ASU+GSV Summit Gathers "New Forces" of Chinese Education

TAL's International Strategy Pushes for Educational Innovation

SAN DIEGO, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As specified by the Action to Jointly Promote Education under the Belt & Road issued by the China's Ministry of Education, cooperation and exchange is the main way to build a community of shared education. Chinese educational enterprises are speeding up the implementation of "go global" strategy while "bring in" successful experience from overseas.

China has gradually become an important participant in the integration of global education. From April 16^th to 18^th, the 9th ASU+GSV Summit was successfully held in San Diego, United States. The 43^rd President of the United States, George Bush, former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, senior adviser (former CEO) of Coursera and the former president of Yale University, Rick Levin, and more than 350 global political and educational leaders from over 40 countries have gathered to discuss leading trends in global education. TAL, as one of the sponsors, appeared on the global stage of "ASU+GSV" for the first time and made an important voice at the summit.

International Experts Engaged in Brainstorming
The "China Session" Gathers Innovative Forces

George W. Bush, the 43^rd president of the US, highlighted the importance of educational development at the opening ceremony, "We want to ensure that everyone has access to education of the same quality so as to push for educational equality". Arne Duncan, the former former U.S. Education Secretary delivered in-depth remarks on global education policies and ICT trends in education. He believed that these "emerging forces" of education should be used to their full extent.

Rick Levin, senior adviser and former CEO of Coursera and the former president of Yale University pointed out, "Chinese education businesses are cooperating with the US in many fileds. The US also hopes to explore more opportunities in China's education market by means of establishing joint ventures". According to Michael Moe, founder and CEO of GSV, China is full of potential and future opportunities are to be found in China.

China's strategic layout for education in terms of investment, management systems, standard setting and professional development for teachers is pursing internationalization in all aspects step by step. During the three-day summit, Chinese education businesses such as TAL, XDF, Liulishuo, Yiqi Technology and Dada ABC had in-depth discussions with internationally renowned businesses such as Coursera and GSV on issues regarding China's education market, China's cooperation with other countries in education, local innovation models from China's education market, etc.

More Sophisticated Artificial Intelligence Leads China's Education onto the "Fast Track"

As the leading education technology summit in the world, this conference gathered leading technology companies including Microsoft, Google and Apple. Representatives from these companies had remarkable discussions on topics such as AI, AR/VR, machine learning and STEAM. "AI+education" was an important theme in the summit because of the wide use of AI in the area of education.

AI is gradually leading China's education onto the "fast track". As Huang Yan, CTO of TAL said, "China is taking the lead in education technology. TAL hopes to help children learn using science-based methods through adopting such advanced technologies as AI, big data and brain science, empowering the whole industry with open technologies and products. Meanwhile the Chinese government has always been committed to pushing for educational transformation along with nongovernmental sectors. The online broadcast and dual-teacher classroom of TAL will help more remote regions improve their education quality and work towards a balanced development of education."

Chinese education businesses such as TAL, Liulishuo and Yiqi Technology appeared in the Chinese Education Exhibition, which was set up for the first time during the summit. The Magic Mirror System (facial expression recognition technology) that TAL developed independently was one of the most popular educational technology products on show. Based on AI, the system captures data regarding the students' expressions and emotions in class, and forms an exclusive study report for each student.

"In terms of AI application in teaching, China has already covered areas including image, sound and semantic recognition. With sound assessment technology, we are able to judge whether the student's pronunciation is correct. With semantic recognition technology, we will know whether the student's answer is correct. With facial expression recognition technology, we can observe the student's level of concentration. In this way, teaching efficiency is greatly improved," said Chen Ningyu, the general manager of XRS Online School. Yang Songfan, director of the AI Lab at TAL, also emphasized on the educational technology philosophy of "digitalized classroom and personalized contents". He said that Chinese educational technology businesses, represented by TAL, would continue to push for AI-driven educational transformation.

Promote Exchange and Cooperation between China and Other Countries
Create "New Drivers" for the Internationalization of Education

In 2017, the size of China's education market exceeded 1.3 trillion USD with a growth rate of over 10%. The enormous size of the Chinese education market creates a wider space for China's educational cooperation with other countries. During her three-day state visit to China in February this year, British Prime Minister Theresa May signed a series of educational cooperation agreements. The total value of trade and investment cooperation projects in the field of education exceeded 550 million GBP. China is endowed with opportunities that will facilitate its efforts towards the internationalization of education. 

Many overseas education businesses started planning for their entry into China's education market after learning of its development trend during the three-day ASU+GSV Summit. "In recent years, China's education market developed rapidly in terms of technology and content and the volume of this market is huge," according to Chen Dinghong, the chief overseas adviser of TAL. "Made in China" is gradually transformed into "Created in China, Made for the World". TAL as well as other Chinese education businesses hope to advance education with science and technology innovation and to step up exchanges with their overseas counterparts in both content and technology.

Introducing quality educational resources and creating standard international cooperation have become an important way for Chinese education businesses to expand their share in the global market. TAL, for instance, has localized learning materials of National Geographic and Reading A-Z, an American graded reading system. It works with ETS, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press and has formed strategic partnerships, making a great effort to enrich the core of its internationalized education.

It has been 40 years since the beginning of China's reform and opening up. Looking ahead, China's pursuit of internationalization for education carries great significance. The demonstration of "Chinese Forces" in educational technology and internationalization during the ASU+GSV Summit reflected China's strengths in education. But what was reflected during the summit was only the tip of the iceberg. With the continuous effort of TAL and other Chinese education businesses, China will be a driver for global education and constitute an essential part of global education.

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