address global education challenges and learning crises, promote educational transformation and innovation, and enable more people to benefit from the development of digital education.
Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, and Science and Technology of Mauritius, pointed out that the current inequality gap remains wide in the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The digital divide has become a tangible barrier. She stressed that human well-being should consistently be at the center of concern in digital transformation, and human intelligence and AI should coexist harmoniously and help each other forward. She described the initiatives of Mauritius in promoting lifelong learning through technology and called for international cooperation at the technical level to strengthen technology-enabled lifelong learning, thereby providing a strong guarantee for sustained economic growth, employment opportunities and social welfare.
Azat Atayev, Deputy Minister of Education of Turkmenistan, presented his country's efforts in boosting the development of digital education. In cooperation with UNESCO IITE, Beijing Normal University and other institutions, Turkmenistan has developed a "strategy for the development of digital education" and is striving to drive educational reform through new initiatives such as the introduction of normative legislation, the building of an e-learning platform, the use of teaching methods incorporating new technologies, and the application of data analytics to support educational decision-making. He suggested that emphasis be placed on the identification and discovery of the structure and clustering of educational data, on the network analysis of "digital footprint" and the analysis of educational data in personal digital files, and on the prediction of intellectual development based on comprehensive education and human development data.
Mahmoud Zouaoui, Representative of the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Director of the General Office, presented the digital platform projects and educational information systems in higher education in his country. These new initiatives can enable researchers, teachers, and students to better utilize technology for learning, use resources efficiently, and narrow the digital divide, while even helping policymakers and teachers make scientific decisions, improve the quality of education, and facilitate the development of smart education. He pinpointed that we must be fully aware of the risks of privacy protection, information security and network abuse in the digital transformation of education, and students' learning experience should be enhanced by strengthening infrastructure development and multi-party collaboration to ensure equitable and safe education.
Focusing on the core proposition of talent training to drive the digital transformation of lifelong learning
At the "Forum on Educational Digitization and Lifelong Learning" held on the first day of the conference, Lyu Jian, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered a report entitled "Thinking and Practice of the New System of Talent Training in the New Era". Proceeding from the international trend and the new historical orientation of China's social development, he focused on talent training and the mission of universities, and proposed that educators should integrate and unify the way of educating people, the way of the Great Learning, and the way of the times. He shared the practical experience of Nanjing University in providing core support for high-quality talent training with high-level disciplines, strengthening the meta-capacity building of the disciplinary ecosystem, and creating a problem-oriented integrated model system of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies.
Asha S. Kanwar, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), noted that the 21st century belongs to lifelong learners, and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030. She argued that smart education should be pleasant, engaging, efficient, effective and moral. Noting that climate disasters are likely to be the biggest disruption to education over the next decade, she said smart education must be meaningful and give people the opportunity to make a living, where the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in society could gain access to technology. Smart education must be stakeholder oriented and prepared for any future disaster or shock. Above all, smart learning should be transformative to develop independent thinkers. She stressed that lifelong learning was not just a course or a teaching program, but to be integrated into all aspects of human life, including social culture, policy and planning. A learning culture should be established through the ongoing enhancement of skills and knowledge and the cultivation of values.
Zhang Jun, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, shared a new understanding of green education in his report entitled "Green Education Drives the High-quality Development of Education". He pointed out that green education, driven by such technologies as data acquisition, knowledge graph, metaverse, and large language model (LLM), realized thorough perception of education through the data acquisition of teaching resources, performance status and teaching effect. To achieve knowledge-driven smart education, fragmented knowledge shall be integrated into systematic knowledge, which shall be summarized and innovated; the immersive, interactive, scene-based and game-oriented curriculum contents shall be designed so as to promote the immersion and expansion of smart education; finally, for innovative learning of smart education, the multiple learning paths shall be designed and the innovative models shall be developed. In addition, he introduced the "Huanyu + (iSPACE+X) Greening Education Comprehensive System" created by the Beijing Institute of Technology. This system focuses on innovation in ideological value, cultivating model and top-level design of professional system to train top-notch innovative talent to keep up with the times.
