“Digital transformation of education” is a hot topic of present educational reform and the development tendency of future educational innovation. Digital transformation of education, as a process stressing technology-driven educational innovation and reform, boasts the importance of development in its birth and practice. It is driven jointly by social and cultural transitions, the impetus of technical innovation, the guidance of national policies, and the endogenous development of the education system. The logic of practice of the transformation can be regarded as the behavior choice dominated by value and intentions, and the underlying generation principles in practice comprise the “problem-driven + concept-led” principle, the “system evolution + innovative breakthrough” principle, and the “value assessment + iterative optimization” principle. At present, under the background of constructing the new ecology of a smart society and a high-quality education system, and under the pressure of COVID-19 pandemic, the transformation faces golden development opportunities. Nonetheless, the present transformation practice still has some differences from the expected value orientation. Therefore, it is required to research and develop a mature digital education model or framework, carry out a national digital education preparation campaign, work for pilot schemes for the transformation at all levels and of all kinds, attach importance to theoretical research on education relating to the digital transformation of education, and more actively embrace the new wave of educational reform worldwide.
The 5G communication technology serving a wide range of vertical industries is maturing, which provides a possible boost for the development of smart education and lays a foundation for solving the principal contradiction in current education. With the characteristics of ultra-high speed, low latency, low energy consumption, massive network capacity, and high reliability, the 5G technology is applied with other technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), big data, and blockchain to promote the application upgrading of intelligent education technology. This paper analyzes the intelligent education technology and its eight typical applications in the 5G era, which include smart safe campus, integrated learning spaces, synchronous cyber classrooms, teachers’ professional development, robot learning partners, mobile and ubiquitous learning, virtual simulation training, and smart e-textbooks. Then, it discusses how intelligent education technology promotes changes in the modes of learning and teaching in the 5G era from three dimensions: individual learning, collaborative group learning, and classroom-based collective teaching. At last, the framework of smart education in the 5G era is proposed from the perspectives of intelligent education technology and its typical applications, changes in learning and teaching, and the new ecosystem of smart education.
In education, digitalization has become a pivotal force to promote educational reform in the new era, featuring demand-driven development of digital transformation in education. Digital transformation in higher education aims to reshape its new capabilities based on next-generation digital technologies concerning the quality of development of higher education. As per the scope of services and composition of responsible subjects like personnel, digital transformation in higher education should focus on three key areas: talent development, scientific research, as well as management and services. In addition, digital transformation should be structured based on several types of content: essential data, environments, operational functions, organizational structure, and systems. Moreover, paths of guarantee, action, and operation should be taken concurrently to facilitate digital transformation in higher education.
Digital and smart education has become the new orientation of educational reform. Further promoting the application of the pilot Smart Education of China platform is one of the effective means to implement the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization, an essential deployment of China’s strategic decision on digital education and a pivotal move to stimulate the construction of digital China. With the Smart Education of China as the research object and based on its strategic superiority and connotation of construction, the paper analyzes the current status and development of the construction and application of smart education platforms and resources, explores the patterns and methods of provincial promotion with Jiangsu Province as an example, and puts forth countermeasures and suggestions in terms of platform interconnection, resources construction, innovation mechanism, digital transformation, and safety specification. This paper aims to provide reference and experience for the provincial promotion, application, and practice of the Smart Education of China. It also targets at facilitating the interconnected promotion and innovative application in different places, establishing the “extensively accessible” smart resource public service system at the country, province, city, county, and school levels .
At present, intelligent digital technology is irreversibly influencing all levels of the education field. The construction of an education system serving lifelong learning has also become an essential field of digital transformation. In the face of the impact of marketization, aging, and networking, as well as the update and iteration of intelligent digital technology, the construction of the lifelong learning system not only needs to realize the transformation with the help of digital technology but also needs to clarify the internal correlation of transformation goals, computing power support, multiple collaboration, and learning evaluation from the framework structure. At the same time, it is necessary to realize that the penetration of technology into lifelong learning may cause the misunderstanding of technology supremacy and the trap of tool rationality. Therefore, technological empowerment and enablement can accelerate the digital transformation of the lifelong learning system and coordinate with community education, elderly education, vocational education, higher education, and other fields to construct an integrated environment. Additionally, being critical issues requiring attention from society, they are also vital ways to overcome the above dis advantages, promote interactions between communities, governments, and professional education organizations, and improve the digital and intelligent learning environment.
Digital educational resources have become essential elements of modern educational public services. China’s national program on new educational infrastructure construction has proposed to take new infrastructure construction of digital educational resources as one of the critical tasks. This paper aims to provide a theoretical basis for advancing the reform and development of digital educational resources in the new era. It classifies the current development and realistic challenges of China’s digital educational resources, and summaries and interprets the directions of the three construction projects of new type resources and tools, the resource supply system, and the resource supervisory system. It depicts the prospect of digital educational resource construction in the intelligent era in the combination of the strategic layout of the policies on new educational infrastructure construction. It also discusses such key technologies supporting new infrastructure construction of digital educational resources as multimodal learning analytics, disciplinary knowledge graphs, machine learning, and blockchain. It finally proposes a specific development path for new infrastructure construction of digital educational resources.
