Artificial intelligence takes center stage to shape future learning
The future of higher education will change to focus on personal growth rather than the acquisition of knowledge with the development of artificial intelligence, industry insiders said.
They made their remarks at a forum in Beijing on Saturday, which gathered scholars and industry experts to discuss topics relating to the future of higher education.
“The future society, especially in the face of AI and the robot revolution, needs high levels of talent who can control the direction of new industries. It also needs world citizens with cross-cultural leadership skills,” said Xi Youmin, executive president of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
In this era, he said, AI and robots would change people’s behavior and ultimately change society.
“Education, therefore, should focus on the personal growth of students to guide them to stand above technology.”
Chen Xiaochun, co-founder of Plug and Play China, a United States-based business incubator, said that with the development of AI, students would learn in an integrated educational environment to acquire different abilities through personalized education.
The company has cooperated with XJTLU to develop various educational models, aimed at inspiring students’ entrepreneurship and their practical spirit.
“Students should be forward-looking and they should keep on learning to keep pace with the developments in industry technology,” Chen said.
He noted that in the future, students would need to acquire more abilities to magnify the effects of knowledge, and teachers would enlighten their students with emotional thinking rather than simply imparting basic content.
Song Huaiming, chief engineer of the big data and innovation department at the Sugon Information Industry, a high-tech company in Beijing, said, “As technology evolves, our thinking patterns and the way we embrace and use technology will also change.”
However, machines will not come to replace people’s role entirely, due to unique human qualities such as emotional thinking, according to Song.
Fan Deng, founder of the Spiritual Wealth Club, a learning institution based on mobile Internet, said the future presented challenges.
He said that in the future, the most dangerous trend is not where machines become more and more like people, but where people become more and more like machines.
Fan added that the process of personal growth for students, in the wake of the influence of technology, could become more problematic.
“In the light of this, the only thing that education can do is to create an environment for the students to realize their personal development,” he added.
Students should be forward-looking and they should keep on learning...” Chen Xiaochun,