25-6-2023 (HONG KONG) Hong Kong has taken a significant step in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) education into its secondary school curriculum. The Education Bureau has issued a memo to over 450 public secondary schools, instructing teachers to incorporate 10 to 14 hours of AI education into the information and communication technology (ICT) subject for Form One to Three students starting from September.
The newly introduced curriculum aims to familiarize students with the fundamental concepts of AI, including computer vision, computer speech and language, robotic reasoning, AI ethics, and the social impact of AI technologies.
The curriculum’s content draws inspiration from the “AI for the Future Project,” an initiative launched in 2017 by the Chinese University to provide AI education to secondary students. Approximately 50% of the curriculum focuses on the ethical considerations and social implications of AI, emphasizing the importance of understanding the responsible use of powerful AI tools.
Yam Yeung, a research professor at the Chinese University who headed the “AI for the Future Project,” highlighted the need for students to recognize both the positive and negative aspects of AI in society. By providing students with a comprehensive understanding of AI, Yeung hopes they will develop the necessary skills to leverage AI for the benefit of society.
The curriculum also incorporates generative artificial intelligence, featuring ChatGPT by OpenAI, the latest advancement in AI technology. Students will have the opportunity to generate images and write text using mirror sites of ChatGPT, as well as evaluate the tool’s outputs for quality and effectiveness.
Moreover, students will engage in group projects where they identify real-world problems and apply their AI knowledge to develop innovative solutions.
Henry Lin Ting-kit, the chief curriculum development officer for technology education at the Education Bureau, emphasized that while not all students may pursue careers in innovation and technology, their lives will undoubtedly be impacted by AI. Therefore, it is crucial for students to possess a foundational knowledge of AI and develop a balanced perspective towards the technology.
Lin revealed that approximately 70% of public secondary schools have already incorporated AI elements into their curricula. However, he hopes that the newly introduced AI curriculum will be adopted by more schools, encouraging them to integrate it into their course designs for the upcoming academic year.
To support the implementation of the AI curriculum, the Education Bureau will provide workshops on AI teaching for over 1,000 ICT teachers from public secondary schools starting in September.
In addition to the AI curriculum for junior secondary students, the bureau is also set to introduce an enriched coding curriculum for Primary Four to Six pupils in the coming academic year. Coding education was initially introduced to primary schools in 2017, and it has been widely adopted by nearly all public primary schools in Hong Kong.
The enriched coding curriculum will cover essential computational thinking concepts such as abstraction, algorithms, and automation. Students will utilize Scratch, a programming language designed for schoolchildren, to complete various tasks involving content visualization and game design.
