2024
05/14
The Yidan Education Forum 2023 was held on November 25, 2023, at the Qianhai International Talent Hub in Shenzhen. This year’s forum was co-hosted by the Chen Yidan Foundation, the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University (BNU), and SDX Joint Publishing Company. It was organized by the Yidan Education Research Institute and the Children's Museum Research Center, Faculty of Education, BNU, with publishing support from World Publishing Corporation and media support from Sanlian ZHONG Read. This year’s forum was also part of the 2023 Shenzhen Reading Month series of events.
Education naturally faces the future; tomorrow's society is shaped by today's education. Technology, culture, and innovation continuously advance through forward-looking educational reforms. The Yidan Education Forum 2023 focused on the theme "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education: Redesigning Learning," featuring one keynote forum and three sub-forums: "Future Education Ecosystem: Learning and Learners in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," "Cultivating Learners for the Future: Reading, Humanities, and Creative Thinking," "Cultivating Learners for the Future: Learning Through Play and Hands-on Experiences," and "Cultivating Learners for the Future: Technology, Art, and Creativity." Experts, scholars, publishers, artists, designers, writers, educational innovation project initiators, and teachers from Mainland China, Finland, Hong Kong, the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and other regions gathered to redesign the future of learning together with the public.
Keynote Report Release: Designing Future Learning with Future Education Syntax
Dr. Chen Yidan, founder of the Chen Yidan Foundation and core founder of Tencent; Professor Yu Kai, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University; and Dr. He Kui, Vice Editor-in-Chief of SDX Joint Publishing Company, delivered opening speeches at the forum.
Dr. Chen Yidan expressed in his speech that education is as natural as breathing, and it is closely connected to everyone. The future of education should be as natural as breathing. At this turning point, collaboration between the education sector and various fields of society, focusing on emerging trends in innovation and technology, is crucial for advancing education into the future. While it is important to approach new technologies with rationality and reverence, we should also attempt to envision a more distant future, paying attention to changes in education that have occurred and that might occur. The more technological the era becomes, the more humanistic education should be. Ultimately, education should return to people.
Professor Yu Kai stated that we are in an era full of possibilities, and artificial intelligence is changing the way humans access and use information. Education should lead students to break through the boundaries of knowledge, guiding them to engage in meaningful learning while solving real-world problems and enriching their connections with the world and others in this process.
Dr. He Kui noted that SDX Joint Publishing Company, with its 91-year history, has always been focused on the forefront of human thought and knowledge. By partnering with the Chen Yidan Foundation and the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University to host this forum, they hope to explore new ways and experiments in knowledge and learning in the age of artificial intelligence through interdisciplinary and cross-dimensional dialogues. This effort also aims to empower and support the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to lead the way in thought, knowledge, and cultural innovation.
The forum released the keynote report How CMYK Shapes the Future: Action for Nurturing the Learners for the Future, led by Professor Wang Chen from Beijing Normal University. The report posits that future learning is a common concern of both pedagogy and futurology. However, future learning is not just about envisioning; it is about action. The best way to predict future learning is to creatively design it. The 2022 report Competence and Education of the Learner for the Future introduced the Learner for the Future Competence Frame (LFCF) and the Future Education Syntax (CMYK), addressing the "what" and "why" of future learning and the cultivation of future learners. The 2023 report continues to use the CMYK as a support system, developing project chains for cultivating literacy in reading, exploration, and aesthetics across different educational scenarios: such as families, schools, and society. It also creates a corresponding generation mechanism of CMYK, curriculum modules, and toolkits.
Family, School, Society: Imagining Future Learning from Multiple Educational Scenarios
On the same day, a new book launch was held during the forum. The books Competencies and Education of the Learners for the Future and Making Learning More Enjoyable: Learning Through Play in China, co-published by the Chen Yidan Foundation, China Publishing Group, and World Publishing Corporation, were officially introduced to readers.
Dr. Xu Guoqiang, Vice Editor-in-Chief of World Publishing Corporation, unveils the new books
In the subsequent sub-forum sessions, experts generally agreed that artificial intelligence will profoundly change education and life in the future. However, foundational learning behaviors like reading, art, humanities, and play will not change. In fact, in this era of technological transformation, these foundational learning behaviors and habits are more likely to inspire human creativity. Guests from institutions including Beijing Normal University, the University of Helsinki, Harvard University, Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company, Southern University of Science and Technology, Sanlian Lifeweek Magazine, Exploratorium, LEGO Foundation, Stanford University, University College London, A4 Art Museum, the art organization Otherwise, and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center shared their research findings and living case studies. They discussed the current state and future of education amidst the wave of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Internationally Renowned Designer and Artist Mr. Kan Tai-Keung
Professor Carey Jewitt from University College London
Left to Right: Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Vice President and Chair of Learning Through Play, The LEGO Foundation; Professor Li Minyi, Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University and Chief Expert at the Children's Museum Research Center; Mike Petrich, Co-Founder of the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium in San Francisco
Hands-On Activities
Q&A
In the forum's summary, Professor Wang Chen mentioned that the forum brought together people from various fields, including writers, artists, publishers, curators, educators, and even parents, to discuss the future of education. This not only reflected a shared awareness of respecting diversity and individuality and commitments to creativity and transformation, but also prompted deep reflection and critique. It offered us another perspective to consider and approach the essence of education, enriching our understanding of the future of education and better preparing us to face the challenges of future uncertainties and artificial intelligence.
Closing Remarks by Ms. Rao Ruirui
Ms. Rao Ruirui, Secretary-General of the Chen Yidan Foundation, delivered closing remarks as the representative of the forum organizers. She expressed gratitude to all the guests for their attendance and insightful speeches. She discussed three possibilities for the future of education: returning to the individual, returning to life, and reshaping technology. She emphasized that education should return to common sense, to humanity, and to real life. In the current context, this takes on a new meaning—making technology care about people, making technology more humane, rather than making people adapt to the characteristics of machines. Education is about growth, and the goal of future education should be to assist in that growth. Future education must preserve human qualities, and technology should enhance human well-being rather than alienate humans into resembling machines.
The Yidan Education Forum is an annual international education-themed forum hosted by the Chen Yidan Foundation. It aims to create an international exchange platform for education researchers and practitioners around cutting-edge topics in educational innovation. Since its inception in 2020, the forum has attracted nearly a hundred scholars and experts from over 60 countries and regions, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Finland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the United States, Singapore, Japan, and Canada. International organizations such as UNESCO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Asian Development Bank, the Yidan Prize Foundation, and the LEGO Foundation have also participated. The forum is co-hosted by over ten renowned domestic and international universities and educational and cultural research institutions, including Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Tsinghua University, the UNESCO Chair in Asia-Pacific Higher Education, University College London, the Chair of Learning Through Play of Lego, World Publishing Corporation, and the Yidan Education Research Institute.
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