How does digital technology empower education transformation? According to Martín Benavides, Director of UNESCO IIEP, as a key component of education transformation, responsible technology is essential to ensure the successful application of education transformation. The technology shall be integrated into a broader government strategy so as to effectively address the continuing educational challenges. The planning and management ability of the education system shall be improved to enhance the digital ability of students, educators and all participants in the education system. In this way, they can successfully interact with technology in a responsible manner.
Chen Xiaohong, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave a keynote speech entitled "A New Paradigm of Talent Training in the Age of Digital Intelligence". She pointed out that in the age of digital intelligence, talent cultivation in colleges and universities shall follow five major transformations: transforming from traditional thinking patterns to digital intelligence thinking, from specialized discipline to cross disciplines, from theoretical research to innovative practice, from traditional evaluation standards to comprehensive evaluation standards, and achieving deep integration of science and art & humanity. In her view, solving the challenge of digital intelligence technology and cultivate talents suitable for the new era, colleges and universities shall develop innovative and compound talents with practical application capacity by means of multidisciplinary and innovative education. She briefed on the education process of Hunan University of Technology and Business, which, adhering to the philosophy of integrated development of "New Engineering + New Business + New Liberal Arts", accelerates the innovation of teaching space, teaching mode, teaching resources and teaching evaluation, so as to cultivate innovative and compound talents with entrepreneurial spirit and application ability.
Quentin Wodon, Director of UNESCO-IICBA, described via video the digital learning platforms for African teachers and their skills development. He pointed out that human capital is an important wealth of national education. However, many children over the age of 10 in Africa lack basic literacy skills, resulting in a severe education crisis. To change this situation, relevant authorities should not only provide schools with IT equipment such as computers, but also improve teachers' digital skills to better their ability to use resources. To strengthen teachers' teaching ability and assist them in integrating information technology with education and teaching, relevant government departments should provide teachers with free-of-charge internet access with the help of infrastructure construction and carry out pre- and post-service teacher training.
Mohamed Ould Amar, Director General of ALECSO, pointed out via video, that ALECSO has fully realized the great energy of science and technology in educational transformation. He also believed that the adoption of ICT to develop education in Arab countries should be a priority. To successfully implement AI and education-related projects, ALECSO held Arab Code Week to promote the culture of programming sciences, verified the credibility of university degree certificates using blockchain technology, and enabled the young generation to enter the world of the Metaverse and NFTs through the ALECSO NFT education platform. To improve learners' survival and development in a knowledge-based society, ALECSO will expand and deepen future exchange and cooperation with international organizations, regional organizations, colleges and universities, and scientific research institutions.
At the opening ceremony, Chen Li, Director of the Technical Committee of National Engineering Laboratory for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology and Professor of Beijing Normal University, released the "Innovative Achievement of the Basic Theory of Internet + Education". The achievement is rooted in the first-mover advantage and practical soil of Internet education in China, and attempts to answer three major theoretical questions during the implementation of the national "Internet + Education" strategy: first, it explains the basic principles of the Internet to promote the educational reform, including the transformation role of the Internet, the connotation and extension of "Internet + Education" and the focus on promoting the innovative development of "Internet + Education"; second, the achievement creatively puts forward the philosophical thought of "Internet + Education", including the ontology, epistemology, methodology and world outlook of "Internet + Education"; third, it reveals the teaching law of "Internet + Education", including learners' self-organization, the emergence of knowledge and the nonlinear relationship between teaching and learning. This achievement is the first all-round, multi-angle and systematic research result on the basic theory of "Internet + Education" in China, which will provide important theoretical support for the implementation of the national "Internet + Education" strategy. During the conference, important achievements in smart education, AI and future education development will also be released.
Zhou Zuoyu, Vice President of Beijing Normal University, presided over the opening ceremony of the conference. Zhan Tao, Director of the UNESCO IITE, presided over the Forum on Educational Digitalization and Lifelong Learning. Qin Changwei, Secretary General of National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO, attended the conference.
