Hanoi pilots artificial intelligence in five schools

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training has selected five schools to pilot the "Building a Smart Education Model for Hanoi Schools" project, according to Nguyen Quang Tuan, Deputy Director of the department.

The five schools are Kindergarten B in Hoan Kiem District, Le Van Tam Primary School and Nguyen Dinh Chieu Secondary School in Hai Ba Trung District, Chu Van An Secondary School in Long Bien District, Phan Huy Chu High School in Dong Da District.  

Students from Kindergarten B in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem District. Photo courtesy of the school

Tuan, the project team leader, explained that smart education is a concept that uses information technology to improve education by providing more time, space, learning resources, and better methods.

He added that the project seeks to boost digital transformation to all levels of education in Hanoi, from kindergarten to high school.

The smart classroom is at the heart of a smart school, and it is outfitted with smart technology such as interactive screens and tablets. Artificial intelligence (AI) in particular enables facial recognition, emotional assessment of students, and evaluation of teacher communication performance.

According to Tuan, his team has studied smart education platforms of other countries, their theories, and experiences, and then worked out models tailored to each school, including AI, digital technology, interactive devices, tablets, interactive screens, virtual reality devices, and production of 3D virtual reality content.

Nguyen Chan Hung from Hanoi University of Science and Technology said that a smart classroom needs high-end infrastructure, a high-speed network that can connect more than 50 tablets to the Internet, and the latest models of interactive screens that allow teachers to write and connect to tablets in a unified ecosystem. "In addition, students' work will be sent to teachers immediately, which will help improve teacher-student interaction."

In particular, the built-in AI helps to automatically measure the average emotions of the class as well as the emotions of each student, allowing the teacher to determine who is interested in learning and change the approach so that students are always engaged in the lesson.

The smart classroom can also automatically convert itself into digital materials, turning the entire lecture into a video book that is uploaded to the repository. Students can play it back to review after the class is over. This helps students better understand the lesson and absent students can study the lecture on their own.

If the pilot at the five schools mentioned above is successful, the project is expected to be adopted in November. After that, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training will take stock and replicate the model in other schools in the city.