The 2024 World Digital Education Conference (WDEC) was successfully held in Shanghai, China on 29-31 January 2024, co-hosted by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. The WDEC gathered more than 800 educators, officials, and tech leaders from over 70 countries and regions.

The International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) was invited to the conference and had in-depth exchanges with representatives of the Ministry of Education, leaders of higher education institutions, experts and scholars.

LIM Cher Pin, Chief Expert of the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE), UNESCO-ICHEI, and Chair Professor of The Education University of Hong Kong, shared the case of UNESCO-ICHEI in the first parallel session "Improvement of Digital Literacy and Competency of Teachers", introducing the role of IIOE ecosystem in enhancing teaching personnel's digital competency.

Overall, the Conference has become a global platform for discussions on the transformative impact of digital education and fostering international collaboration, with many international guests expressing their eagerness to deepen cooperation with China in digital education to build a shared future.

Background

As a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution accelerates, digital technology has increasingly become a driving force that fundamentally changes and reshapes the thinking patterns, organizational structures, and operational modes of human society in all fronts. It presents us with both new challenges and major opportunities to innovate pathways, redesign forms and promote development. The application and development of digital technology have integrated into all areas of society and will exert a profound influence on the future development of education.

The United Nations, along with countries worldwide and numerous international organizations, are taking active measures to prioritize digital education as a crucial pathway and initiative in responding to challenges and forging a bright future. Digital transformation has become a vital vehicle and direction for global educational transformation. The United Nations Transforming Education Summit has identified digital transformation in education as one of the five priority areas for action, emphasizing that the digital revolution should ensure benefits for all learners. Many countries have implemented strategies for digital development with education being a significant component of these efforts.

In the meantime, China has endeavoured to deepen its strategic action on the digitisation of education, working with other countries to promote the application, sharing and innovation of digital education, and committing to achieving inclusive, equitable, and quality education, and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The conference aims to work with governments, universities, primary and secondary schools, enterprises, and other stakeholders, relevant international organizations and non-governmental organizations to jointly explore practices and innovations in digital education. It seeks to promote inclusive, equitable, and quality education through digital education transformation, thereby advancing the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

With the theme of “Digital Education: Application, Sharing, and Innovation”, the conference focuses on topics including Improvement of Digital Literacy and Competency of Teachers, Education Digitalization and Learning Society Construction, Global Trends of Digital Education Development and Evaluation Index, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics, Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Transformation for Basic Education, and Digital Governance in Education.

Agenda

Deliverables

Multiple achievements were made during the 2024 World Digital Education Conference.

A world digital education alliance was set up on January 30 at the conference. The alliance, with 104 organisations from 41 countries and regions, aims to promote inclusive, equitable, and quality education through digital education transformation.

The international edition of the online education platform Smart Education of China was launched during the conference, aiming to benefit global learners through digital education and provide them with personalized learning services. With six official languages, including Chinese, English and French, the international edition contains the latest information on international cooperation in digital education.

In addition, China's National Academy of Educational Sciences released the Global Digital Education Development Index, an evaluation on the general level of digital education in countries around the world. China improved from 24th to 9th in rankings of the index over the past three years, signifying an obvious progress in terms of building digital resources, cultivating digital abilities of teachers and students, as well as forming digital education systems.

A new seasonal English Journal, "Frontiers of Digital Education", was issued during the conference, aiming to unveil the policy trend of digital education and analyze crucial problems such as the application of Artificial Intelligence in education.

WDEC kicks off in Shanghai

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