More than half of the surveyed schools have opened or are preparing artificial intelligence education and teaching activities, but the lack of teachers' teaching ability and the incomplete curriculum system are still outstanding problems to be solved urgently - this is the "2022 Artificial Intelligence Education Blue Book" (hereinafter referred to as "" One of the AI education dilemmas pointed out by the Blue Book).
Recently, the China Academy of Educational Sciences, East China Normal University and Tencent jointly held a conference on artificial intelligence education and the "Artificial Intelligence Teacher Competency Standards (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as "Standards (Trial)") and the "Blue Book" results conference.
The "Standard (Trial)" and "Blue Book" aim to guide the practice of artificial intelligence education, and also outline the current situation of artificial intelligence education.
The construction of teaching staff is still a key part of artificial intelligence education in my country.
Among the primary and secondary schools interviewed, the number of teachers participating in AI course teaching activities is relatively small, and there are very few full-time teachers teaching AI courses.
In addition, the artificial intelligence courses that have been opened are still in the stage of allowing students to understand and experience artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is integrating with education
Ren Changshan, director of the Information Division of the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education, pointed out at the seminar that the current generation of information technology represented by artificial intelligence is deeply integrated with education, showing a general trend of accelerated transformation to networking, digitization and intelligence.
Major countries in the world have focused on the core technologies, platforms, products, standards and other fields of AI education, and actively explored and promoted the digital transformation of AI-enabled education.
Moreover, under the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, new technologies such as artificial intelligence have shown us the great potential of future education.
In fact, my country has introduced a series of measures in the integrated development of artificial intelligence and education.
Ren Changshan introduced that in terms of infrastructure construction, my country has issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of New Educational Infrastructures", using artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies as the driving force to build six networks, platforms, resources, campuses, applications, and security. The integrated education emerging infrastructure promotes the digital transformation, intelligent upgrade and integrated innovation of education; two batches of 18 smart education demonstration zones have been established to promote the use of artificial intelligence and other information technologies to update educational concepts and change educational models; Two batches of pilot projects for AI to boost the construction of teaching staff were launched, and the integration of intelligent technology and teaching staff construction was further promoted in 46 regions and 56 colleges; 19 bases to explore an effective path for the modernization of AI-enabled education governance; at the same time, for three consecutive years, the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education was jointly held with UNESCO in Beijing, and the "Beijing Declaration" was issued.
Wu Wei, vice chairman of the Future Education Special Committee of the China Education Development Strategy Society, said that when talking about artificial intelligence education in primary and secondary schools, there are often two levels of meaning: first, it refers to the establishment of artificial intelligence-related courses to cultivate students' understanding interest in artificial intelligence technology, enhance their understanding and application of technology, and at the same time increase their risk awareness of artificial intelligence; second, use artificial intelligence technology to optimize teaching, management and evaluation, and promote high-quality development of education. It is AI-enabled education.
"We have also contacted many schools and found that their needs are mainly concentrated in classrooms, teaching materials and teachers. In fact, the lack of the first two is relatively easy to solve, many companies can provide relatively mature artificial intelligence products, and many publishing houses Relevant teaching materials have also been issued to provide supporting course teaching resources." Wu Wei said, "But the problem of teachers cannot be solved in the short term. Teacher training needs to have clear standards and a supporting training and training system."
Improving teachers' ability is a top priority
The survey data also shows that Wu Ting's views have universal significance.
Tencent Education and Tencent Research Institute, in conjunction with the China Academy of Educational Sciences and East China Normal University, conducted a questionnaire survey on 160,000 students, more than 20,000 teachers and more than 1,000 principals in 25 provinces and cities across the country for half a year. The Blue Book.
The "Blue Book" research team found that school management generally actively promotes artificial intelligence courses, but the training of teachers' ability and the improvement of the curriculum system are the top priorities.
Among the primary and secondary schools interviewed, the number of teachers participating in the teaching activities of artificial intelligence courses is relatively small, and there are very few full-time teachers teaching artificial intelligence courses.
In addition, the artificial intelligence courses that have been opened are still in the stage of allowing students to understand and experience artificial intelligence.
The artificial intelligence course is a multidisciplinary course with strong cutting-edge.
The content of its courses is wide-ranging, extensive, and updated quickly. Therefore, teachers of artificial intelligence courses can only adapt to the needs of curriculum development by constantly updating their own knowledge and skills.
Gu Xiaoqing, a professor at East China Normal University, introduced in his interpretation of the "Blue Book" that a total of 15,080 interviewed teachers had used artificial intelligence technology in the survey.
The research team conducted a survey and analysis of the participation of some teachers in related courses in higher education. Only nearly 30% of teachers of artificial intelligence courses have received training in courses related to applying artificial intelligence technology to teaching in higher education.
"This may also explain the current situation where the ability of AI teachers is generally weak. Teaching during higher education is the first step for teachers to get in touch with AI." Gu Xiaoqing said, fortunately, most front-line teachers are very much in favor of teaching in higher education. AI courses are offered at the education stage, which lays the foundation for future teacher education.
AI education is not just technology education
Wang Qiong, a professor at the School of Education of Peking University, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that on the one hand, artificial intelligence courses, like other information technologies, need to let students understand and understand technology; on the other hand, artificial intelligence courses should also cultivate students' imagination and understanding of the future. foresight.
"In a sense, artificial intelligence education is not only technical education, but also the understanding of future social development can be integrated into such courses." Wang Qiong said.
"If there are no suitable teachers, all the beautiful visions about artificial intelligence we discuss may be zero." Yu Xiaoya, a professor at the School of Information, Beijing Institute of Education, pointed out that the best way to train teachers is to find real scenarios and implement them. Applications.
She emphasized that when doing teacher training, we must eventually return to the reform of teaching methods.
If it is still taught in the traditional way, the so-called artificial intelligence course is just another technology learning.
A teacher once said that I would like to teach a class on the theme of "Artificial Intelligence Writing Poems".
So, talk about technology, let high school children call the module of natural language processing, and use artificial intelligence to write a poem, does it mean that the teaching goal has been completed?
Yu Xiaoya said that this is not enough.
"We have to find problems. We have to think about a problem in a life scenario, and let the course be linked to problem solving." For example, can the course be settled on whether the poetry written by artificial intelligence can surpass the poetry written by humans, or How does AI poetry compare to human poetry?
"This has become a project-based learning content. Otherwise, simply teaching students technology will not achieve the goal of our teaching reform." Yu Xiaoya said.
What abilities should AI teachers have?
On the basis of the "Blue Book" research, Wang Su, director of the Future School Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, organized a professional team to try to answer this question.
The "Standards (Trial)" issued this time put forward clear requirements for AI teachers in six dimensions: artificial intelligence understanding and awareness, basic knowledge, basic skills, problem solving, teaching practice, ethics and safety.
For example, in terms of teaching practice, the "Standard (Trial)" believes that teachers should be able to use instructional design methods and tools to carry out classroom teaching practice according to the requirements of AI curriculum standards and the availability of AI teaching equipment; they should also be able to help other disciplines. Teachers are familiar with various artificial intelligence education and teaching application methods, and guide teachers in other disciplines to actively apply artificial intelligence technology and tools to optimize teaching practice.
Wang Su hopes that the "Standard (Trial)" can become an important guide to standardize and lead AI teachers to effectively carry out AI education activities in education and teaching, and serve as an important guide for schools to carry out AI teacher training, AI teacher training, and AI teacher evaluation. It also provides support for artificial intelligence courses in primary and secondary schools.
Our reporter Zhang Gailun