On January 31, during the closing ceremony of the 2024 World Digital Education Conference, President of the China National Academy of Educational Sciences (CNAES), Dr. Li Yongzhi, officially released reports on the Global Digital Education Development Index (GDEI) and China Smart Education 2023.
The Global Digital Education Development Index (GDEI) is a comprehensive index developed by CNAES, to assess the overall development level of digital education in various countries, based on evidence-based evaluation paradigms. Through systematic collection and analysis of various online data from international organizations and 206 countries and regions, 62 leading countries were selected. After an extensive consultancy with international experts, the research team suggested six core dimensions for assessing the progress of global digital education, namely new literacy, new systems, new institutions, new content, new paradigms, and new governance. This assessment framework is based on shared global concerns. Combining expert opinions and practical situation verification, the research constructs an indicator system, develops evaluation standards, and completes the initial index calculation.
After conducting an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the index results and evidence, CNAES proposed that global digital education development can be divided into five stages: initial transformation, resource-sharing, data-driven, AI-integration, and ecological remodeling. Among the 62 leading countries, 13% are still in the initial transformation stage, 68% are in the resource-sharing stage, and 19% have achieved the data-driven stage. Leading countries are exploring the AI-integration stage, while the ecological remodeling stage remains an aspirational goal for various countries and has not yet been achieved.
There are notable differences in digital education development levels across countries in the six dimensions of the index evaluation. In the dimension of digital literacy enhancement, Singapore takes the lead, due to its well-established system for cultivating digital literacy among its citizens, teachers, and students. In the dimension of digital education system construction, Finland and the United States lead, due to their significant achievements such as network connectivity, device equipment, and credit recognition. In the dimension of institutional innovation, the United States and France lead because of their relatively complete legal frameworks, planning, and standards. In the dimension of content reshaping, Finland, the United States, Denmark, and Canada lead due to their extensive and diverse resources. In the dimension of digital teaching transformation, the United Kingdom leads due to its active exploration of digital transformation in teaching and research. In the dimension of governance upgrading, Estonia leads because of its robust evidence-based decision-making and large-scale digital management of schools.
According to the index ranking, high-level countries in global digital education development exhibit specific clustering features. The top 10 countries are mainly high-income and large-population countries, distributed in Europe, Asia, North America, and Oceania. At the same time, however, global digital education has leapfrog development characteristics, as reflected by the notable changes in the index ranking.
China has been implementing a national education digitization strategy for the last three years, guided by the “3C” philosophy—Connection, Content, and Cooperation. China has achieved significant advancements in three areas: the creation and utilization of digital resources, the instruction of digital literacy, and the establishment of digital educational systems, rising 15 places, from 24th to 9th. China has also won the UNESCO Award for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education and developed the largest education resource center in the world, Smart Education of China public service platform, which serves 18 million teachers and nearly 300 million students. This achievement was made possible by China’s comparative advantages in the development of digital education. In addition, China has made notable advancements in teacher and student digital literacy and digital governance in a short period.
Report on China Smart Education 2023 highlights China’s policies and practices in the digitalization of education and offers a thorough picture of China’s digital education development from a global perspective. Four stages of China's smart education development are identified in the report: resource sharing, data-driven, AI-integration, and ecological remodeling.
The report shows that China in 2023 has established a policy network system that promotes in depth and connects horizontally to ensure the implementation of the digital education strategy. The system consists of eight parts, namely 1) strengthen top-level design to open up new tracks for educational development through digitization, 2) strengthen platform support to build a strong and effective national smart education public service platform, 3) consolidate data foundations to establish key facilities and resource systems for educational data, 4) deepen application innovation to empower education reform with digital technology, 5) optimize governance processes to effectively enhance the digital level of education governance, 6) enhance service capabilities to improve the equity and accessibility of educational public services, 7) strengthen basic supports to upgrade promote infrastructure and enhance the literacy of both teachers and students, and 8) deepen international exchanges to build a good global digital education ecosystem.
CANES has developed a standard framework to monitor and analyze the instances of application of digital technology in education throughout the nation. The framework includes 4 primary dimensions (i.e., extensive connectivity, innovative application, mechanism guarantee, and literacy enhancement), 12 secondary dimensions, and 29 observation points. On this basis, the report presents 20 typical cases that cover basic education, vocational education, higher education, and special education, showcasing China’s practices in digital education and their important role in promoting high-quality and equitable education.
The report extracts five practical paths for China’s smart education development: innovative literacy cultivation, overall advancement in by region, connectivity via digital bases, empowerment via data, and good ecological construction.
The report identifies five emerging trends globally. First, the broad prospects for the educational applications of generative AI will facilitate large-scale personalized learning. Second, technology-driven immersive scenarios will improve learning experiences, making the integration of virtual and physical spaces a new norm in education. Third, educational evaluation will undergo digital transformation, supporting the lifelong learning system. Fourth, teachers will coexist with AI, teach and learn together with AI, creating a new model of hybrid human-AI educators. Fifth, the digital education application ecosystem will flourish, with ubiquitous, diverse, and intelligent learning environments fostering new methods of teaching and learning.
Li Yongzhi emphasized that finding the most suitable digital education development path is the key rather than the index ranking. China’s unique path and experience in digital education development will offer additional choices to the world. Through the GDEI evaluation, we can build a mutual-learning, comparable, and mutual-reinforcing international ecosystem, using education to illuminate the path of human civilization and contribute to the Global Community of Shared Future.