The UNESCO Chair on AI in Education was inaugurated at Beijing Normal University (BNU) on 31 March 2023. BNU President Ma Jun and Qin Changwei, Secretary-General of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, unveiled the Chair’s plaque. BNU Vice President Zhou Zuoyu presided over the ceremony.
Participants joining in person or online included Sobhi Tawil, Director of UNESCO’s Future of Learning and Innovation team; Miao Fengchun, Chief of UNESCO’s Unit for Technology and AI in Education; Shahbaz Khan, Director of the UNESCO Office in Beijing; BNU President Ma Jun; Qin Changwei, Secretary-General of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO; and BNU Senior Professor Gu Mingyuan.
New technologies such as artificial intelligence are bringing systemic changes to society and profound changes to education. To respond more effectively to these challenges, BNU and UNESCO signed the agreement establishing the Chair on AI in Education in February 2023. The Chair seeks to strengthen cooperation and exchange among leading researchers and educators from universities and educational institutions in China, elsewhere in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other regions. Its work will advance AI innovation, explore effective and ethical uses of AI in education, and support talent development.
Professor Huang Ronghuai Named Chairholder
Professor Huang Ronghuai of BNU, holder of the UNESCO Chair on AI in Education, presented the Chair’s vision, objectives and work plan. Speaking at the ceremony, he said that activities were planned to begin in the first half of 2023, with research, training, information sharing and documentation on AI in education to be undertaken during the four-year term.
The Chair would pursue five main objectives: establishing training centers and pilot settings for typical educational applications of AI; building a cross-sector community of policymakers, researchers and practitioners in AI and education; launching open interdisciplinary research projects; developing high-quality AI-related databases; and establishing working groups for information exchange and project cooperation.
Its five principal tasks were to develop an AI and education digital resource center; establish a teachers’ community of practice on AI in education; organize international workshops on social experiments with AI in education; conduct international joint research on educational robots for multilingual learning and inclusive education; and build an international network for academic exchange and cooperation in AI and education. Professor Huang invited more institutions and researchers to participate, supporting Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4): ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Keynote Addresses
Drawing on the responsibilities of UNESCO Chairs, Sobhi Tawil emphasized that digital technologies should serve a shared vision for humanity. Attention must be paid to the ethics of AI applications in education, with humanistic values upheld throughout the development and use of educational AI. He said that UNESCO was developing safeguards and ethical guidelines for AI in education to guide the development of AI and strengthen the capabilities of teachers and students.
Qin Changwei said that establishing the Chair responded to the new demands of educational transformation in the age of AI and was an important step in deepening international exchange and cooperation. The Chinese National Commission for UNESCO would actively support the Chair’s role in AI-enabled educational transformation. He expressed the hope that the Chair would contribute to high-level international research and exchange platforms, international capacity building in AI and education, and the development of internationally minded talent.
Shahbaz Khan affirmed the Chair’s importance for the digital transformation of education. He emphasized that promoting and applying AI in education must advance inclusion, so that everyone, particularly marginalized groups, can access quality education and lifelong learning. The UNESCO Office in Beijing would strongly support the Chair and the global network of UNESCO Chairs, helping institutions strengthen technological innovation and enabling dialogue and knowledge sharing worldwide.
Taking the broader perspective of global digital transformation, Ma Jun affirmed the importance of the Chair on AI in Education. He described its establishment as an important outcome of BNU’s deepening and expanding cooperation with UNESCO. BNU would fully support the Chair’s work and join partners across society in responding to global educational challenges and advancing human well-being.
Roundtable of UNESCO Chair Representatives in China
Representatives of several UNESCO Chairs held a roundtable during the launch, sharing their activities, achievements and social impact. Participants included Professor Zhu Xudong, Dean of BNU’s Faculty of Education and a representative of the UNESCO Chair on AI in Education; Professor Yan Fengqiao of Peking University, representing the UNESCO Chair in Higher Education; Professor Xu Yugong of Beijing Jiaotong University, holder of the UNESCO Chair on Cooperation Between Higher Engineering Education and Industries; and Professor Liu Shu of China Women’s University, representing the UNESCO Chair in Media and Gender. Professor Wu Fati of BNU moderated the discussion.