On the first day of the conference, the Forum on Data Governance and Cognitive Development, Forum on Generative Artificial Intelligence and Futures of Education, and Forum on Educational Digitalization Strategy and Policy Planning were also held. Lei Chaozi, Director General of the Department of Science, Technology and Informatization, the Ministry of Education, expounded the significance of data governance from the perspective of strengthening the country through education, and introduced the practical exploration of data governance in China. He said that the Chinese government will continue to deeply implement the national educational digitalization strategy, and promote the reform and innovation of education through the development and application of educational big data. Mammo Muchie, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, introduced the intelligent implementation of digital higher education and AI in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Dakar Action Plan. John Thaw Shawe-Taylor, Director of UNESCO’s International Research Center for AI and Professor at the University College London, put forward a "human-centered AI system" to ensure that AI can enhance people's experience, energy and creativity. Professor Zhang Zhiyong, Director of the Center for National Survey on Education of Beijing Normal University, elaborated the strategic path of strong education country construction. Sun Shanxue, Member of the Strategic Advisory Committee for Strong Education Country Construction of the Ministry of Education, analyzed the main problems in the digital development of vocational education. Raúl Valdés-Cotera, Program Coordinator at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, elaborated the expansion of the opportunity of receiving higher education through digital technology. Harlena Harris, Program Director of the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group, proposed to empower ideas and transform the education mode through technology. Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, advocated study in the digital world.
The final of the 6th Global Competition on Design for Future Education was also held concurrently. Since its launch on March 1, the competition has attracted participation from more than 1,000 college students, and 2,000 primary and secondary school teachers from more than 30 countries and regions. Following fierce competition in the preliminary contests and pre-finals, 20 outstanding works were selected for the final in the group of college students and the group of primary and secondary school teachers respectively. The final will last for three days (August 18-20), and tutors from various fields will provide guidance for college students all the time, helping the participants produce innovative, design and scientific educational solutions. Twenty primary and secondary school teachers will participate in the final defense and report their excellent education and teaching cases.
It is reported that the conference will last until August 20, and a total of 16 thematic forums will be held. On 19-20, the Forum on Generative AI Large Models and Psychological Assessment, the Forum on New Ecology of Regional Smart Education, the Forum on Digital Transformation of Regional Education, the Forum on New Teaching and Learning Mode Integrating Information Technology, the Forum on Teacher Digital Competences and Innovative Talent Cultivation Model, Forum on Youth Skills Development and Digital Transformation, the Forum on Smart Village and Rural Education Transformation, and the Forum on Information Technology-supported Innovative Comprehensive Evaluation of Students, the Forum on Digital Campus and Intelligent Educational Equipment, the Teacher Forum on Innovative Practice of Smart Education, the Student Forum on Design for Future Education, and the Forum on Technology-Empowered Educational Transformation & Closing Ceremony will be held. During the conference, the Smart Education Exhibition will be simultaneously held to display the latest smart education products and services of enterprises.
The conference is co-hosted by Beijing Normal University and UNESCO IITE and co-organized by the Smart Learning Institute, Faculty of Education and Faculty of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, China Institute of Education and Social Development and the National Engineering Laboratory for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology.
The conference is supported by partners including the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, the Commonwealth of Learning, the ISTE and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, the Education Bureau of Longhua District, Shenzhen, and enterprises including NetDragon Websoft Inc., China Unicom, iFLYTEK, UNIS MOEDU, H3C Group, Baidu, Huawei, Alibaba Cloud, Jingshi Ruidao, 17 Education & Technology Group, Tencent Education, Onion Academy, Squirrel Ai, OUR SCHOOL, Pure Zixi, Rokid and KingSha.
The digital transformation of education is systematically planned from the strategic level, implementing the digitalization process of all factors, all processes, all services, and all fields in the education system. Smart education is its target form. The UN Transforming Education Summit indicated that the power of digital transformation must be fully harnessed to ensure that quality education and lifelong learning are made available to all as a common good. The Chinese government has proposed to promote educational digitalization and build a society and country of learning where lifelong learning is pursued by all.
