Exclusive Interview | NetDragon CEO Xiong Li: Using AI to make teaching in accordance with students’ aptitude a reality

When it comes to the integration of AI and education, everyone is familiar with it. There are many players exploring the field of AI+education, but one company is a little special: NetDragon Websoft.

NetDragon, which is well-known for its gaming business, has "stepped out of the circle" and crossed over to the field of online education in recent years, and has taken a unique path. At the same time, it has "bloomed on both sides" in the domestic and foreign markets. In addition to building an AI education matrix in China, NetDragon has also extended its tentacles to overseas markets. So far, its education territory has covered 192 countries.

Dr. Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon Websoft, firmly believes that AI+education will definitely be a development trend in the future. Voice recognition and image recognition are only the foundation of artificial intelligence. These technical capabilities enable artificial intelligence to understand students' learning status, give feedback, and make future learning plans for students. This is the greatest help that artificial intelligence can really bring to education.

"The biggest advantage of artificial intelligence is that it can perform data analysis and targeted feedback that humans cannot take into account." Xiong Li believes that artificial intelligence is equivalent to each student being equipped with countless AI teachers, such as AI physics teachers, AI science teachers, AI mathematics teachers... In addition to teaching knowledge points like traditional teachers, AI teachers can also record all students' learning trajectories and understand their mastery of knowledge points. It will understand students' learning status better than any other teacher, making the teaching method of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude proposed more than 2,000 years ago a real reality.

As early as 2010, NetDragon established its education subsidiary Huayu. In March 2015, Beijing Normal University and Huayu jointly established the "Beijing Normal University Smart Learning Institute" in an attempt to develop a smart learning solution that can be widely promoted through research.

With years of hard work in the gaming business, NetDragon has accumulated rich experience in technology research and development. Therefore, unlike other online education institutions that directly cut into the business model of C-end users, NetDragon's domestic market is mainly based on B-end and G-end, and adopts a "technology-driven, hardware-first" model.

"We don't do online teaching like VIPKID. We hope to change the efficiency and methods of the teaching process through digital means, so it must be to B and to G. We will definitely go down this path firmly."

According to Xiong Li, NetDragon has created an AI educational hardware product - an educational robot. Xiong Li said, "It is as tall as a real person, has certain basic movements, can give lectures, and can answer basic questions from teachers and students. Our robot should be the most lifelike robot."

AI educational robots are part of NetDragon's educational robot STEAM education solution.

It is reported that NetDragon Education Robot STEAM course is aimed at K12 students. It takes artificial intelligence as the core content and integrates NetDragon's independently developed AI editor, AI trainer, and 3D virtual/real robot to help students think, design and create like computer scientists.

In terms of AI educational tools, NetDragon has developed the 101 Education PPT-AI teaching assistant product, which can transform into different characters to help teachers teach, record the learning trajectory of each student, and automatically generate subsequent learning plans. It can also interact with students and answer questions. Teachers can control the entire class through intelligent voice, and students can sign in online through face recognition. With AI teaching assistants, homework can be customized and corrected online.

In terms of AI teaching resources, NetDragon has developed a 3D electronic textbook that integrates reading, interpretation, evaluation, and interaction, and is equipped with interesting AI NPC images. Students can directly communicate with the characters and animals in the electronic textbook, and through AI technology, interactive learning between textbooks and students can be achieved.

NetDragon also uses cutting-edge technologies such as VR, 3D, and AI to create a virtual laboratory. Students can put on VR glasses and operate VR controllers to enter the 3D virtual space and conduct simulated physics and chemistry experiments with the help of AI experimental assistants.

In addition to the layout of educational hardware, NetDragon is also building a digital education town in Fuzhou Binhai New Town to showcase digital education software and hardware products, courses, teaching models, etc., and open various technical capabilities including artificial intelligence technology to start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises in the town, and open up massive resources such as 3D and VR to create a digital education industry cluster. It is reported that the first phase of the Fuzhou Software Vocational and Technical College in the town was completed in March 2019, and the first batch of 3,000 students moved in, and the school can accommodate 8,000 people in the future.

In addition, in December 2019, the artificial intelligence textbook (primary school version) compiled by NetDragon was piloted in Shanghai, marking another step forward in the AI ​​education track.

Along the way, NetDragon has been "slowly cooking" in the field of digital education, constantly building its own AI education product matrix, using technology and hardware as a starting point to enter the B-end and G-end markets. According to Xiong Li, NetDragon's cumulative investment in educational technology has reached nearly 100 million yuan in the past five years, and it will continue to invest another 100 million yuan in the next five years to do this.

"In fact, there will be a lot of room for imagination in artificial intelligence in the future," said Xiong Li.

