On May 26, a China Smart Education Alliance preparatory meeting was held at the ASEAN Hall, the permanent site of the China-ASEAN Education Exchange Week. The attendees had largely constructive discussions about the plan for establishing the China Smart Education Alliance. The meeting was attended by Qi Si, the deputy director of the Guizhou Provincial Education Department; Wang Quan, secretary-general of the Advisory Committee of Education Technology and Methods within the Ministry of Education and vice president of Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology; Li Jianjun, secretary of the Party Committee of Guizhou University; and representatives from related departments, expert committees, and corporate committees that have contributed and helped initiate the preparation for the China Smart Education Alliance. Yang Song, vice president and distinguished professor from Guizhou University, presided over the meeting.

On behalf of the preparatory group of the China Smart Education Alliance, Qi Si interpreted to the experts and representatives the China Smart Education Alliance Preparation Plan, including a briefing on the background and significance of its establishment. He pointed out that the development is being done within the context of education informatization, and this preparatory meeting for the establishment of the China Intellectual Education Alliance was held to unite all the educational information research and development institutions, schools, and educators in China. This would allow these institutes and individuals to actively carry out various research, exchanges, and promotions of smart education, with the intent to better the integration of information technology with teaching. Expansive sharing and coordination among these entities can greatly contribute to the construction of an efficient smart education, help in its high-quality development, broaden education equity, and increase talent cultivation.

The China Smart Education Alliance is a non-profit academic organization initiated by a number of education administrative departments, well-known university experts and scholars in the field of smart education, education information industry associations and scientific research institutions, end-users and enterprises of smart education, and others. The Alliance works to gather educational information research and development institutions, schools and educators that can actively carry out the research, exchanges and promotion of smart education, and deepen the integration of information technology with teaching. This collection of expertise and information aims to help China achieve the highest level of development for its education. The main tasks of the Alliance are as follows: work out strategic plans for the development of smart education, invest in education network security support systems, research related standards and specifications for smart education, provide smart education-related training, coordinate the development of smart education in China, and study trends and strategies in order to meet the needs of future education.

Throughout the meeting, the delegates shared their views from the perspective of their own research fields, such as “High-quality improvement and educational equity are our goals.” Others gave comments in a similar vein, stating that “It is ‘smart’ to figure out the right path forward;” “The establishment of this alliance can play a positive part in building up an innovative, coordinated, sustainable, and accessible education system;” and “The establishment of this alliance is of far-reaching significance to the development of education.”

Wang Quan, vice president of Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology, stated that the current major task, and original aspiration for setting up the Alliance, is to foster education equity and tailor learning to each student with the support of innovative reform in education aided by artificial intelligence. He also mentioned that the goals can be made further possible with the development of an intelligent student-centered teaching and learning environment that utilizes the deep integration of artificial intelligence within education. The platform of the China Smart Education Alliance plays a significant role in improving the level of equalization and inclusiveness of public services and educational resources. It can help realize the co-construction and sharing of high-quality educational resources on a larger scale and at a higher level, and allow every capable learner the ability to continue their studies regardless of time or place. This boundless education allows for a lifelong learning system for a society of learners in China. Moreover, the alliance can contribute to the building of an open and flexible environment of sharing among schools and enterprises, which would combine the efforts of various industries, universities, and research institutes to help create a favorable environment for the development of the education information industry and technological innovation of smart teaching.

Li Jianjun, secretary of the Party Committee of Guizhou University, restated the importance of the establishment of the China Smart Education Alliance in relation to the successful integration of information technology with education and teaching. By doing so, we can obtain an efficient and flourishing development of the region’s smart education,  along with a robust network for sharing and coordinating that will allow for a fully comprehensive improvement to the quality of China's education overall. He also said that Guizhou University is honored to be a leader of the China Smart Education Alliance. It is committed to running the daily operations of the alliance, deepening its internal cooperation, accelerating the pace of outstanding achievements, and creating a large-scale, highly-active, and effective government-industry-university-research cooperation platform. As a pioneer in leading the development of big data and smart education, Guizhou University will actively work as a bridge for cooperation and strive to build a high-quality education system with the aid of various user-focused applications. The establishment of the China Smart Education Alliance is not only a planned action under which a multitude of organizations gather for the same ideals and goals, but it is also a strategic forward-looking program designed with thorough, long-term, and higher-level thinking based around China’s education, needs, and its own socialist characteristics. With the establishment of this cooperative platform, the transformation of basic education with informatization development can be realized, the capacity of available information for teaching and scientific research expanded, the in-depth integration of information technology with education achieved, education reform and innovation implemented, and the overall quality of education and teaching greatly improved.

Text: Han Xiaomei (Xishan Integrated Media Center)

Photography: Liu Yang

Editor: Fan Jiajia

Senior Editor: Wen Yang

Editor in Charge: Zhang Chan

Translator: Wan Hengyue

Proofreading: Mark Bynum, Zhou Jie