(Article/Observer Network Yin Zhe Editor/Zhou Yuanfang) "Teaching according to aptitude cannot be achieved without the help of technical means. On October 25, Nie Xiaolin, senior vice president of iFLYTEK, said in an exclusive interview with Observer Network.
However, education is about the foundation of the country. After the introduction of the "double reduction" policy, iFLYTEK's vision of empowering education through AI must take into account the public welfare attributes of education while running through the business model.
In the actual landing, Nie Xiaolin introduced that the real realization of large-scale results in teaching according to aptitude still needs a process, and all parties need to work together. The company has maintained long-term interaction with client institutions such as schools with a "strategic base" rather than project sales mentality.
Therefore, iFLYTEK has released three major funding plans for smart education ecology, including the promotion of industry,300,000 research institutes, calling for the joint construction of a modern education powerhouse.
Nie Xiaolin, Senior Vice President of iFLYTEK
"It's hard, it's hard, it's hard"
"Today, there are more than 200 million primary and secondary school students in China, how can we achieve large-scale teaching according to their aptitudes?" At the iFLYTEK Global 1024 Developer Festival, Nie Xiaolin asked questions when releasing the education ecology.
Teaching according to aptitude is a considerable topic. In Nie Xiaolin's eyes, the first of them is technology.
"In terms of technological advances in the fields of voice evaluation, composition evaluation, machine translation, and reading comprehension, iFLYTEK has made many milestone contributions that can go down in history." Nie Xiaolin mentioned.
According to him, the path for iFLYTEK to achieve individual teaching is to use these technical reserves to collect teaching data with perception technology, understand data with cognitive technology, and finally customize personalized learning paths for each student through knowledge graph and learning path planning technology.
Nie Xiaolin gave the example of "layered operation" in "reducing the burden of operations".
"From the perspective of the Ministry of Education, give some challenging questions to the children who are running in front, and the backward students will reduce the challenges and avoid hitting self-confidence." He revealed: "iFLYTEK has launched a stronger program, which is finer than the granularity of layered homework, and is meticulous to each student. ”
In January 2020, iFLYTEK won the bid for the bengbu Smart School Construction Project with a total amount of 1.586 billion yuan. According to reports, the Bengbu project is the country's first municipal overall teaching project, covering 875 schools in the city and 410,000 teachers and students.
"Bengbu has formed a large-scale application, the first in the country, and as of now it is the only case with all schools and all students in the city, and the investment is very large." He revealed.
In its 2020 annual report, iFLYTEK mentioned:
Bengbu City was approved by the Ministry of Education as the "Smart Education Demonstration Zone" in 2020, and according to the National Bureau of Statistics' satisfaction survey report on the construction and application of smart schools in Bengbu City, the satisfaction of respondents with the measures to improve the quality of education and teaching was as high as 92.01%.
Nie Xiaolin used three "difficulties" to evaluate the difficulty of this case.
Previously, according to the statement of Chairman Liu Qingfeng, iFLYTEK did not want to make regional teaching project-based sales, but hoped to build it into a long-term strategic base and maintain long-term positive interaction with customers.
Nie Xiaolin believes that iFLYTEK will not only see the commerciality of the project, because education is people's livelihood and has a strong public welfare attribute. As a seller, iFLYTEK does not want to simply sell and complete a business, but hopes to really solve problems and innovate systems.
He explains: "Children's time is precious, and classroom teaching time is also precious, so the education industry has extremely high requirements for accuracy, such as collecting learning information and recommending learning. So, first of all, technology needs to be broken. ”
"In addition, the process of truly applying technical means to classroom teaching and after-school learning is very complicated."
For example, he said, old teachers are experienced, for them, informatization is both conceptual and operational challenges; although young teachers master technology quickly, their research on education and teaching itself also needs to be enhanced.
In addition, before the "double subtraction" policy, "we did not have time and space, especially for students and space for reform".
Nie Xiaolin pointed out: "We believe that 'double subtraction' is two subtractions and one increase: reducing off-campus training, reducing the burden on school, and increasing after-school services. For primary school students, it can be a quality course, and for middle school students, it can be a tutoring course. The 'double subtraction' leaves time and space open, and the impact is very far-reaching. ”
Finally, he lamented that it still needs a process to truly achieve large-scale results in teaching according to aptitude, and it still needs to be linked by all parties.
So far, iFLYTEK's regional aptitude-level teaching projects have covered nearly 20 prefectures, cities and counties across the country, including Bengbu, Qingdao, Kunming, and Wuhu, serving more than 50,000 schools on a regular basis, with a total of more than 100 million teachers and students.
