Where is education heading in the intelligent era? Since ChatGPT appeared, the changes and challenges that AI brings to education have been widely debated. Huang Ronghuai, Dean of the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University and Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology, argues that generative AI may overturn the existing education system as a whole. He calls for transforming education with intelligent technologies, strengthening teachers’ and students’ competencies for the intelligent era, jointly exploring and practising digital pedagogy, and developing human–AI collaborative teaching in an orderly manner and in accordance with relevant requirements.
New demands arising from generative AI’s integration into education
The rapid development of generative AI, particularly the emergence of ChatGPT, has prompted worldwide discussion. In early 2023, my team and I conducted a comparative study of educational uses of ChatGPT in countries including the United States, China, Türkiye and Australia. We concluded that educational applications of AI should be approached openly but cautiously, with updated teaching philosophies, attention to ethics, and a refusal to accept model outputs uncritically.
Potential educational inequalities arising from AI require attention. Its use may create unequal technological rights between producers and consumers, and between upstream and downstream actors in development. Tensions may also arise over ownership and governance of data assets. The digital-use divide is another concern: alongside differences in infrastructure and economic conditions between regions, particular attention should be paid to teachers’ attitudes towards digital technologies and the differences in classroom use that follow from those attitudes.
AI systems are becoming increasingly complex, and gaps are emerging between technological methods and purposes. Risks include false or misleading information, algorithmic discrimination and bias, privacy and data leaks, and misuse of technology.
Yet we should not respond by fearing, avoiding or rejecting AI applications. Doing so may leave educational uses of AI undeveloped and teachers and students without the basic adaptability and ability to thrive that the intelligent era requires.
It would also mean missing opportunities for the systemic integration of technology and education, failing to activate education’s internal capacity for transformation, and obstructing digital transformation and high-quality development.
“Any work based on a stable system of rules, whose patterns are hidden in accessible data, may be replaced by AI.” In the intelligent era, the education system built on the Industrial Revolution—with the division of knowledge, disciplinary classification and teaching in separate classes at its core—may be overturned as a whole. Reconstructing that system is urgent: this is the new demand arising from generative AI’s integration into education.
New forms of education for the intelligent era
Education will develop a view of knowledge based on collective creation and sharing, a view of learning based on intelligent connections and construction, an integrated and open view of curricula, and a view of teaching based on human–AI collaboration.
Knowledge: collective creation and sharing
Generative AI will advance collective knowledge creation and sharing. More knowledge will be generated by algorithms, the boundary between subjective and objective knowledge will gradually blur, and substantial amounts of knowledge will be produced through human–AI collaboration. It will exhibit collective intelligence, openness, fragmentation and ambiguity. Types of knowledge will also change: factual knowledge will become easier to obtain, procedural knowledge will become more important, and acquiring tacit and implicit knowledge will become central to learning.
Learning: intelligent connections and construction
Learning in the intelligent era emphasises collaboration among teachers, machines and students. In intelligent environments, learners acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes by interacting with peers and teachers and by jointly constructing understanding with intelligent agents. AI can support the selection of content, the design of pathways and immediate personalised assessment, creating more possibilities for learning situations. Self-directed, personalised and experiential learning, along with the development of innovative capabilities, become priorities.
Curricula: integration and openness
Changes concern the meaning, forms and resources of curricula. Their purpose will shift from knowledge alone towards multiple educational goals, and from transmitting information towards scientific understanding, technological experience, social participation, cultural awareness and understanding life. Curricula will move from closed to open forms, with traditional subject-based courses gradually giving way to integrated, context-driven provision. Resources will become increasingly precise, timely and personalised, while learning across countries, regions, times and spaces becomes normal, making inclusion and equity possible. The first value in UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence calls for “respect, protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms and human dignity”, which is essential to this integrated and open approach.
Teaching: human–AI collaboration
Integrating intelligent technologies prompts us to reconsider teaching philosophies and how personalised resources can best support students’ agency. Goals will move beyond acquiring knowledge towards strengthening digital literacy, capacities for sustainable development, self-identity and integration, developing core competencies for the intelligent era. AI will complement, enhance and extend teachers’ capabilities, supporting their transition into designers of learning situations, organisers of learning and guides.
New measures for transforming education with intelligent technologies
1. Strengthen teachers’ and students’ competencies for the intelligent era
Strengthening creativity, adaptability and the ability to thrive among teachers and students is a timely response to the intelligent era.
For students, improve mechanisms for developing digital literacy and skills, strengthen self-directed learning, and increase the benefits they gain from learning with intelligent technologies.
For teachers:
- Encourage active exploration and use of intelligent technologies, understanding of their basic principles, and sharing and exchange among teachers;
- Organise personalised professional development that builds awareness of changing teaching roles;
- Use teaching-data collection and diagnostic analysis for targeted teaching research, supporting professional competence and digital literacy.
2. Jointly explore and practise digital pedagogy
Pedagogy concerns the basic principles and methods that guide teaching. Transforming teaching across contexts with intelligent technologies requires multiple parties to explore and practise digital pedagogy together, across four dimensions:
- Technology-enabled deep learning. Deep learning develops higher-order thinking and core competencies, particularly the improvement and transfer of learning abilities and thinking qualities. Develop students’ digital capabilities and guide them to use resources and tools effectively for creative, thoughtful and experiential deep learning, empowering self-directed learning and personal development.
- Green and robust digital learning environments. Build secure environments consistent with educational ethics and regulations; strengthen their stability, reliability and scalability; and reinforce safeguards such as data encryption and content filtering to protect teachers’ and students’ personal information and learning-data privacy.
- Evidence-oriented teaching practice. Use evidence of learning to identify and address key teaching problems precisely. High-quality digital resources should improve learning outcomes and support continuous innovation and improvement, raising teaching quality and effectiveness.
- Collaborative education based on human–AI mutual trust. Encourage cooperation and interaction between teachers and trustworthy AI systems. Use precise, timely and personalised resources, give full scope to student agency, and strengthen the thinking abilities, ethical outlook and value orientations required for human–AI collaboration.
3. Develop human–AI collaborative teaching in an orderly and compliant manner
Human–AI collaborative teaching has become one of the inevitable trends in future educational practice. Whether or not teachers actively integrate AI into courses, students’ and families’ acceptance and use of intelligent tools such as ChatGPT have already become an irreversible trend.
Looking ahead, we urgently need a deeper understanding of the internal mechanisms of human–AI collaborative teaching, using empirical methods to improve its structures and implementation processes. Relevant technologies also need clear entry criteria, and practice guidelines should be developed to ensure appropriate use and effective integration with teaching.
Above all, successful cases and experience should be shared widely with teachers. Professional development should be systematically organised around their real needs, spreading advanced, transferable and high-quality practices of human–AI collaborative teaching and bringing new vitality to education’s future development.
Sources and historical context
Original source credited in the archive: Zhongguancun Internet Education Innovation Center’s official WeChat account.
Edited and translated from the Chair website’s archive dated 16 July 2024. The complete discussion, credited roles and historical context are retained.
The original phrase “切莫引以为然” is rendered as “do not accept model outputs uncritically”, following the author’s signed research on output accuracy and evaluating information. The original wording is retained for checking.
References and related resources： Chinese archive · Wording in the author’s signed research · UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI · Official author profile
Original link: https://aiedchair.bnu.edu.cn/news-9192-en/