Under the background of the two-way empowerment of artificial intelligence (AI) and education development, this paper first sorts out the demands for high-quality development of education in China in the new era from the perspectives of educational equity, talent cultivation, and contradiction resolution. Then, it focuses on the vision of AI empowering the high-quality development of education, and points out that AI is spawning new patterns and characteristics from the aspects of students’ learning, teachers’ development, school construction, home-school cooperation, educational governance, educational evaluation, educational equity, etc., which has provided important driving force for the high-quality development of education. Finally, the paper proposes the paths of AI empowering high-quality development of education from the aspects of top-level design, educational reform, construction of intelligent education environment, improvement of intelligence education literacy, cultivation of innovative talent, construction of high-quality education resources, response to ethical risks, etc., to clarify the future direction for the deep integration and development of AI and education.
Digital transformation has become a crucial part in the modernization of vocational education, gaining considerable attention. Presently, guided by relevant national policies and projects, digital transformation in vocational education has yielded remarkable outcomes, specifically in digital supporting conditions, innovative teaching and learning methods, digital teaching proficiency, digital governance frameworks and models, and digital systems and mechanisms. Nevertheless, digital transformation in vocational education is challenged by a multitude of demands. They include advancing students’ learning capability and initiative, further integrating information technology into teaching, updating and upgrading the essence and level of digital teaching proficiency, raising data-driven management and service abilities, leveling up digital supporting conditions, and improving digital systems and mechanisms. Thus, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, a significant upgrade in digital vocational education should be made by enhancing the strategic comprehension and developmental stance of digital transformation, adopting a rational view on digital transformation, and elucidating the ideas and strategies pertaining to digital transformation.
Under the background of rapid development of “digital China,” digital economy, and information technology, how to promote digital transformation in education is an important issue in education. Basic education is in urgent need of guidance for the paths to digital transformation. The paper analyzes the main connotation of digital transformation in education, classifies and summarizes the effects and problems of the exploration and practice of the national information based teaching experimental areas. On this basis, the paper brings forth the path of digital transformation with continuous iteration as the core concept: Basic education organizations should make clear of the objectives of education development, choose and determine specific paths and measures in terms of the construction of the institutional system and digital capabilities according to their own realities, and promote their implementation. After the implementation for a period, these organizations should, according to the objectives of their work, research and judge the effectiveness of the paths, promptly adjust the paths and measures, and continuously promote their implementation. Through continuous iteration and optimization, basic education organizations will effectively accelerate the process of digital transformation in education and incessantly march toward the objectives of educational work. Finally, the paper, through a case study of the administrative departments of basic education, proposes specific suggestions for stepping up high-quality development of basic education
The high-quality development of education and a strong education system must be materialized through digital transformation in education. Smart education is the significant measure of this transformation that enjoys key features like cultivating students foremost, scenario perception, data-driven approach, and man-machine collaboration. Amid digital transformation in education, smart education can be generated in two approaches. One involves creating a smart learning environment through constructing an education private network, an education big data center, an integrated education cloud platform, and a smart campus. The other one is to empower core application scenarios like constructing educational resources, innovating teaching modes, reforming the educational evaluation system, improving the information competence of educators and students, and enabling intelligent education governance, which constitutes a basis for redesigning the educational process to support a high quality education system.
Based on the analysis of the digital foundation and transformation demands of teacher development, the paper proposes a logical architecture of teachers’ digital learning from the perspective of 70- 20-10 model for learning and development, including self-learning based on platform resources (10%), blended learning based on collaborative support (20%), and embedded learning based on work scenarios (70%). Then, a pyramid model of evaluation and governance for teacher development needs that is compatible with the three types of learning paradigms is proposed, i.e., focusing on using teacher portraits to evaluate learning behaviors, using skills certification to evaluate knowledge and competencies, and focusing on ethics to promote practical wisdom. Finally, to support the transformation of learning paradigms plus evaluation and governance, this paper proposes an action architecture of service upgrading for digital transformation in teacher development, namely, creating a multi-level coherent online learning architecture for platformization, creating a seamless learning space with multi dimensional integration for ecologization, and leading the transformation from just-in-time learning to just-in-need practice for practicalization, ultimately realizing a leap of teachers’ practical wisdom.
