The High Touch High Tech (HTHT) 2021 Conference about AI in Education started on June 29 with series of intense sessions from global dignitaries and experts. The four-day conference, co-hosted by leading Korean AI in Education company Riiid, Education Commission Asia, and TV Chosun, will focus on leveraging AIEd to narrow the achievement gap in education.

The HTHT 2021 Conference will be hosting stakeholders across the EdTech ecosystem–global organizations, governments, academia, foundations, EdTech innovators, schools, parents, and students–to discuss the potential of AI in addressing global learning crisis further exacerbated by COVID19. The four-day conference will take place from June 29 to July 2 with online and offline participation and include 150 speakers and panelists from ten nations.

Day One at HTHT 2021 

Day one of the HTHT 2021 conference was packed with some interesting sessions about transformation in education and the role of technology. The event discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and the paradigm shift to depending on technology like AI to change the course of imparting education. The dignitaries and experts, who held talks on the day, focused on the role of global stakeholders in bringing change in education across strata to benefit the young learners.

The event started with a round table talk moderated by Ju Lo Hee, Chairman of the Asian Education Association on ‘closing the educational gap through high-touch high-tech’ with speakers that included Jang Soon-heung, President of Handong Global University, Chairman of the HTHT Gap, Reduction Committee and municipal governors, mayors of Seoul and Busan. It was followed by keynote speeches by world leaders that included Ban-Ki-Moon, the eighth UN general secretary, Gordon Brown, former PM of UK, and Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Education & Culture Indonesia. It was moderated by Hyeyoung Yoon, Professor at KDI Graduate School of International Policy and Ju Lo Hee.

Day one had different sessions under the topics – High-touch, high-tech, leading the future of education, How to create a successful global edtech ecosystem, Environmental education using high-touch high-tech, Global learning crisis, finding ways to cope, High-Touch High-Tech, Presenting a New Paradigm of Education and Empirical Analysis of High-Touch High-Tech Effects. The participation for the sessions was a mix of online and offline presence with experts from across the globe, including the USA, UK, European countries, Asian countries.

Session on Korea’s impact on AI in education 

For the country-specific session, there were sessions for UAE on Explore UAE edtech ecosystem and global partnership and for Korea about Exploring global partnerships with the Korean edtech ecosystem. The Korea specific session was led by Cho Yong-sang, CEO of I Scream Edu, Bang Seung-cheon, CEO of Hunet New Business Development and Investment Division, Changmook Lee, Expert member of Woongjin ThinkBig Edutech Research Center, Woo Kun Hur of Visang Education Inc., and Hougan of Emergency Education Edutech COMPANY Overseas Strategic Business CORE General Manager. The Korean speakers talked about their Edtech companies that have developed products and services led by AI for learning, the online education market in Korea and global expansion plans, technological innovations in the education industry, the impact of Korean technology on the global education market, etc.

Sohee Shin, CEO of Education Commission Asia, talked about HTHT Edtech Consortium and building the HTHT education ecosystem with the Global EdTech Awards (GESAwards) 2021, which will recognize upcoming Edtech companies. Applications for the GESAwards start in August 2021 with Semi-Finals in different countries, including Korea, in November 2021, and the final awards will be in the UK in January 2022. HTHT 2021 encouraged global startups and Korean startups to participate in the awards.

Riiid to lead AI for education ecosystem track on Day two 

Riiid, the leading Korean AI education company, will exclusively lead the AI in Education (AIEd) ecosystem track at the High Touch High Tech (HTHT) 2021 Conference with virtual all-day sessions on June 30. Riiid’s track, ‘Building a New Ecosystem for AIEd,’ will feature eight talks designed to address the most prominent issues across the entire AIEd pipeline.

One of the first sessions will consider prominent research topics and recent trends in AI for Education, especially transforming assessment methods from summative to formative as precipitated by COVID19. Other topics will include translating research ideas into concrete products as well as a discussion on the future of educational assessments using AI. Industry experts are exploring how AI technologies can improve assessment systems, making them more effective while still being fair and valid. As ethics in AI are becoming a more important subject, one of the sessions will also explore equity, ethics, and human-centered design principles in the use of AI in learning.

“As an industry pioneer in bringing equity in learning, Riiid is fully committed to defining and growing the AIEd ecosystem further and establishing a firmer foundation of AI for education,” said YJ Jang, founder, and CEO of Riiid. “Riiid will lead this movement, and I am very grateful to showcase our mission by hosting one of four tracks at the world’s largest AIEd conference.”

Additional discussion will include inviting over 25 schoolteachers from Korea, the US, Spain, Russia, and Brazil to hear about their experiences, expectations, and concerns around AI in Education and get a better sense of those on the front line innovation in education.

Expert speakers for the Riiid track include Fengchun Miao, Chief of UNESCO’s Unit for Technology and AI in Education; Jim Larimore, Chief Officer for Equity in Learning at Riiid; Ryan Baker, Director of the Center for Learning Analytics and Big Data at the University of Pennsylvania; Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at OECD, Head of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); Maria Spies, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of HolonIQ; and Alina von Davier, Chief Assessment Officer at Duolingo, among others.

The sessions are available for the public online. To watch, please visit: youtube.com/tvchosun. For more information on the conference, please visit: http://htht-show.com/en/index.php.