Adopting AI, digital edu need of hour: Experts

Shimla, June 13

A two-day workshop on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital education for professors began today at Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) under the joint aegis of the International Centre for Distance Learning and Open Learning (ICDOL) and Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The main objective of the capacity-building workshop is to enable professors to deal with future challenges.

The workshop was inaugurated by HPU Vice-Chancellor Sat Prakash Bansal. He said the Indian education system is not only glorious but also world-renowned as a knowledge enhancement system, but it is also very important to train professors to deal with the new challenges that have come with changing times.

“To deal with the new challenges, we have to move towards capacity building by keeping the traditional education system at the core while adopting AI and digital education so that we do not stray from our original objective,” said the V-C.

CEC director and special guest of the workshop Prof JB Nadda said, “The present time is focused on AI and digital education, in which along with new technologies, we also have to face the challenge of how to preserve our history so that the oldest form of our education system is not depleted.”

He further said, “In the present time, we are moving towards smart classrooms in which many qualities of the traditional education system are included.” He also said to face the educational challenges at the global level, teachers will have to adapt to AI and digital education, only then their efforts can prove to be fruitful.”

HPU Pro-Vice-Chancellor and special guest of the workshop Prof Rajinder Verma said AI and digital education have become the most important and crucial subjects today because both of these have become central in study and teaching, which has brought many positive results in the society.

He said online education played a special role during the Covid-19 pandemic and many areas of the country were successful in providing online education. “Along with this, we should also educate the young generation or students to not misuse digital tools,” he added.

In the workshop, AI professional Manas Diwan from Pune, director of Educational Multimedia Research Centre Dr Pankaj Tiwari and Prof Amandeep Kaur from Central University Punjab shared their views while sharing their experiences.