Forum on Digital Education and Lifelong Learning | GSE2024 archived announcement

Archived announcement: the Forum on Digital Education and Lifelong Learning was scheduled for Tuesday 20 August 2024, 14:00–17:00. The event has ended. The original poster says “Lecture Hall”; the conference handbook specifies Lecture Hall 1. This page preserves the early programme, with names and roles recorded from 2024 materials, not as proof of current appointments or attendance.

Conference context and forum topics

Approved by China’s Ministry of Education, the Global Smart Education Conference 2024 was scheduled for 18–20 August in Beijing, co-hosted by BNU and the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE). Under the theme of educational transformation and international understanding, its programme covered policy, technology and practice through plenaries, high-level dialogues, thematic forums, roundtables and workshops, with research and partnership launches and displays of cases and solutions to strengthen international exchange.

The forum connected educational digital transformation with the development of a learning society. It reconsidered teaching models and learning methods to support differentiated instruction, personalised learning and lifelong learning. The announcement emphasised digital pedagogy as a theoretical foundation, technology-enabled and learner-centred learning, and a trustworthy digital environment.

The early poster identified five topic areas:

• Evolving technologies and smart learning environments.
• Digital transformation and innovative use of learning resources.
• Learning processes and digital pedagogy in the digital era.
• Digital resources, teaching materials and equipment for experimental teaching.
• Lifelong learning for all and the development of a learning society.

Organising and supporting institutions

The following four institutions hosted the forum, with NetDragon Websoft Inc. as supporting co-organiser:

• National Engineering Research Center of Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology, China.
• UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE).
• Commonwealth of Learning (COL).
• Virtual Simulation Experiment Teaching Innovation Alliance, China.

14:00–14:10 Opening remarks

Opening remarks were scheduled for 14:00–14:10, chaired by Svetlana Knyazeva, Chief of the Unit of Digital Pedagogy and Learning Materials at UNESCO IITE. The early poster listed:

• Isabell Kempf — Director, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), by video.

14:10–15:40 Keynotes

The 14:10–15:40 keynote session, also chaired by Svetlana Knyazeva, listed five speakers:

• Torunn Gjelsvik — Secretary-General, International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE).
• Li Song — Vice-President, The Open University of China.
• Rajni Chand — Director, Centre for Flexible Learning and Pacific Centre for Flexible and Open Learning for Development (PACFOLD, a COL regional centre), University of the South Pacific, Fiji; coordinator of the ICDE Quality Network in Oceania, as listed in the poster.
• Maxim Jean-Louis — Chief Executive Officer, Contact North.
• Maria Cecília Calani Baranauskas — Professor, State University of Campinas, Brazil.

15:40–17:00 Case presentations

The 15:40–17:00 case presentation session listed seven speakers:

• Elijah I. Omwenga — Representative of Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Education; Vice-Chancellor and Professor, Open University of Kenya.
• Arshad Saleem Bhatti — Rector and Professor, Virtual University of Pakistan.
• Teng Waninga — Vice-Chancellor, University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea.
• Liu Guangquan — Party Committee Secretary, Jinan Information Engineering School, China.
• Oksana Strutynska — Professor, Université Côte d’Azur, France.
• Fang Ke — Manager, AgentLand Laboratory, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, China.
• Tan Ting — Head of the Information Technology Department, Hanyang District Teaching Research and Training Centre, Wuhan, China.

Wang Hongyu, Executive Secretary-General of the Virtual Simulation Experiment Teaching Innovation Alliance, was to chair the case presentations. These are advance arrangements, not confirmation of participation, speeches or launches.

Original poster and archive notes

Archive note: SLI’s announcement is dated 16 August 2024, the public-account index 15 August and the forum 20 August. This archive uses the official website date. The text preserves the early poster version; printed pages 62–64 of the English conference handbook include updates, including the opening speaker list. Teng Waninga’s title is Vice-Chancellor, following the handbook and the University of Goroka’s 2024 document; the poster’s Chinese rendering as deputy head is corrected. Svetlana’s surname is standardised as Knyazeva using UNESCO IITE’s material.

The original poster is retained in full. Topics, speakers and institutions are transcribed into readable text for mobile reading, search and assistive technology. Differences between poster and handbook are identified by version; later information is not silently inserted into the earlier announcement.