Can Artificial Intelligence help Taiwan Higher Education be More Efficient? The Secret of “Flipped Education”
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Can Artificial Intelligence help Taiwan Higher Education be More Efficient? The Secret of “Flipped Education”

Can artificial intelligence (AI) help Taiwan higher education? NSYSU Teaching Development and Resources Center invited Prof. Stephen J.-H. Yang, the former director of Department of Information and Technology Education, Ministry of Education, to share “education evolution” that AI brings. The topic of the speech is “New Challenges for Artificial Intelligence in Education”. The speech contains four parts, including (1) Imagination and Reality of AI, (2) Higher Education Sprout and Innovation Higher Education Market, (3) Precision Education, and (4) Aesthetic Education.

        “When we faced those students who are disengaged and got failed, we used to think how to improve their learning motivation; however, after implementing Book Roll, I found that what they need is more instructions than stimulation.” said by Prof. Yang with his own teaching experience in NCU. Prof. Yang has emulated Precision medicine and transformed it into Precision education, which can “find the right antidote for students”. He said that every student has their own DNA and growth environment, so from diagnosis, prediction, treatment, and prevention, we need individual and customized instructions for students.

        During teaching, teacher uses artificial intelligence devices to collect everyone’s behavior for diagnosis. The learners’ learning models are thus established, and hence teachers can “treat” students accordingly. In addition to the changes in higher education brought by technology, Prof. Yang also shared his first-hand observations in Australia, Japan, and Singapore. He said that the current higher education system around the world is looking for ways to enable students to learn strategically, and this is not just only the innovation of software and hardware in the classroom. He took Western Sydney University, Australia as an example. Once students enter any public areas, such as libraries, there will be intelligence systems guiding students to find available space and computers.

        Prof. Yang begins his speech by pointing out “Education can make unexpected people to have unexpected achievements.”  Machines become wise from human beings, and human beings make use of machines to become wiser. He hopes this can make Taiwan higher education more energetic. “There is one thing that is still very important.”, Prof. Yang emphasized that, “aesthetic education is not able to be replaced. For example, NSYSU is beside the beautiful Sizihwan, which provides many precious aesthetic experiences for students in NSYSU. 

        During Q&A, Dr. Chang-Biau Yang, professor of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, mentioned that students may think flipped education incurs larger efforts for them, and also make teachers have less teaching”. Prof. Stephen J.-H. Yang responded that many students or parents believed that “teaching from teachers” is very important for learning. However, the spirit of flipped education is “let students regain their self-learning ability, and make students learn how to learn.” Prof. Stephen J.-H. Yang also mentions that freshman is the most important stage of learning in University, and it is better for students to develop the ability of self-learning in the freshman year. Dr. Hung-Duen Yang, the former president of NSYSU, further responded that this ability should be cultivated in primary and secondary education. It will be too late in the university stage.

 

 

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