HONG KONG EDUCATION CITY LAUNCHES 'GO AI SCHEME' TO ADVOCATE THE PREVALENCE OF AI EDUCATION IN HK

Free AI courses for Teachers and Students to enjoy coding at school and in summer

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 14 May 2021 - The government has been actively promoting innovative education in recent years. Researches have predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) would become an influential technology in the world. As AI education is still at the nascent stage in local primary and secondary schools, the education sector is proactively looking for solutions that can provide teachers and students with the best innovative learning environment expeditiously. As such, Hong Kong Education City (EdCity) announced today the launch of the 'Go AI Scheme', to facilitate the prevalence of AI Education in Hong Kong by introducing AI learning platforms with curriculum and resources, enhancing teachers' and students' AI knowledge and future-ready skills in 21st Century.

The scheme targets local primary and secondary teachers and students. Each school is entitled to a quota of at least two teachers in-charge and 30 students for the scheme. Participation in the scheme is completely free of charge. Teacher training and a total of 32 to 40 hours of AI courses for primary and secondary students will be provided. The scheme is suitable for schools who are interested in AI or who wanted to enhance their teachers and students' AI knowledge.

Starting off in June, trainings will first be organised for school teachers so that they can familiarise themselves with the learning contents in the platform to educate students' learning of programming and understanding of AI, for which, in long run, AI can be integrated into school-based curriculum. The training also helps facilitate teaching and supporting students to acquire relevant knowledge and skills in a systemic manner. The training will especially touch on ethics and privacy issues relating to AI. Teachers will have the opportunity to discuss the issues with other teaching professionals and gain insights from multiple perspectives. This will equip teachers with the knowledge to nurture students applying AI positively in different areas and lead them to explore the idea of 'Tech for Good'.

'EdCity strives to promote the use of information technology to actualise innovative education. In recent years, we are glad to see many local primary and secondary schools actively involved in Artificial intelligence (AI) education to enhancing students' technology literacy and computational thinking. The 'Go AI Scheme' uses a 'high technology, low entrance barrier' approach, with the advanced AI learning platform and ample of quality teaching resources, the scheme facilitates teachers to develop most suitable school-based programmes to nurture future-ready generations,' said by Mr Victor Cheng Pat-leung, Executive Director of Hong Kong Education City.

Teaching materials developed by SenseTime will be used in the courses. The courses outlined a framework of progressive, easy-to-challenging approach, to strengthen students' self-learning skills on the knowledge and interests in AI applications.

The curriculum covers basic concepts on AI, coding and applications and AI theories. Students should be familiar with blockly programming or have acquired some experience with text-based programming. The curriculum for primary students, which is 32 hours in length, includes the fundamentals of AI. It touches on data, computer vision, smart photography, smart music, smart robotics, etc. The curriculum for secondary students is 40 hours in length and includes machine learning, neural network and NLP. Upon completion, students will acquire basic skills in AI and be able to master visual programming and Python programming language.

The 'Go AI Scheme' will organise a series of online and in-person AI activities during summer holidays so that students can enjoy a fulfilling summer break. EdCity hopes that dozens of local primary and secondary schools will take part in the scheme during this initial stage. In the future, the scheme will be expanded to cover more schools so as to provide a comprehensive support to schools in AI education, and empower students ready to ride the wave of AI.

Annex

• EdCity Go AI Scheme – Curriculum Outline
• EdCity Go AI Scheme – Schedule

Appendix 1: Curriculum Outline

Appendix 2: Schedule of EdCity's Go AI Scheme