Photo taken on Jan 30 shows the parallel session on "Education Digitalization and Learning Society Construction" at the 2024 World Digital Education Conference being held in Shanghai. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The parallel session on "Education Digitalization and Learning Society Construction" at the 2024 World Digital Education Conference was held in Shanghai on Tuesday.

The session was guided by the Vocational and Adult Education Department of the Ministry of Education, hosted by the Open University of China and the Shanghai Open University, and co-organized by the Vocational Education Development Center of the Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, and the China Adult Education Association. More than 240 representatives from educational departments, universities, and research institutions from 35 countries and regions participated in the conference.

Wu Yan, vice-minister of the Ministry of Education, attended the conference and delivered a speech.

Photo taken on Jan 30 shows Wu Yan, vice-minister of the Ministry of Education, delivering a speech at the parallel session on "Education Digitalization and Learning Society Construction" at the 2024 World Digital Education Conference. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Wu Yan said building a learning society is a national strategy laid down by the Chinese government. In recent years, the Ministry of Education has implemented a strategy for digital education, establishing a national smart education platform as a digital foundation for a learning society. China has been promoting the construction of learning cities, learning communities, and learning enterprises and encouraging a passion for learning among everyone. With the world's largest scale of digital education, China is serving the largest learning population in the world and providing its wisdom and solutions for building a learning society.

Wu Yan proposed that digitization, networking, and artificial intelligence are profoundly changing people's production, lifestyle, communication, and learning methods. Technologies such as generative artificial intelligence are particularly enabling a learning society. The vision of "learning anytime, anywhere and by everyone" has become a reality. The Chinese government is willing to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with governments and international organizations in the field of building a learning society. They aim to create an all-weather digital learning platform that provides uninterrupted learning support for learners worldwide, develop a comprehensive digital learning space with more intelligent and portable learning terminals, and construct a fully covered digital education community. This includes establishing open mechanisms for the certification, accumulation, and transformation of digital learning achievements and ensuring data security, digital ethics, and privacy protection. The goal is to jointly build a digital education community.

Photo taken on Jan 30 shows Isabell Kempf, director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, delivering a speech at the parallel session on "Education Digitalization and Learning Society Construction" at the 2024 World Digital Education Conference. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

During the conference, the "Development Report on the Construction of a Learning Society in China in the Process of Digitization" was released, introducing China's solutions, experiences, and actions in promoting digital empowerment for building a learning society, as well as providing insights into future trends in digital learning.

Education ministers from countries such as Gabon and New Zealand, representatives from international organizations such as UNESCO and the African Union Commission, as well as leaders of the International Council for Open and Distance Education, the Asian Association of Open Universities, and the African Distance Education Association, along with experts and scholars from domestic and foreign cities, universities, open universities, and research institutions, focused on the theme of "Digital Education: Application, Sharing, and Innovation".

They explored the theoretical and practical issues of building a learning society in the digital age from different perspectives. The experts at the conference generally believed that as the digital age approaches, the construction of a learning society requires comprehensive digital empowerment and will provide broader application scenarios. The conference further gathered consensus on building a learning society in the digital age and proposed new initiatives for building a digital education community, which will usher in a new era for a learning society.