Chen Jie, China's Vice Minister of Education and Director of National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO, delivered a speech. He said that as a new form of education in the digital age, smart education is an inevitable choice for us to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. In recent years, AI technology has developed rapidly, demonstrating its increasingly broad application in education. Since AI technology and digital transformation of education are in the ascendant, data governance has become a topic that we must pay great attention to and address. The Chinese government has always given priority to education in social and economic development, attached great importance to the key role of digitalization in driving educational reform, and formulated a national strategy for the development of educational digitalization. Our ongoing efforts in implementing the strategic action of educational digitalization have been rewarded with tangible results. The Chinese government has strengthened infrastructure construction, established a high-quality support system for educational digitalization, and built a national smart education platform to expand the supply of quality educational resources. In addition, more effort is being made to vigorously promote the deep integration of digitalization with educational and teaching reform, create a new form of modern education, and actively carry out international cooperation in digital education. Chen put forward three proposals: (1) Strengthen policy dialogue to drive educational reform. China is ready to work with governments and international organizations to build a platform for policy dialogue and exchange, and to have in-depth exchanges on new ideas and strategies for smart education, as well as policy issues such as planning, standards, data governance, and security ethics. Moreover, we will jointly explore scientific paths and effective policies for the development of smart education to create a better future of smart education for the benefit of all mankind. (2) Strengthen resource sharing to promote equitable and inclusive quality education. We advocate building a public service platform for digital education resources that serves lifelong learning for all in accordance with the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and work together to encourage more people from more countries to participate in the development of quality education resources, so that smart education is made accessible to all. (3) Strengthen cooperation in capacity building to facilitate teaching reform. Further expansion of international cooperation in building teachers' capacity for smart education is necessary to help teachers grasp the core essentials of smart education and master key skills in digital teaching. In the meantime, we must build platforms and expand channels for teachers to exchange experience in teaching reform, and conduct collaborative educational research and curriculum development among countries.
Ma Jun, President of Beijing Normal University, pointed out that normal universities naturally connected basic education and higher education, and played a pivotal role in improving people's digital literacy, deepening the digital transformation of education, and building an education power. As the earliest modern institution of higher education for teachers in China, and the leading normal university in teacher education, Beijing Normal University has actively implemented the demonstration project for educational digitalization strategy in recent years, carried out the "Internet + Education" reform and innovation action plan, and vigorously enforced the project to build a stronger teacher force, in an effort to facilitate the sharing among all of the fruits of digital development. He proposed to continuously promote the original innovation in basic research, and the ecological upgrading of intellectual technology, effectively serving the modernization of education. Normal universities are expected to enhance information commonality and resource sharing, improve the ecosystem of teacher education through complementary advantages, and accelerate the quality and balanced development of education. We must do more to allow diverse learners to improve their knowledge and understanding in the broad digital space, develop their thinking and skills, learn communication and collaboration, and become truly usable talents for the future.
Zhao Qinping, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, emphasized that education transformation must rely on scientific and technological means, and that data governance would be a crucial part of this. In the era of intelligence, learners expected a more flexible, ubiquitous and networked environment of smart learning to realize cooperative and inquiry-based "real" learning by combining virtuality and reality. Zhao argued that we are making the leap from VR 1.0 to 2.0, and that VR would increase the characteristics of intelligence, interoperability and evolution on the basis of immersion, interactivity and conceivability. The virtual-real connected objects of "ubiquitous networking" will be extended to the digital twins of physical objects, human avatars and digital native objects, opening up a road of hope for the shared survival and free shuttle of human beings in the physical world and the digital world. In the future, VR 2.0 will be integrated into a new-generation learning environment to better help learners learn more easily and effectively and be better invested.
Tackling the learning crisis together to drive educational reform
Strengthening international dialogue and cooperation in terms of digital education is conducive to pooling the efforts of all countries to jointly address global education challenges and learning crises, promote educational transformation and innovation, and enable more people to benefit from the development of digital education.
Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, and Science and Technology of Mauritius, pointed out that the current inequality gap remains wide in the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The digital divide has become a tangible barrier. She stressed that human well-being should consistently be at the center of concern in digital transformation, and human intelligence and AI should coexist harmoniously and help each other forward. She described the initiatives of Mauritius in promoting lifelong learning through technology and called for international cooperation at the technical level to strengthen technology-enabled lifelong learning, thereby providing a strong guarantee for sustained economic growth, employment opportunities and social welfare.
Azat Atayev, Deputy Minister of Education of Turkmenistan, presented his country's efforts in boosting the development of digital education. In cooperation with UNESCO IITE, Beijing Normal University and other institutions, Turkmenistan has developed a "strategy for the development of digital education" and is striving to drive educational reform through new initiatives such as the introduction of normative legislation, the building of an e-learning platform, the use of teaching methods incorporating new technologies, and the application of data analytics to support educational decision-making. He suggested that emphasis be placed on the identification and discovery of the structure and clustering of educational data, on the network analysis of "digital footprint" and the analysis of educational data in personal digital files, and on the prediction of intellectual development based on comprehensive education and human development data.
Mahmoud Zouaoui, Representative of the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Director of the General Office, presented the digital platform projects and educational information systems in higher education in his country. These new initiatives can enable researchers, teachers, and students to better utilize technology for learning, use resources efficiently, and narrow the digital divide, while even helping policymakers and teachers make scientific decisions, improve the quality of education, and facilitate the development of smart education. He pinpointed that we must be fully aware of the risks of privacy protection, information security and network abuse in the digital transformation of education, and students' learning experience should be enhanced by strengthening infrastructure development and multi-party collaboration to ensure equitable and safe education.
Focusing on the core proposition of talent training to drive the digital transformation of lifelong learning
At the "Forum on Educational Digitization and Lifelong Learning" held on the first day of the conference, Lyu Jian, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered a report entitled "Thinking and Practice of the New System of Talent Training in the New Era". Proceeding from the international trend and the new historical orientation of China's social development, he focused on talent training and the mission of universities, and proposed that educators should integrate and unify the way of educating people, the way of the Great Learning, and the way of the times. He shared the practical experience of Nanjing University in providing core support for high-quality talent training with high-level disciplines, strengthening the meta-capacity building of the disciplinary ecosystem, and creating a problem-oriented integrated model system of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies.
Asha S. Kanwar, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), noted that the 21st century belongs to lifelong learners, and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030. She argued that smart education should be pleasant, engaging, efficient, effective and moral. Noting that climate disasters are likely to be the biggest disruption to education over the next decade, she said smart education must be meaningful and give people the opportunity to make a living, where the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in society could gain access to technology. Smart education must be stakeholder oriented and prepared for any future disaster or shock. Above all, smart learning should be transformative to develop independent thinkers. She stressed that lifelong learning was not just a course or a teaching program, but to be integrated into all aspects of human life, including social culture, policy and planning. A learning culture should be established through the ongoing enhancement of skills and knowledge and the cultivation of values.
Zhang Jun, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, shared a new understanding of green education in his report entitled "Green Education Drives the High-quality Development of Education". He pointed out that green education, driven by such technologies as data acquisition, knowledge graph, metaverse, and large language model (LLM), realized thorough perception of education through the data acquisition of teaching resources, performance status and teaching effect. To achieve knowledge-driven smart education, fragmented knowledge shall be integrated into systematic knowledge, which shall be summarized and innovated; the immersive, interactive, scene-based and game-oriented curriculum contents shall be designed so as to promote the immersion and expansion of smart education; finally, for innovative learning of smart education, the multiple learning paths shall be designed and the innovative models shall be developed. In addition, he introduced the "Huanyu + (iSPACE+X) Greening Education Comprehensive System" created by the Beijing Institute of Technology. This system focuses on innovation in ideological value, cultivating model and top-level design of professional system to train top-notch innovative talent to keep up with the times.
