Cooperation initiative agreed as conference on digital education closes
An initiative on digital education cooperation was released during the closing ceremony of the 2024 World Digital Education on Wednesday.
Xie Dong, vice mayor of Shanghai, read aloud the initiative, calling for "concerted efforts to leverage the strength of digital technologies and promote an inclusive development of digital education."
The initiative called for joint efforts in six areas: building and sharing of digital resources; enhancing cooperation on digital education application; deepening integrated digital education innovation; cooperation in promoting teachers' capability; collaboration on advancing digital education research; and joint discussion on digital education governance.
The Global Digital Education Development Index was released during the closing ceremony.
Meanwhile, China's National Academy of Educational Sciences released the Global Digital Education Development Index, an evaluation on the general level of digital education in 62 countries around the world, during the ceremony.
The evaluation was made in six dimensions involving digital education: literacy improvement, system construction, institutional innovation, content reshaping, teaching reform, and governance upgrading.
The United States, Finland and South Korea took the top three positions in the ranking.
China advanced from 24th to 9th in the index over the past three years thanks to its national strategic action for education digitization, said Li Yongzhi, president of the academy.
He said China made significant progress in terms of developing and applying digital resources, cultivating digital abilities of teachers and students, as well as constructing digital education systems.
Also at the closing ceremony, China launched a new seasonal English Journal, Frontiers of Digital Education. The publication will focus on interdisciplinary research in digital technology and education, aiming to unveil the policy trend of digital education and analyze crucial problems such as the application of Artificial Intelligence in education, digital equity and educational inclusiveness.
The Frontiers of Digital Education was launched.
The conference, which kicked off on Tuesday, gathered more than 800 participants, including over 400 representatives from around 70 countries, regions and international organizations, to share their experiences and wisdom in digital education.
Next year, the conference will be held in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