During the current transformative development of postgraduate education, empowering the high-quality development of postgraduate education with digital technology is a critical, popular, and difficult challenge. It is also an inevitable trend for its future transformative development. This paper employs the technology, organization, and environment (TOE) framework to examine the logic reasoning of digital technology empowering the high-quality development of postgraduate education by technology, organization, and environment. Its key features include a shift in postgraduate education organization from “bounded” to “unbounded,” a move from uniform curriculum standards to personalized customization of teaching, a transition from following the industry to leading it in discipline construction, and a change in governance from a “vertical” to “grid” approach. With the empowerment of digital technology, it is essential to build a consensus on digital philosophy, train digital talent, implement digital governance, and innovate digital evaluuation for the high-quality development of postgraduate education.
Intelligent technology will change the measures, concepts, and methods of teaching research which should be not merely precision but intelligent. Intelligent precision teaching research will become the new method and form of the development of teaching research in the era of intelligence. The paper brings forth the theoretical framework of intelligent precision teaching research, including its definition, characteristics, technological environment, and approaches, and designs the practice blueprint of “one center, two paths, three principles, four objectives, and five tasks.” It introduces the initial effects of the practice of intelligent precision teaching research and looks forward to the future prospects of this practice.
With the adoption of competency reconstructing path of functional analysis in the organizational behavior theory, and the consideration of the core mission and attributes of educational organizations plus the urgency for digital transformation, this paper concludes four pillar competencies for teachers: curriculum development and teaching competency, human–computer collaboration competency, effective moral education competency, and self-growth competency. From the perspective of supporting the digital transformation in education, curriculum development and teaching competency is the premise and guarantee of “learning-centered”; and human–computer collaboration competency is the transformation direction of teachers’ information and communications technology capabilities in smart environments; effective moral education competency determines the primary role of teachers in the process of digital transformation; and self-growth competency is the purpose and means of digital existence. Teacher education needs to face up to the current problems in teacher capacity development and reshape teacher education around the core competencies required by digital transformation.
With the advantages of real time analysis and visual evaluation results, intelligent technology-enabled teaching behavior evaluation has gradually become a powerful means to help teachers adjust teaching behaviors and improve teaching quality. However, at present, the evaluation of intelligent teachers’ behaviors is still in the preliminary exploration stage, and the application research is not deep enough. This paper analyzes the application of intelligent technology in the evaluation of teachers’ classroom teaching behaviors from the perspectives of evaluation data, methods, and results. Voice print recognition technology is used to recognize the teachers’ identities and track the speech in the classroom videos, and the videos are segmented. Then, the evaluation framework of teachers’ classroom teaching behaviors is constructed using three dimensions of emotion, posture, and position preference. Finally, evaluation results are presented to teachers in a more intuitive and easy to-understand visual way, to help teachers reflect on teaching. This paper aims to promote the transformation of teachers’ classroom teaching behavior evaluation toward an intelligent, efficient, and sustainable direction through current research.
Based on the increasingly prominent power of information technology in the innovative development of education, people pay more attention to the information and communications technology (ICT) teaching competency of pre-service teachers. In order to explore the supporting elements, key issues, and possible paths of current normal universities and colleges in cultivating pre-service teachers’ ICT teaching competency, this study collects the survey data of graduates from 20 normal universities and colleges at provincial & ministerial, local, and junior levels. Based on the total quality management theory, technology acceptance model, and pre-service teachers’ ICT teaching competency framework, it carries out the survey and analysis from three aspects: supporting elements, supporting effects, and ability development. The study finds that the support of personnel, facilities, curriculum, mechanism, and environment provided by normal universities and colleges does not play a full role in improving the ICT teaching competency of pre-service teachers. There are still great differences among different levels of universities and colleges. Among them, the influence of personnel support and curriculum support should be greatly strengthened, and facility support is even more inhibited. Based on these findings, it puts forward some strategies that are conducive to better cultivating the ICT teaching competency of pre-service teachers in the pre-service education stage, to make them adapt to the new standards and requirements for teachers in the new era. Keywords pre-
Teachers are the primary resource of education and an important guarantee for building a high-quality education system. Teaching research is an effective way for teacher professional development. This paper focuses on problems of the failure of traditional teaching research models, unbalanced supply, and inaccurate support, with the core goal of realizing the clustered, synergistic, and high quality development of teachers, and builds a new form model of three integrations, one focus, and N innovations for regional informatization teaching research with innovative characteristics, a dual coordination mechanism for the clustered high-quality development of teachers, and an accurate support strategy for the comprehensive literacy of teacher informatization teaching research.
In the era of artificial intelligence, teachers’ subjectivity presents new characteristics, such as the interweaving of virtual and reality, the integration of individual and groups, and the coexistence of exuberance and disorientation. While reshaping teachers’ subjectivity, intelligent technologies also easily make teachers fall into the subjectivity dilemmas, such as self-crisis, distortion of interaction, and alienation of action. Therefore, to reinstate teachers’ subjectivity, it is necessary to know oneself in pursuit of truth by sticking to the nature of life, to become oneself by constructing the nature of choice in practical activities, and to achieve oneself by returning to the nature of creation in lifelong learning.