Create a grand stage for international exchange and cooperation in digital education

——Written on the occasion of the 2025 World Digital Education Conference

Commentator for China Education Daily

In May, Donghu Lake is lush with greenery and full of vitality.

In the era of intelligence, how can global education recognize, adapt, and seek change? A conference that gathers wisdom and inspires action - the 2025 World Digital Education Conference - was held in Wuhan.

This is a new starting point for digital education. This conference is the first important international conference hosted by the Ministry of Education after the release of the "Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Education Country (2024-2035)". It is a milestone event for implementing the spirit of the National Education Conference and the Outline. The conference, themed "Education Development and Change: The Intelligent Era," will gather professionals from around the world to explore how to promote the development and change of education in the intelligent era.

Since 2023, China has continuously hosted the World Digital Education Conference, bringing together top talents from various fields such as governments, educational and research institutions, and important international organizations from multiple countries to create a flagship event with global influence.

The World Digital Education Conference is becoming an important platform to connect countries around the world and numerous international organizations, promote dialogue and exchange in digital education, and contribute a continuous stream of wisdom and strength to promoting innovative development of global education, achieving educational equity and quality improvement, leading us towards a better future of education.

——This is a platform showcasing the advanced achievements of China's digital education.

During the 2024 World Digital Education Conference, the "Digital Future" Education Exhibition will be held simultaneously. Groups of data, pictures, and vivid cases vividly demonstrate China's extraordinary process and fruitful achievements in actively promoting the digitalization of education strategy.

At this year's World Digital Education Conference, the exhibition of educational digitalization achievements will also be held simultaneously. The theme of the exhibition is "Intelligence Without Boundaries, Education Coexistence", which will focus on presenting the strategic layout and policy achievements of China's educational digitalization, vividly demonstrating the rich practice of integrating digital education into education and teaching.

Since the launch and implementation of the National Education Digitalization Strategy three years ago, we have built the National Smart Education Public Service Platform, with registered users exceeding 164 million and page views of 61.3 billion, becoming the world's largest high-quality digital education platform.

A single branch is not spring, and a hundred flowers bloom in spring to fill the garden. China adheres to the principle of co construction and sharing, creating high-quality global public education service products, promoting the flow and convergence of various high-quality educational resources around the world, and enabling global learners to "enjoy the platform, learn intelligently, and light up their dreams".

The international version of the National Smart Education Public Service Platform has been officially launched, with the first batch of 780 free Chinese gold courses pushed to the world, providing 24/7 uninterrupted learning support for learners worldwide; Relying on the World MOOC and Online Education Alliance, Chinese MOOCs have launched 380 globally integrated courses and launched English global open courses focusing on major issues of global human destiny, attracting over 30 million learners worldwide. With the help of network cables and cameras, young people from all over the world, regardless of skin color, gather in high-quality classrooms at Chinese universities across time and space

At present, the exploration of digital transformation in world education is more active, and the conference provides a platform for different regions and types of educational institutions and practitioners to exchange ideas. The digital education practices, successful cases, and research results of other countries, regions, and international organizations around the world have also been fully demonstrated.

——This is a platform that contributes Chinese wisdom to global digital education.

Where does education go?

At present, the digital wave is sweeping across the world, and education is standing at the intersection of history and the future. The transformation of digital education is related to the inheritance and development of human civilization.

China, as a pioneer and explorer, has actively planned and continuously implemented the digital education strategy, and has embarked on a path of digital education development with Chinese characteristics. It has achieved historic achievements and significant changes in the digital transformation of Chinese education, and has won high recognition from the international community.

Relying on the World Digital Education Conference, China showcases its achievements in the field of digital education to the world, sharing its experience, wisdom, and solutions. This not only effectively enhances China's influence and discourse power in the international education field, but also provides reference for countries around the world to deepen the development of digital education.

