英文摘要

Connectivism： the ontology of “Internet Plus Education”

Zhijun Wang and Li Chen

“Internet Plus Education”， an emerging practice in ICT in education 2.0， is transforming both the institutional system and service system of education. The concept of educational ontology has developed with the development of educational practice. In the Internet plus era， education is achieving unprecedented openness and complexity， and we need to re-examine the origin of education. This study reviews the evolution of human education and the development of education ontology， and points out that education is a complex system， the complexity of which needs to be addressed. Analyzing the innovative features and essence of the “Internet Plus Education”， the authors propose that connectivism is the ontology of “Internet Plus Education”. There are three types of innovative practice of “Internet Plus Education”： a. cognitive level connection - connection and innovation of cognition network， concept network and social network; b. pedagogical level connection - innovation represented by resource sharing， open university and blended learning; c. institutional ecology level connection - a new education ecosystem featuring new forms such as self-organization and community education. This study analyzes the value and the direction of education theory innovation based on connectivism ontology. This study develops connectivism from a learning theory in the digital age to the ontology of “Internet Plus education” system， which can draw peoples understanding of education from scientific world to real life， paying more attention to the complexity of education in the living world. Based on the connectivism ontology， a new educational ecosystem is to be constructed， as well as an open and flexible lifelong learning system for learners， so as to meet the needs of social development of highly connected and artificial intelligent society and to lay the groundwork for the philosophy and educational theory system of “Internet Plus education”.

Keywords： Internet Plus Education; educational theory; innovative practice; educational philosophy; educational informationization; ontology; connectivism; learning theory; ecosystem

Integrated design of artificial intelligence and special education

Liming Guo， Xianmin Yang， Xiaolian Duan and Beibei Xing

With the arrival of the intelligent era， the deep integration of artificial intelligence （AI） and special education will become an important trend in education. According to research， some artificial intelligence technologies have been used to assist the physically disabled， people with hearing， visual or hearing-visual impairment， people with autism and other physical disabilities. However， these AI technologies only provide defects compensation for these five categories of disabled people at present. The development of special education in our country still faces five major practical problems. First， the design of teaching materials does not take into account the physical and psychological characteristics of special children， and the quality needs to be improved. Secondly， the teaching staff for special education is still weak and the professional level needs to be strengthened. Thirdly， students disabilities vary and individualized teaching needs to be facilitated. Fourthly， there are different types of students' disabilities and convenience management is difficult to be realized. And lastly， there is a lack of medical aid and health diagnosis and the students health protection needs to be improved. The paper attempts to build a deep integration framework of artificial intelligence and special education， and explores the ideas of artificial intelligence in solving the five major problems in the development of special education. Some countermeasures are suggested to deal with these practical problems in the end.

Keywords： learners with special needs; hearing impairment; visual impairment; autism; expertise system; intelligent robot; Development Plan for a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence

Accurate alerting and prevention of online learning crisis： an empirical study of a model

Ying Shu， Qiang Jiang and Wei Zhao

It is conducive to accurate identification of students learning crisis and providing accurate teaching to conduct comprehensive quantitative description of students learning behavior， learning diagnosis， accurate alerting and prevention intervention. Adopting data mining and learning analytics technology， the authors analyze the non-interventional behavior data in online learning， including explicit procedural structural information （such as state of learning， learning interaction and learning performance， etc.） and implicit non-structural information （such as learners mood）， and identify the alerting factors of online learning crisis. This study constructs an accurate alerting model using Na?ve Bayes classifiers， and classifies students in learning crisis with cluster grouping using quasi-experimental design. It also proposes two intervening strategies， emailing artificial intervention or intervening automatically in the learning environment. The results show that this model is able to identify the state of learning and trends of the learners， esp. the abnormal learners， and the intervening strategies can supervise the learners in their effective learning， resolve their learning crisis， and enhance personalized learning and teaching and administration.

Keywords： learning crisis; accurate alerting; learning prevention; learning analytics; data mining; online learning quality; big data; learning process

Open and distance education in the United States of America in a digital age

Michael Beaudoin

Nearly 50 years ago， prominent futurists urged universities to become aware of life ‘beyond the stable state and predicted that the information age would force academia to accommodate an ‘accelerating pace of change. Their prescient observations about the future have characterized American higher education for nearly 50 years， perhaps best exemplified by the role distance education （DE） has played in this process. DEs remarkable progression in the US arena began well before the electronic era， extending over a nearly-300-year period. It is a phenomenon that perhaps represents the most significant transformation within academe in a millennium， presenting exciting opportunities and formidable challenges. This article offers a descriptive analysis and commentary of key aspects of DE at the post-secondary level in the US， with perspectives gained from the author's 35 years of scholarship and practice in the field.

Keywords： technology-assisted learning; disruptive technology; trends; digital age; strategic asset; accreditation

（英文目次、摘要譯者：刘占荣）