Seminar on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Education
The launch was followed by a seminar on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Education. Keynote speakers were BNU Senior Professor Gu Mingyuan; Miao Fengchun, Chief of UNESCO’s Unit for Technology and AI in Education; Professor Colin de la Higuera of Nantes University, holder of the UNESCO Chair in Technologies for the Training of Teachers by Open Educational Resources; Professor Rose Luckin of University College London (UCL); Professor Chee-kit Looi of Nanyang Technological University; and Professor John Shawe-Taylor of UCL, holder of the UNESCO Chair in Artificial Intelligence.
The panel brought together Professor Jiao Jianli of South China Normal University, Professor Wang Qiong of Peking University, Professor Fang Haiguang of Capital Normal University, UCL Associate Professor of Learning Technologies Mutlu Cukurova, and Professor Ahmed Tlili of BNU. Professor Li Yanyan of BNU chaired the keynote session, and Professor Yang Junfeng of Hangzhou Normal University chaired the panel. The handbook ‘Learning for All with AI? 100 Influential Academic Articles of Educational Robots’ was also released at the seminar.
Expert Perspectives
Gu Mingyuan, Senior Professor at BNU and Honorary President of the Chinese Society of Education, identified three relationships that require careful handling when digital technologies are used in education. First is the relationship between technology and the humanities: digital technology is a means of improving educational quality, while education’s fundamental mission of fostering virtue and nurturing people, its humanistic spirit and the fine traditions of Chinese culture must be maintained. Second is the relationship between modern and traditional education: valuable traditional educational approaches should be preserved as digital technologies are adopted. Third is the relationship between the real and virtual worlds: digital technologies, especially virtual reality, can improve teaching and students’ understanding of concepts, but students must also engage with nature and society and develop knowledge and wisdom through direct activity and experience.
Miao Fengchun argued that AI-enabled educational transformation must remain human-centered. AI should be explainable and predictable, under human control and accountable to people. Its use should be guided by comprehensive digital learning policies that support digital educational practice and continually develop teachers’ and students’ digital literacy. Policymakers should give further thought to ensuring ethical uses of AI in teaching and learning, laying the foundations for digital learning by students, teachers and all citizens.
John Shawe-Taylor observed that the rapid global development of AI could not be avoided and that education must respond actively to its effects. Appropriate connections should be built between computer science, the humanities and the social sciences: a narrow focus on algorithms and mathematics alone would not achieve the goals of AI-enabled education. He argued that computer science teachers need training in the humanities and that the humanities and science and technology should be brought closely together.
Rose Luckin said that applying AI in teaching and learning required reflection on the whole education system, particularly assessment. Education should make full use of existing technologies while adapting to new tools such as ChatGPT. Rather than simply choosing or rejecting AI, education systems should help people understand how to use it. A comprehensive understanding of the respective strengths and limitations of technology and human beings would enable AI to serve people while deepening human self-understanding.
Chee-kit Looi said that Singapore’s Ministry of Education regarded ChatGPT as a tool comparable to a calculator. Students should learn to obtain information through AI and critically assess the value of such tools. Teachers should remain open-minded, avoiding both excessive reliance on intelligent tools and blanket rejection of them. Students need essential practical skills as well as an understanding of the underlying concepts. Educators should consider how ChatGPT could support personalized learning and differentiated instruction, improve the efficiency of assessment and help avoid risks.
Colin de la Higuera said that human-centered AI seeks new approaches to creating systems that support communication and exchange. Educational uses of AI should likewise help people understand technology and adapt it to their circumstances. The differences between human beings and intelligent systems should be fully recognized, human value affirmed, and AI directed toward serving society, bringing benefits and avoiding risks. The next generation should be taught to use AI to solve new problems, so that intelligent technologies can benefit more people.
Further Reading
Original link: https://aiedchair.bnu.edu.cn/news-4378-en/
