On the morning of May 31, nearly 2,000 people who are managers and specialists of the Department of Education and Training of Thu Duc City and 21 districts, teachers of informatics at junior high schools and senior high schools in Ho Chi Minh City participated in the online conference about deploying artificial intelligence (Al) to apply in educational and teaching activities at high schools.

In the future, the education sector will cooperate with pedagogical schools to train informatics teachers for teaching the subject at high schools. In addition to informatics teachers, physics teachers and technology teachers will also receive training about IT to create more IT teachers to ensure intensive and effective deployment.

At the opening of the conference, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training Nguyen Bao Quoc said that implementing the Smart Education and Lifelong Learning Project for the 2021-2025 period with a vision for 2030, the southern largest city in general and the education and training sector, in particular, has implemented many plans to apply the project.

Prior, some schools have implemented AI and automation-related content many years ago. In the past few years, the implementation has become more and more methodical and in-depth, and many schools actively include AI applications in academic curricula and management.

In the future, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training will coordinate with departments and universities to order educational materials on AI, and at the same time develop a teaching program to teach students shortly.

However, according to Mr. Do Quoc Anh Triet, a teacher at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, to successfully deploy AI in schools needs the school's vision, determination to support and coordinate the implementation, combined with the investment curricula, lesson plans, staff, learning systems, and students' passion for learning.

The Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training assessed that AI is being introduced into schools at different levels. Subsequently, schools need to choose the appropriate form to deploy for students.

In particular, the need to build an open repository of materials to meet the needs of artificial intelligence, providing materials to serve the learning and research needs of students and teachers plays an important role.

Regarding preparation for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training will organize refresher courses for managers to raise awareness about digital transformation, and the facilitation of a more synchronous implementation of AI is expected to be applied in schools.

Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc suggested that heads of schools should call for social contributions in the construction of smart classrooms and multi-function rooms to bring AI into schools in the most appropriate way. Furthermore, at the same time, school managers purchase necessary equipment such as robots, control circuits, and automation equipment in addition to the promotion of scientific research activities. Last but not least, AI-related competitions and activities should be held in schools and districts.

According to the municipal Department of Education and Training, the city will pilot the model of smart schools, and smart classrooms according to the scope of each district by choosing one pilot unit, especially at the high school level. Plus, five senior high schools will be chosen to implement the project which builds an integrated platform and promotes the application of artificial intelligence in education.

According to Ms. Tran Thi Kim Phung, Informatics specialist in the Secondary Education Department under Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, the survey results of 388 high schools in the 2021-2022 school year have shown that 62 schools have organized extracurricular activities, and technology playgrounds for students while 83 other schools established clubs with activities related to informatics.

In addition, through a survey of 569 teachers who are teaching informatics subjects at the high school level, 46 have master's degrees in computer science-related disciplines and 319 people have attended artificial intelligence courses and a number of related subjects such as natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision.

In particular, 95 teachers have integrated Al-related information into lessons for students. This is one of the good signals showing the teacher team's interest in the Al application.

Teacher Do Quoc Triet Anh of Le Hong Phong School for gifted students said that for successful AI application in schools, schools’ determination is needed plus students’ interest in the subject.

Head of Informatics faculty in Hung Vuong High School Pham Van Tu said that the goal of teaching AI is to introduce and help students learn, experience, and experiment with artificial intelligence products, which strengthen students’ knowledge of Informatics, help them know how to apply the knowledge they have learned to solve life's problems.

The lesson plan consists of three steps comprising preparation (set of guiding questions, designing topics and assigning tasks to students, preparing materials), Implementation (monitoring, guiding and evaluating learners, preparing and supporting facilities, shaping products for groups), and Closing activities (through reporting sessions, product evaluation).

Currently, according to the current educational program, eighth-grade students learn programming in the elective program and the eleventh graders will learn the mainstream program.

Source: Sai Gon Giai Phong