How does digital technology empower education transformation? According to Martín Benavides, Director of UNESCO IIEP, as a key component of education transformation, responsible technology is essential to ensure the successful application of education transformation. The technology shall be integrated into a broader government strategy so as to effectively address the continuing educational challenges. The planning and management ability of the education system shall be improved to enhance the digital ability of students, educators and all participants in the education system. In this way, they can successfully interact with technology in a responsible manner.
Chen Xiaohong, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave a keynote speech entitled "A New Paradigm of Talent Training in the Age of Digital Intelligence". She pointed out that in the age of digital intelligence, talent cultivation in colleges and universities shall follow five major transformations: transforming from traditional thinking patterns to digital intelligence thinking, from specialized discipline to cross disciplines, from theoretical research to innovative practice, from traditional evaluation standards to comprehensive evaluation standards, and achieving deep integration of science and art & humanity. In her view, solving the challenge of digital intelligence technology and cultivate talents suitable for the new era, colleges and universities shall develop innovative and compound talents with practical application capacity by means of multidisciplinary and innovative education. She briefed on the education process of Hunan University of Technology and Business, which, adhering to the philosophy of integrated development of "New Engineering + New Business + New Liberal Arts", accelerates the innovation of teaching space, teaching mode, teaching resources and teaching evaluation, so as to cultivate innovative and compound talents with entrepreneurial spirit and application ability.
Quentin Wodon, Director of UNESCO-IICBA, described via video the digital learning platforms for African teachers and their skills development. He pointed out that human capital is an important wealth of national education. However, many children over the age of 10 in Africa lack basic literacy skills, resulting in a severe education crisis. To change this situation, relevant authorities should not only provide schools with IT equipment such as computers, but also improve teachers' digital skills to better their ability to use resources. To strengthen teachers' teaching ability and assist them in integrating information technology with education and teaching, relevant government departments should provide teachers with free-of-charge internet access with the help of infrastructure construction and carry out pre- and post-service teacher training.
Mohamed Ould Amar, Director General of ALECSO, pointed out via video, that ALECSO has fully realized the great energy of science and technology in educational transformation. He also believed that the adoption of ICT to develop education in Arab countries should be a priority. To successfully implement AI and education-related projects, ALECSO held Arab Code Week to promote the culture of programming sciences, verified the credibility of university degree certificates using blockchain technology, and enabled the young generation to enter the world of the Metaverse and NFTs through the ALECSO NFT education platform. To improve learners' survival and development in a knowledge-based society, ALECSO will expand and deepen future exchange and cooperation with international organizations, regional organizations, colleges and universities, and scientific research institutions.
At the opening ceremony, Chen Li, Director of the Technical Committee of National Engineering Laboratory for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology and Professor of Beijing Normal University, released the "Innovative Achievement of the Basic Theory of Internet + Education". The achievement is rooted in the first-mover advantage and practical soil of Internet education in China, and attempts to answer three major theoretical questions during the implementation of the national "Internet + Education" strategy: first, it explains the basic principles of the Internet to promote the educational reform, including the transformation role of the Internet, the connotation and extension of "Internet + Education" and the focus on promoting the innovative development of "Internet + Education"; second, the achievement creatively puts forward the philosophical thought of "Internet + Education", including the ontology, epistemology, methodology and world outlook of "Internet + Education"; third, it reveals the teaching law of "Internet + Education", including learners' self-organization, the emergence of knowledge and the nonlinear relationship between teaching and learning. This achievement is the first all-round, multi-angle and systematic research result on the basic theory of "Internet + Education" in China, which will provide important theoretical support for the implementation of the national "Internet + Education" strategy. During the conference, important achievements in smart education, AI and future education development will also be released.
Zhou Zuoyu, Vice President of Beijing Normal University, presided over the opening ceremony of the conference. Zhan Tao, Director of the UNESCO IITE, presided over the Forum on Educational Digitalization and Lifelong Learning. Qin Changwei, Secretary General of National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO, attended the conference.
