英文摘要

Baseline investigation and policy suggestions on developing smart education in Xiongan New District

Ronghuai Huang， Dejian Liu， Wei Yan， Rongxia Zhuang， Yanli Jiao， Xiaojing Lu and Haijun Zeng

Developing smart education in Xiongan New District is a strategic choice to realize “overtaking on the curve” and an important measure to promote the coordinated development of Beijing， Tianjin and Hebei. Smart education emphasizes the great potential of the new generation of information technology in promoting education. The construction of smart education is based on educational informationization， focusing step by step on the construction of an intelligent learning environment， a new teaching mode and a modern education system. Smart education takes teaching mode innovation as the endogenous motive force， improving regional education service. The baseline investigation of Xiongan New District shows that the ratio of students to teachers is high， and many students return to Xiongan for schooling; the infrastructure conditions like smart classrooms and computer networking are weak; teaching methodologies， teachers and curriculum resources are difficult to meet the requirements of teaching mode innovation; the financial funds for education are insufficient and teachers income is low. Implementing innovation-driven strategies in four international bays proves that there is no universal innovation-driven model， each adopting different models with different characteristics， but there is a common feature， the integration of industry， education and research. This paper puts forward ten suggestions for the future development of smart education in Xiongan New District.

Keywords： Xiongan New District; educational informationization; smart learning; smart education; teaching mode; baseline investigation

Impact of social networking features of cMOOC WeChat groups on learners cognition development

Huimin Wang and Li Chen

The development of the Internet accelerates knowledge obsolescence calling for new education modes. Connectivism， as a learning theory in the age of knowledge explosion， and its guiding mechanism and effectiveness in teaching practice need to be identified and further analyzed. A Connectivist Massive Open Online Course （cMOOC） is a specific application of connectivism in teaching practice， emphasizing interaction in learning to establish external personal network and internal knowledge network. Focusing on learner interaction in a WeChat group of a cMOOC， using research instruments of social network analysis and content analysis， the authors elaborate the external social networking characteristics and their impact upon the learners internal cognition development. The conclusions are that， a. there exist multiple key learners in the group， displaying a multi-center feature in the social network; b. the learners can interact with others out of their own choice without interference from the tutors; c. the learners are widely active in various subgroups showing self-organized characteristics; d. active participation in WeChat interaction helps promote the learners cognition development and improve the quantity and quality of the learners knowledge generation; and e. the learners social networking relations can， to some extent， predict the successfulness of their connectivist learning.

Keywords： connectivism; WeChat; MOOC; online course; social interaction; personal network; knowledge network; cognitive participation; social network analysis; knowledge generation

Instructional role metaphor of Artificial Intelligence： the case of high-impact projects in Artificial Intelligence application in education

Zhizhen Zhang， Lingling Zhang， Xueying Xu and Jialin Liu

Artificial Intelligence （AI）， being able to “perceive， understand， predict and act” autonomously， is a flexible and powerful learning technology that can greatly accommodate teaching and learning. The flexibility of the technology， the rationality of the functions and the metaphorical role of AI exert significant impact upon the research and implementation of intelligent teaching systems. This study focuses on high-impact projects in AI application in education. The results show that there are seven metaphorical instructional roles of AI： tutor， coach， assessor， coordinator， connector， peer and learner. Currently， the roles of the tutor， the coach and the assessor are more obvious. In terms of the whole teaching and learning process， AI is not comparable to human teachers， but in some “action”， AI performance is not inferior to the human individual. Hindered by slow development of semantic processing in natural language processing technology， the tutor role is still difficult to engage in continuous natural dialogue with learners like human teachers， but the other six roles can make fuller use of the computers multimedia and network data computing， storage， and interaction capabilities， providing unmatchable learning experience. Future developmental trends are suggested for instructional role metaphor of AI.

Keywords： artificial intelligence in education; intelligent tutoring system; Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning; education agent; high impact projects; instructional role; case study

My MOOC Journey： an auto-ethnographical account into lifelong learning

Jennifer Roberts

Massive Open Online Courses （MOOCs） have been heralded by some as the future of education， for both adult learners engaging in lifelong learning， as well as widening access to all people from the developing nations of the world. Others are critical of the effectiveness， impact and longevity of MOOCs and see them simply as a passing phase， particularly in the light of the low completion rate. Research about MOOCs is usually undertaken from an outsiders viewpoint， with few studies focusing on a students experience. This article discusses the findings of a narrative enquiry written by the author on her journey through different types of MOOCs. It is an auto-ethnographic study， carried out in order that the author can understand the learners perspective on undertaking a MOOC， through using the metacognitive principle of self-reflection. The purpose of this research is therefore to create an understanding of the MOOC experience from a learners viewpoint. It includes findings through metacognitive self-reflection regarding self-directed learning， motivation， life-long learning and other light bulb moments， all of which are important to the future development regarding MOOCs. In addition， a metacognitive framework is proposed to assist students in their decisions regarding selecting and registering for a MOOC.

Keywords： auto-ethnography; distance education; life-long learning; metacognition; Massive Open Online Course （MOOC）; online education

（英文目次、摘要譯者：刘占荣）