Rupert Wegerif & Zubair Junjunia：The DEFI Annual Event - Exploring Creativity and Al

On March 27, 2023, the 16th Future Education International Salon was held in Room A101 of the Lijiao Building. Over 50 teachers and students from the Future Education School of Beijing Normal University Zhuhai Campus participated online in the "Exploring Creativity and Artificial Intelligence" forum hosted by the Future Digital Education Center at the University of Cambridge.

The forum focused on the latest technological trends and future development trends in the global digital education field, listening to the voices of scholars from Cambridge and industry experts. Participants shared their latest perspectives and practical experience through keynote speeches and interactive exchanges, exploring how to promote communication and cooperation, break through boundaries, enhance interaction, and optimize evaluation of digital education under the background of the rise of artificial intelligence technology, injecting new power into the sustainable development of future education.

The forum was hosted by Rupert Wegerif, Director of the Future Digital Education Center at the University of Cambridge and a professor of education at the University of Cambridge, and Zubair Junjunia, a resident education technology entrepreneur at the University of Cambridge and a member of the DEFI consulting group. Experts such as Anna Katariina Wisakanto, Rebecca Hamer, and Nathan Crilly were invited to give keynote speeches and engage in discussions with online and offline participants.

Professor Rupert Wegerif believes that the release of ChatGPT marks the beginning of a new round of technological revolution, opening the prelude to the era of artificial intelligence. As AI tools continue to develop faster and deeper, people's dependence on AI tools in the fields of learning and creation is also increasing. In the future, the application scenarios of AI in education will continue to expand, but at the same time, it will also pose challenges for the cultivation of human creativity.

Rebecca Hamer introduced the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) and the ten comprehensive literacy skills that students should possess in IB education: inquiry, knowledge, thinking, communication, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-taking, balanced, and reflective. She emphasized the important role of the 4Cs (Collaboration, Creativity, Critical thinking, and Communication) in IB education.

Next, Dr. Yigal Rosen focused on the theme of creativity assessment, introducing the concept of creative thinking, the significance of cultivating students' creative thinking, and how to achieve creativity assessment. He pointed out that teachers and parents play an important role in helping children explore and form a process of creative thinking. Dr. Rosen used the example of designing an interesting obstacle training course to explain in detail. With the support of emerging technologies, people can quickly and accurately analyze real-time data of the course to test the actual implementation effect of the new model of "designing creative games". The Super Skills BETA test proved that learners' creative ability did indeed develop during the process of participating in creative games. At the end of the forum, Dr. Rosen introduced his future research direction: to further confirm how AI, a technology with great development prospects, can play a role in the comprehensive development and assessment of creativity.

The holding of this salon provides beneficial support for strengthening the exchange and cooperation between Beijing Normal University and world-class universities, promoting the digital transformation of teacher development, and enhancing teachers' ability to carry out education and teaching in the digital age.