In recent years, NetDragon has actively promoted the "going global" of education and established in-depth cooperation with more than 20 countries along the "Belt and Road", including Russia, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Kazakhstan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, etc., providing them with overall digital education solutions.

Opening up the African education market is also a unique move for NetDragon. Take Egypt as an example. Egypt itself is located in the desert and has a large population. When Xiong Li went to Egypt in 2019 to discuss cooperation, he found that due to the relatively low level of economic development, Egypt not only has few teachers and schools, but also a very low population density. There may be only a dozen or twenty children in a region distributed in very scattered places, which makes the cost of building a school for the local government very high.

In response to this situation, NetDragon built a mobile intelligent space for them. With a container-sized space as the carrier, a smart classroom is equivalent to a class. The classroom can be quickly transported and easily deployed, and a classroom can be built in just 2 days.

In addition to mobile smart classrooms, NetDragon also provides a complete set of digital education solutions including hardware, software, and teaching materials.

The classrooms are equipped with pre-configured desks and chairs, Promethean interactive large screens, 101 Education PPT, MDM and other basic facilities. "We have made some optimizations in terms of air conditioning, fans, windows, ventilation and insulation systems, smart electronic whiteboards, ordinary desks and chairs, handheld electronic devices, and teacher teaching equipment."

NetDragon has also localized all the teaching content, using artificial intelligence to generate a 3D image of an Egyptian teacher, and providing all the video content and digital teaching content. After the teacher clicks play, the AI ​​teacher will automatically explain the knowledge points. Local teachers only need to answer questions or pay attention to the students' learning situation, helping Egypt solve the problem of insufficient teachers.

NetDragon's digital education solutions are very popular in Egypt. According to Xiong Li, the Egyptian government plans to build 265,000 smart classrooms in the future after conducting the first batch of smart classroom procurement pilots in March 2019. Egypt has become a model for NetDragon's digital education cooperation with African countries.

Xiong Li believes that education is a global market, and the reason why NetDragon's digital education solutions are popular in many overseas countries is that NetDragon designs solutions that meet the local education characteristics based on the national conditions of different countries, enabling local children to learn faster and more efficiently, and helping them to teach students in accordance with their aptitude through artificial intelligence technology.

At the beginning of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, more and more overseas teachers and students also joined the "suspended classes but not learning" online course campaign. Starting from March 15, local primary and secondary schools in Egypt entered a state of full suspension of classes. Recently, the Egyptian Ministry of Education announced that Edmodo, an online learning platform under NetDragon, will be selected as the designated distance learning platform for Egypt's K12 education system to provide services for more than 20 million local teachers and students. In addition, Edmodo will also work with Egypt Knowledge Bank, one of the world's largest digital libraries, to introduce a large amount of interactive content including academic journals and other exclusive educational resources for teachers and students.

In this regard, Dr. Liang Nien-chien, Vice Chairman of NetDragon, believes that the implementation of Edmodo throughout Egypt is a positive shift towards the use of innovative and effective teaching methods. NetDragon will fully support the Egyptian Ministry of Education to provide high-quality distance education services for local teachers and students.

Dr. Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon Websoft, also said that NetDragon has accumulated a lot of experience in remote teaching during the domestic "war against the epidemic". NetDragon will rely on cutting-edge technologies such as AI and VR and years of accumulation in the field of education to mobilize all its educational products and resources to create a complete product portfolio for users covering learning scenarios such as before, during and after class. At the same time, we are confident that we can use NetDragon products including Edmodo to build online classrooms to help more people around the world meet their remote learning needs.

“We are not experts in teaching research, but we are a company that can better combine technology and teaching business.”

Xiong Li explained that their model is a bit like Didi. Didi will not cooperate with a taxi company, nor will it have its own taxi company. It changes the way of taking a taxi. NetDragon is doing the same thing in the education industry, changing the way of the entire teaching process, improving learning efficiency, and promoting fair and quality education.

“The path we take may be different from others, but if it works, taking Egypt as an example, if these smart classrooms can have an effect, I believe it will have a completely different impact on the educational development level of Egypt as a whole and the growth status of the next generation of children. We also hope that this generation of children can also receive quality and fair education. You must use methods and approaches to change it, rather than sending excellent teachers to the countryside, or making donations, because these things cannot change the essence.”

When talking about NetDragon's advantages in education, Xiong Li believes that compared with other education companies, they have more genes in the Internet industry.

"Having come a long way in the Internet industry, we have a strong sense of innovation and creativity, and are more forward-looking in seeing new technologies. We are also good at quickly combining new technologies with the field of education."

Finally, Xiong Li said that although NetDragon's education business currently comes more from its outstanding overseas performance, it will also vigorously explore the domestic market in the future. NetDragon hopes to create a more experiential (Engaging), more efficient (Efficient), and more effective (Effective) future education by integrating AI technology.