【Commentary on the Bright Times】

Not long ago, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued the "Beijing Municipal Work Plan for Promoting Artificial Intelligence Education in Primary and Secondary Schools (2027-0 Years)", proposing to build a normalized artificial intelligence education and teaching system and explore a scientific and standardized education model. Among them, the primary school stage is mainly experiential courses, focusing on enlightening students' artificial intelligence thinking; In junior high school, cognitive courses are the mainstay, focusing on guiding students to use artificial intelligence to empower their own learning and life. The high school level focuses on comprehensive and practical courses, focusing on strengthening students' AI application ability and innovative spirit.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping our society at an unprecedented rate, profoundly changing everything from education to life. In the face of this technological change, how to seize the opportunity to cultivate "digital citizens" who can control these new technologies has become an important issue in the current education reform. In this profound change, the educational concept of "combining learning with application" provides an effective path for cultivating new talents in the future society. The so-called "combination of learning and application" is to start from practical problems, emphasize the practical application of technology, and cultivate students' ability to solve practical problems.

Traditional AI courses usually follow a linear logic, that is, "basic theory - technical module - case application". This model makes it easy for students to fall into the dilemma of fragmented knowledge and detachment from the application context, and it is difficult to establish effective connections between different fields. The "combination of learning and application" model emphasizes the application of artificial intelligence in actual educational scenarios to promote interdisciplinary integration, and adopts a multi-dimensional evaluation system to focus on students' performance, problem-solving ability and teamwork spirit in project practice. Artificial intelligence education can be coordinated with the curriculum reform at the basic education stage, and the artificial intelligence curriculum can be integrated with basic courses such as Chinese, mathematics, science and practical courses, and the interdisciplinary, large-unit, and project-based curriculum implementation mode should be adopted. For example, students can apply artificial intelligence to real-world problem solving through project-based learning. In math class, students can learn to use AI algorithms for data analysis; In Chinese class, students can use natural language processing technology for text analysis and emotion recognition. This interdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and real-life teaching method can effectively break down the barriers between disciplines and make students' learning closer to life and social needs.

To promote AI education, we can explore the transformation of technology and data in smart campus scenarios into inquiry-based project courses. For example, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology is used to scan and review homework, a precise teaching system is built, and a classroom Q&A assistant is built through speech recognition and large model technology. These research results will be directly applied to daily teaching and management, and such educational practices will also allow students to transform from "technical learners" to "campus builders", and truly realize the integration of learning and application. Starting from the education model of "combining learning with application", the theoretical learning and technical application are organically combined, which not only allows students to get in touch with the most cutting-edge science and technology, but also helps them improve their ability to innovate and solve complex problems.

The extensive practice of "combining learning and application" is inseparable from the cooperation of external forces, such as exploring the update and integration of curriculum content and promoting the construction of teaching platforms. Try to create an "app mall" that integrates teaching resources, model libraries, and tools, where teachers and students can access a variety of AI teaching resources on demand, and can also cooperate with certified companies to create more practical opportunities. Students can experience real-world technology applications through the AI labs provided by the company, or participate in enterprise R&D and application projects as apprentices. Construct and improve the open and collaborative strategy, give full play to the advantages of universities, scientific research institutes, and high-tech enterprises in artificial intelligence scientific and technological innovation resources, and accelerate the formation of a home-school-community collaborative education and education consortium by opening artificial intelligence laboratories, experience halls, and comprehensive exhibition halls to primary and secondary school students, and building off-campus practice bases for artificial intelligence education in primary and secondary schools, so that students can gain richer experience and more solid growth.

(Author: Yu Shengquan, Executive Director and Professor of the Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education, Beijing Normal University)