AI + Education Precisely Meets Personalized Learning Needs as Smart Education Continues to Advance
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Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is deepening, with digital technologies increasingly becoming the driving force behind fundamental and comprehensive changes in human society's thinking patterns, organizational structures, and operational models. A new landscape of high-quality economic and social development driven by data is taking shape.
Centered on the theme of 'Smart Education and Future Schools,' discussions have focused on the core technologies, platforms, products, and standards of AI in education, exploring the necessity and feasibility of AI-driven digital transformation in education from various perspectives. These discussions reveal the profound relationship between education, technology, and talent. Accelerating the implementation of digital education strategies, leveraging digital thinking, concepts, and technologies, and utilizing resources and data as new production factors, efforts are being made in 'assisting learning, teaching, management, and research' to explore new mechanisms, models, and forms of future education in the digital era.
Smart Education Continues to Advance
Under the framework of Digital China, copyright holders of high-quality educational content continue to benefit from the strategic direction of digital education. They actively integrate education with new technologies to explore knowledge-based payment scenarios in smart education. Business models for smart education platforms and other implementation projects are gradually becoming clearer. AI + education precisely meets personalized learning needs and is expected to create knowledge-based payment scenarios, providing new momentum for performance growth.
The study tour market is recovering, and publishing companies are expected to leverage their content and distribution advantages to explore new monetization paths.
2023 In-Depth Analysis of the Smart Education Industry
Promoting the digital transformation of education and exploring smart education are inevitable requirements of technological progress and productivity development in the new era. They are also an important part of the Digital China initiative, playing a foundational, pioneering, and comprehensive role in the process of Chinese-style modernization. Smart education represents a new form of education in the digital era, fundamentally different from the industrial-era education model, with new implications and requirements in five dimensions: educational philosophy, system structure, teaching paradigms, educational content, and governance.
Smart education is a global trend and the direction of the times, facing a series of major theoretical and practical challenges. It is a key goal of digital transformation in education and represents the future direction of educational development. Smart education is not a partial improvement of traditional education but a comprehensive reform with implications for national welfare, people's livelihoods, and the future of humanity.
At the Minhang Education High-Quality Development Promotion Conference held in March this year, Minhang proposed the '12369' action strategy, one of the key components of which is promoting high-standard, well-planned, and well-resourced educational infrastructure. In the future, Minhang's education sector will focus on advancing high-quality development, leading the way in balanced, high-quality, and distinctive development.
At the primary school level, Minhang leverages the brand influence of existing resources to expand and strengthen educational groups. Additionally, Minhang actively introduces high-quality resources from universities within the region, such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University, East China Normal University, East China University of Science and Technology, and Shanghai Theatre Academy, to extend these resources to basic education. Minhang is a major educational district, second only to Pudong New Area in scale. This year, Minhang saw over 20,000 students transitioning from kindergarten to primary school and 18,000 from primary to secondary school. This means that, starting this year, the number of students entering secondary schools will remain at a peak level for several consecutive years. To proactively address the upcoming surge in secondary school admissions, Minhang is shifting its focus from comprehensive development across all educational stages to secondary education. Beyond the projects outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan, the district will add 1–2 secondary school construction projects. To adapt to demographic changes, Minhang is integrating various resources, building platforms for educational talent development, improving talent梯队建设, and fostering the growth of骨干教师 and young teachers to expand the professional capacity of the teaching workforce.
Minhang has collaborated with nine universities on nearly 30 joint education projects and signed strategic agreements with Shanghai Normal University, East China Normal University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University to provide post-employment training for骨干教师,学科带头人, and young teachers.
Prospects for Smart Education Development
In the digital era, the industrial-era education model can no longer keep pace with societal development. Promoting the digital transformation of education and exploring smart education have become shared priorities worldwide.
China has long recognized the transformative impact of information technology on educational development, establishing a robust foundation for smart education through sustained theoretical and practical exploration. During the Education Informatization 1.0 phase, China implemented key initiatives such as the "School-to-School Connectivity Project," "Modern Distance Education Project for Rural Primary and Secondary Schools," "Three Connections and Two Platforms," "Full Coverage of Digital Educational Resources for Teaching Sites," and "Digital Campus Construction." These efforts formed a nationwide infrastructure system for informatization, gradually integrating information technology into teaching and learning practices. In the Education Informatization 2.0 phase, policies like the "Education Informatization 2.0 Action Plan" and "China's Education Modernization 2035" were introduced, advancing the widespread adoption of digital resources, standardized digital campus construction, comprehensive online learning spaces, and optimized educational governance. The establishment of smart education demonstration zones further contributed to the initial formation of a digital ecosystem for Chinese education.
In 2022, the Ministry of Education launched the National Education Digitalization Strategy, creating the National Smart Education Public Service Platform. Leveraging resources and data as new production factors, the platform explores innovative models for "assisting learning, teaching, management, research, and international exchange and cooperation." On March 28, 2023, the National Smart Education Reading Platform was introduced, offering diverse reading spaces for students at various academic levels and the general public.