This volume is developed in conjunction with the Global Smart Education Conference 2025, held in Beijing from August 18-20, 2025, on the theme of 'Human-AI Collaboration: Reshaping the Educational Ecosystem for the Future'. It examines the systemic conditions required to advance smart education, and complements the first volume, which focuses on the human, pedagogical and normative foundations of smart learning futures, by exploring the governance, leadership, institutional capacity, and ecosystem development needed to realise those aspirations in practice. This volume approaches smart education as a dynamic ecosystem rather than a collection of isolated technologies. Such an ecosystem is shaped by the relationships amongst learners, teachers, educational leaders, institutions, policies, technologies, communities and social partners. Its effectiveness depends not only on technological sophistication, but also on professional judgement, institutional learning, inclusive design and context-sensitive implementation.

By combining theoretical inquiry, international perspectives, and practice-based analysis, this book offers an integrated account of how smart education ecosystems can be governed, led, scaled and oriented towards learners. It is intended for researchers, policymakers, educational leaders, teacher educators and practitioners concerned with artificial intelligence, educational digital transformation, educational governance, teacher development, institutional change and the future of learning.

Readers who wish to learn more about this topic can refer to 'Human-AI Collaboration Reshaping Smart Learning Futures: Proceedings of the Global Smart Education Conference 2025 – Volume 1'.

Professor Asha Singh Kanwar is the Chair of the Governing Board of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE), and Chair Professor at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University (China). She also chairs the Advisory Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) Academy. Previously, she served as the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commonwealth of Learning (Canada). As a globally recognized leader in learning for sustainable development, her research focuses on open educational resources (OER), open and distance learning, and smart education. She has received the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) Prize of Excellence, and the Meritorious Service Award from the Asian Association of Open Universities for her outstanding contributions to open and distance education.

Dr. Dejian Liu is the Founder and Chairman of NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited, and serves as Co-Dean of the Smart Learning Institute and the National Engineering Research Center for Big Data Application in Education at Beijing Normal University, China. He is a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE), and is widely regarded as a leader in the field of smart education innovation. As a contributor to China’s National Smart Education Platform, Dr. Liu has driven technological innovations aimed at enhancing educational equity. He has played a pivotal role in global education initiatives under UNESCO and the Belt and Road Initiative, with impact across Africa, the Middle East, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regions. Through NetDragon’s education technologies, his work now supports over 1.3 million classrooms in more than 150 countries. Dr. Liu and his team hold over 1,400 patents and have authored 17 books and more than 30 academic papers.

Dr. Ting-Wen Chang is Associate Research Fellow, Director of the International Cooperation Center, and Assistant to the Dean at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University (SLIBNU), China. Since 2014, he has been dedicated to advancing smart learning research and fostering international collaboration. He has worked closely with a wide range of global experts and institutions, and has collaborated with organizations such as UNESCO IITE (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Information Technologies in Education), UNESCO IIEP (International Institute for Educational Planning), the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), to co-organize international conferences and jointly develop research and policy reports on educational innovation and digital transformation. His research interests include adaptive learning, user modeling, multimedia instruction, and personalized learning environments. He has published over 40 refereed journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers, and has received several academic awards, including the IEEE TCLT (Technical Community on Learning Technology) Young Researcher Award.

Ms. Lin Xu holds a Master of Arts in Education from University College London (UCL) and a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She currently serves as a Research Assistant and International Project Officer at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University, China. Her research focuses on technology-enhanced language learning and digital education, with a commitment to promoting international collaboration in the field.

Mr. Shuai Wang is an engineer of the National Engineering Research Center of Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology, China.