KKU and Japan attempt to transform Thailand’s education with AI for Thai teachers and students

September 29, 2019

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KKU and Japan prepare Thai teachers and secondary students for educational transformation with AI

The fast development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is threatening some people. Some might that it would be so advanced that it could control the world and replace almost all human tasks. However, considered in terms of education, AI is an innovation that is beneficial to teaching and learning. In the developed country like Japan, AI has been used effectively in classes, so it is a good time for Thailand to adopt AI technology for the future of Thai students.

On September 20, 2019, Institute for Research and Development in Teaching Profession for ASEAN of Khon Kaen University and University of Tsukuba’s lecturer – Prof. Dr. Masami Isoda, the head of AI for Education Project and Lesson Study expert – held a lecture on AI for Education Tranform in the 4th industrial Revolution. It was an honor to have Assoc. Prof. Charnchai Panthongviriyakul (M.D.) Adviser to Acting President, remarking opening speech; and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maitree Inprasitha, Vice President for Education and Acting Director of Institute for Research and Development in Teaching Profession for ASEAN, giving reporting speech at Phimol Kolkitch Building. The objective was to implement the policy of Education Transformation which is the key mission of Khon Kaen University.

Assoc. Prof. Charnchai Panthongviriyakul revealed that Khon Kaen University and University of Tsukuba had had academic collaboration for more than 15 years. The collaboration had extended to the fields of medicine, agriculture, humanities, and pharmaceutical sciences. It was a university conducting internationally recognized research, especially in AI for health care, that is, an electric robot converting energy from human’s movement to support the movement of elderly people. Moreover, University of Tsukuba proposed AI for Education Project for the year 2019-2021, and 20 APEC countries also participated in this project. It had been expected that this meeting could develop Thailand’s education further.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maitree Inprasitha said students these days needed to learn in 2 aspects consisting of real life and academic context in which mathematics was the significant fundamental knowledge. In developed countries, secondary students would be prepared to get familiar with AI in every subject. There were AI system designing scheme and e-learning as an academic database. Knowledge acquired in college therefore led to the development of goods and innovation in the future.

Prof. Dr. Masami Isoda said AI technology in Japan had been widely utilized in the fields of medicine and tourism business. Over 98.7 % of reception tasks were performed by AI. People needed to find what job human could do. Mostly it was a job involved with feelings. When AI was introduced to academic field, it took university admission examination in Japan and ranked 64th. It was found that for some questions that humans provided incorrect answers, AI could answer easily. This rapid development led to the collaboration between Thai and Japanese government working together for 13 years. Collaboration with Khon Kaen University included AI curriculum development for primary and secondary students, workshop on robot tools utilization, and computing science training which were all the future trends.

Further, if AI is used for education, it can help teachers with time consuming tasks – checking homework, evaluating essays, giving advice to students, manage and categorize documents, designing curriculum by using audio and video, and enabling video conference. It has been predicted that AI may be a virtual teacher in the future.

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Article: Jiraporn Pratomchai

[ Thai ]