From the 2023 World Digital Education Conference focusing on education digital infrastructure construction and digital transformation, to the 2024 World Digital Education Conference focusing on application deepening and ecological construction, and to this year highlighting the leading role of intelligent technology in education development and transformation... The world's digital education reform and exploration continue to deepen, and every change in agenda is a precise response to the needs of the times, and is also the crystallization of the convergence and collision of global educational wisdom.

The conference has provided a platform for international exchange and cooperation in global digital education, creating new opportunities. Representatives from various countries gathered together to deeply explore the cutting-edge trends of digital education development, share their practical experiences and achievements, and contribute wisdom to jointly addressing global education challenges and planning the future of world education.

The 2025 World Digital Education Conference will release five milestone achievements, including the "White Paper on China's Smart Education", "Initiative on Building an International Digital Education Standard System Framework" and "Overall Reference Framework for Education Model" alliance standards, the Global Digital Education Development Index 2025, the Top Ten Global Hotspots in Digital Education Research, and the "Wuhan Initiative for Digital Education Cooperation". These achievements will further contribute to promoting global digital education collaborative innovation, intelligent transformation, and inclusive development through strategic planning, standard construction, development evaluation, academic leadership, and collaborative initiatives, all in an all-round way.

The level of international cooperation in digital education continues to improve, and the breadth and depth of exchanges and dialogues continue to extend. China's digital education has been highly recognized by the international community, and the Chinese experience and solutions in educational digitization are moving towards the world.

——This is a platform that promotes global collective action.

The geese formed a formation and crossed thousands of mountains due to consensus.

The release of the "World Digital Education Development Cooperation Initiative" and the "Shanghai Initiative for Digital Education Cooperation", as well as the establishment of the World Digital Education Alliance... On the stage of the World Digital Education Conference, the "call to action" has repeatedly sounded. Co construction and sharing, consultation and discussion, and collaborative cooperation have become keywords that attract worldwide attention.

Walking alone is fast, walking together is far. Looking back at the past two years, we can clearly see that the popularity of digital education continues to rise globally, and countries are taking stronger actions to promote digital education. The exploration of digital transformation in world education is becoming more active. Many countries consider digitization as a strategic task for educational development and plan to build national level digital education platforms. It can be said that digital transformation is interwoven into the most beautiful ensemble of educational reform.

The "circle of friends" for digital education is expanding, and the network of partnerships is becoming increasingly solid. China actively promotes international cooperation in infrastructure construction, open access to high-quality resources, platform sharing and application, and policy standard docking, and works with countries around the world to create a new space and ecology for digital education in the future.

Collaboration is constantly deepening. Strengthening bilateral cooperation, the Chinese Ministry of Education has signed relevant agreements with the education departments of countries such as Singapore and Australia to enhance education cooperation and dialogue; Expand multilateral cooperation, actively participate in the regional consultation meetings and preparatory meetings of the United Nations Educational Reform Summit, exchange China's educational practice explorations and reflections on global educational reform, and call for global cooperation to advance together; Deepen regional cooperation, promote the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Digital Education Alliance, and actively respond to the needs of countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" and countries in Africa, Central Asia, ASEAN, Central and Eastern Europe and other regions.

Collaboration nurtures new opportunities, and together we draw a blueprint. China has opened its arms to the world and actively promoted wider and deeper cooperation in digital education among countries. The beautiful picture of global education digital transformation, intelligent upgrading, and green development is slowly unfolding.

It's a pleasure to have friends coming from afar

The prelude to the 2025 World Education Digital Conference has begun. Wuhan, located on the banks of the Yangtze River, is eagerly awaiting every friend who comes from afar to witness the resumption of this digital education event with the vision of a "thoroughfare of nine provinces".

Even mountains and seas cannot distance people with common aspirations. Just as camel bells were heard along the Silk Road a thousand years ago, we need to hold hands and hearts in the current data flood. May this grand event gather the stars of digital transformation into a galaxy. Let us take this conference as a starting point, and in the vast sea of stars in digital education, join hands and sail towards a better future of human education!

Source | China Education Daily, May 14, 2025