On the first day of the conference, the Forum on Data Governance and Cognitive Development, Forum on Generative Artificial Intelligence and Futures of Education, and Forum on Educational Digitalization Strategy and Policy Planning were also held. Lei Chaozi, Director General of the Department of Science, Technology and Informatization, the Ministry of Education, expounded the significance of data governance from the perspective of strengthening the country through education, and introduced the practical exploration of data governance in China. He said that the Chinese government will continue to deeply implement the national educational digitalization strategy, and promote the reform and innovation of education through the development and application of educational big data. Mammo Muchie, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, introduced the intelligent implementation of digital higher education and AI in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Dakar Action Plan. John Thaw Shawe-Taylor, Director of UNESCO’s International Research Center for AI and Professor at the University College London, put forward a "human-centered AI system" to ensure that AI can enhance people's experience, energy and creativity. Professor Zhang Zhiyong, Director of the Center for National Survey on Education of Beijing Normal University, elaborated the strategic path of strong education country construction. Sun Shanxue, Member of the Strategic Advisory Committee for Strong Education Country Construction of the Ministry of Education, analyzed the main problems in the digital development of vocational education. Raúl Valdés-Cotera, Program Coordinator at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, elaborated the expansion of the opportunity of receiving higher education through digital technology. Harlena Harris, Program Director of the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group, proposed to empower ideas and transform the education mode through technology. Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, advocated study in the digital world.
The final of the 6th Global Competition on Design for Future Education was also held concurrently. Since its launch on March 1, the competition has attracted participation from more than 1,000 college students, and 2,000 primary and secondary school teachers from more than 30 countries and regions. Following fierce competition in the preliminary contests and pre-finals, 20 outstanding works were selected for the final in the group of college students and the group of primary and secondary school teachers respectively. The final will last for three days (August 18-20), and tutors from various fields will provide guidance for college students all the time, helping the participants produce innovative, design and scientific educational solutions. Twenty primary and secondary school teachers will participate in the final defense and report their excellent education and teaching cases.
It is reported that the conference will last until August 20, and a total of 16 thematic forums will be held. On 19-20, the Forum on Generative AI Large Models and Psychological Assessment, the Forum on New Ecology of Regional Smart Education, the Forum on Digital Transformation of Regional Education, the Forum on New Teaching and Learning Mode Integrating Information Technology, the Forum on Teacher Digital Competences and Innovative Talent Cultivation Model, Forum on Youth Skills Development and Digital Transformation, the Forum on Smart Village and Rural Education Transformation, and the Forum on Information Technology-supported Innovative Comprehensive Evaluation of Students, the Forum on Digital Campus and Intelligent Educational Equipment, the Teacher Forum on Innovative Practice of Smart Education, the Student Forum on Design for Future Education, and the Forum on Technology-Empowered Educational Transformation & Closing Ceremony will be held. During the conference, the Smart Education Exhibition will be simultaneously held to display the latest smart education products and services of enterprises.
The conference is co-hosted by Beijing Normal University and UNESCO IITE and co-organized by the Smart Learning Institute, Faculty of Education and Faculty of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, China Institute of Education and Social Development and the National Engineering Laboratory for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology.
The conference is supported by partners including the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, the Commonwealth of Learning, the ISTE and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, the Education Bureau of Longhua District, Shenzhen, and enterprises including NetDragon Websoft Inc., China Unicom, iFLYTEK, UNIS MOEDU, H3C Group, Baidu, Huawei, Alibaba Cloud, Jingshi Ruidao, 17 Education & Technology Group, Tencent Education, Onion Academy, Squirrel Ai, OUR SCHOOL, Pure Zixi, Rokid and KingSha.
Contact info:
Website: http://gse.bnu.edu.cn/en
Email address: gse@bnu.edu.cn
WeChat: GlobalSmartEducation
Participants can either refer to the official website at http://gse.bnu.edu.cn/en or scan the following QR code:
Website: http://gse.bnu.edu.cn/en
Email address: gse@bnu.edu.cn
WeChat: GlobalSmartEducation
Participants can either refer to the official website at http://gse.bnu.edu.cn/en or scan the following QR code:
This page by Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.