"Education is not simply about imparting knowledge"
Due to the great difficulty of teaching according to aptitude, improving quality and efficiency, and educational fairness, iFLYTEK must promote the production, education and research to polish products together.
"We've actually been pushing for industry," and this is the first time it's been made clear." Nie Xiaolin told the Observer Network.
On October 25, he released the "Three Major Plans for iFLYTEK's Smart Education Ecology", namely the "Education and Research Fund Funding Program", the "Joint Innovation Program of Partners" and the "Public Welfare Program of teaching and research alliance".
Among them, in the cooperation between industry, academia and research, iFLYTEK has begun relevant practices:
In-depth cooperation with Beijing Normal University to jointly build the "China Basic Education Quality Monitoring Collaborative Innovation Center" of the Ministry of Education;
Established 5 joint laboratories with Northwest Normal University, Northeast Normal University, Anshi University, Southwest University, First Normal University, etc.;
Since 2019, more than 70 cooperation projects have been completed and are being carried out with Peking University, South China Normal University, Northeast Normal University, Nanjing Normal University, Northwest Normal University and other universities;
With beijing normal university, Peking University, Tsinghua university and other universities experts set up an intelligent education expert committee, for two consecutive years to release the "blue book of intelligent education development".
Therefore, the "Education and Scientific Research Fund Funding Program" is expected to invest 100 million yuan in three years to invest 100 million yuan in industry-university-research research funds to carry out cutting-edge theoretical and applied research.
Nie Xiaolin mentioned: "In the field of technology, the efficiency of enterprises is higher. iFLYTEK is such a subject, and there are many partners who are also doing related innovations, and we have a good linkage with each other at the market, product and program levels. ”
"But the topic of education itself is very complex, not only at the application level, but also on a lot of cutting-edge topics that need to be studied."
On July 14, iFLYTEK, together with Beijing Normal University and other member units of the National Alliance for Brain Research of Children and Adolescents in China, launched the "iFLYTEK Education Brain Program".
The program focuses on the new mechanisms and mechanisms of brain and mental development and improvement of children and adolescents, and explores new methods and new forms of individual learning and classroom teaching.
"Some scholars have proposed that what is now called 'teaching according to aptitude' may develop into 'teaching according to the brain' in the future." Nie Xiaolin explained: The structure of the left and right brains, because of genes and other factors, everyone will have different talents at the mathematical and artistic levels.
"These are still physiological and psychological issues, which are more complex." He pointed out: "The mental health problems of children and primary and secondary school students in China are very prominent, which is one of the reasons for the country's heavy reform, and there are many influencing factors. ”
Thus, he concludes: "Education and teaching is definitely not about simply imparting knowledge. Therefore, these basic issues must be broken through, and only after the breakthrough will there be corresponding solutions. ”
"It can be said that iFLYTEK has formed a very good closed loop in production, education and research." Nie Xiaolin stressed.
In addition, in the "Joint Innovation Program with Partners", iFLYTEK will set up an innovation incubation investment fund of RMB 100 million per year to provide more than 300 experts in the field of technology and market to carry out professional services.
In addition, in order to promote the development of the front-line application ecology, the "Teaching and Research Alliance Public Welfare Plan" is expected to promote the construction of 10 new regional teaching and research institutions, 100 new cooperative schools in the alliance of famous schools, and on the basis of the existing foundation, promote the content co-creation platform to add 10,000 backbone teachers and researchers.
In the speech of the "Three Major Plans", Nie Xiaolin mentioned that in the current important period of education reform, people are facing a series of expectations of "both wanting and also":
It is necessary to reduce school examinations and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching; it is necessary to strengthen the role of schools and alleviate the pressure on teachers; it is necessary to reduce the burden on children and ensure academic improvement; it is necessary to promote the "five educations" at the same time, and also to achieve a scientific and technological power.
At the opening ceremony of the 2019 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education, President Xi Jinping pointed out in his congratulatory letter to the conference:
Actively promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence and education, promote educational reform and innovation, give full play to the advantages of artificial intelligence, and accelerate the development of education that accompanies everyone's life, education that is equal to everyone, education that suits everyone, and education that is more open and flexible.
Nie Xiaolin said: "This points out the direction for technology to boost education reform. It can be said that the deep integration and application of artificial intelligence and education is a key path to boost the millennium's educational dream of 'teaching according to aptitude', realize and cope with the educational challenges under the background of double reduction, and promote education reform. ”
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.
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