Top news reporter Ding Yafei
The wind of artificial intelligence is sweeping.
In 2024, the explosion of generative AI applications will impact all walks of life.
As a "golden key", what challenges does artificial intelligence bring to education? How should schools respond to and cultivate talents who meet the needs of the times? and what beneficial explorations and attempts has Zhengzhou Sias University made?
Recently, Dr. Chen Xiaochun, President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, President of the World Federation of University Presidents, and Founder and Chairman of Zhengzhou Sias College, answered these questions one by one in an interview with top news reporters at the opening ceremony of the Industry-Education Integration Week of Sias Institute of Digital Technology Industry and the unveiling ceremony of iSoftStone's Central Plains Regional Headquarters.
Sias Institute of Digital Technology Industry Industry-Education Integration Week and iSoftStone Central Plains Regional Headquarters Unveiling Event
In the era of "new and ever-changing", Sias should cultivate new talents
Whether you like it or not, like it or not, a new era has arrived.
In this era, artificial intelligence is influencing the future of education, the future of education.
On April 13, in a speech to university students, Dr. Chen Xiaochun, President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, President of the World Federation of University Presidents, and Founder and President of Zhengzhou Sias College, called on everyone to "wake up" to what is happening in the world.
In his view, we are already in the era of artificial intelligence. In the face of knowledge equality and technology equality brought about by AI, schools must prepare for it. "Universities are no longer the only way to acquire knowledge, enterprises and institutions can provide more convenient and efficient learning resources, and AI intelligence can replace people in various jobs...... It's a game-changer. Can the knowledge we provide improve the students in an all-round way, and can the students we train well adapt to the needs of the enterprise?"
In the new era, the society's requirements for talents are not only the reserve of knowledge, but also the application and innovation of new tools, as well as the creative solution of practical problems.
This also means that schools need to carry out changes in the way they educate and what they teach.
Chen Xiaochun believes that teaching is a comprehensive work. Artificial intelligence can help students learn the basics, and teachers are responsible for imparting the latest and higher-level knowledge to students, guiding students to think about how to combine knowledge with industry practices. "We need to teach students to use AI tools, and in the process, be problem-oriented, strengthen interdisciplinary integration, and better cultivate students' sense of innovation and critical thinking ability. ”
He believes that talents with innovative thinking, scientific and technological capabilities and global competence are the new talents needed to generate new quality productivity, and they are also talents who can adapt to the needs of enterprises more quickly. What Sias is doing is to move towards a new form of man-machine co-teaching, co-learning and co-education, and cultivate such new talents.
Sias innovates the integration of industry and education, and explores the "new model of Henan"
Times have changed, but the fundamentals of education have remained the same.
As a university that advocates the promotion of the "industry + enterprise + professional" integration and collaborative education model of industry and education, Zhengzhou Sias University has never stopped innovating and reforming from the perspective of "everything for students".
According to Chen Xiaochun, in order to cope with the impact of digitalization and artificial intelligence, as early as 2020, during online classes, Sias launched the first generation of virtual digital human teachers. "Our teachers all have two faces, a digital person and a real person. ”
On the basis of the first generation of digital humans, Sias's second-generation digital human teachers have added the function of ChatGPT to help answer questions.
Usually, the teacher hands over the basic knowledge and theoretical knowledge of the book that needs to be repeated to the digital person. The time saved by teachers can focus on case studies, teaching practices, and the cultivation of students' innovative thinking.
Today, Sias's third-generation digital human has also adopted Microsoft M365 lesson preparation software for efficient and high-quality lesson preparation.
In terms of curriculum setting, in order to allow each student to have diversified abilities, Sias requires each student to have a minor major and a micro-major in addition to their own major.
Sias Science and Education Industrial Park (Jinshui Science and Education Park "Integration of Industry and Education" Demonstration and Practice Area)
In order to cultivate "new talents", Sias also explores the construction of a new model of integration of industry and education, and implements a talent training model combining industry and education. At present, the school has 7 industrial colleges in operation, providing "order-based" talent training for famous enterprises.
In 2022, Sias and iSoftStone, a leading Chinese software company, joined forces to establish the Sias Institute of Digital Technology Industry (DTS). Through "learning by doing, learning by doing", students' engineering design ability, independent learning ability, and practical innovation ability have been greatly improved.
In Chen Xiaochun's view, DTS, the integration of industry and education, will be a good education model in the future, and it is also an exploration and attempt of the "Henan New Model" of education and teaching. The formation of the "Henan New Model" still needs more schools to take action and make more attempts based on their own characteristics.
Contribute to the construction of an educational power and the strength of Sias
Last month, Chen Xiaochun took over as president of the World Federation of University Presidents.
As a branch of UNESCO, the World Federation of University Presidents (WWI) has been established nearly 60 years ago, and this is the first time that a Chinese has held the chairmanship.
Group photo of the 5th International University Presidents Summit (Photo source: Henan Daily)
According to Chen Xiaochun, he has always hoped to bring the World Federation of University Presidents to China for the three-year conference, bring a global vision and thinking to China's education innovation, and contribute to the construction of China's education power. "From October 13 to 15 this year, we will host the 20th Triennial Congress of the World Federation of University Presidents in Beijing. ”
At that time, one to two thousand university presidents from all over the world will gather in Beijing to discuss "artificial intelligence and the future of higher education".
Chen Xiaochun said that based on the reform of artificial intelligence on education, the World Federation of University Presidents specially invited Nobel Prize winners, presidents of internationally renowned universities and international celebrities with innovative understanding of education reform to discuss how artificial intelligence can lead the innovation of teaching in colleges and universities, the reform of talent training mode and other issues, "It is imminent, we must have a platform and opportunity such as the World Federation of University Presidents to link global resources to discuss this issue together." Every school is trying and changing, and in this process, communication and discussion between each other is particularly important. ”
He hopes that in the future, with the help of artificial intelligence, students can be taught an educational form and innovative way of thinking that integrates Western and Chinese knowledge systems. At that time, everyone can focus on a certain problem and carry out cross-domain knowledge concatenation. Chen Xiaochun believes that the efforts and changes made by Sias can efficiently smooth the virtuous circle of education, science and technology, and talents, become an important engine for accelerating the cultivation of new quality productivity, and stimulate surging momentum for the construction of an educational power.
The real disruption is all across industries. Nowadays, Sias is on the road of cross-industry cooperation, cross-field innovation, and cross-regional collaboration, and they are actively exploring the cultivation and acceleration of new talents, the in-depth promotion of the integration of industry and education, and the multi-field collaboration of international exchanges and cooperation, so as to achieve the connotative and high-quality development of education!