Students in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, are using artificial intelligence to explore their hometown's newly inscribed World Heritage site in an educational experiment that seeks to turn young people from heritage learners into participants in its storytelling and transmission.
Changhe Middle School in Jingdezhen recently launched an AI-assisted, project-based learning course centered on world heritage. The initiative builds on an educational program launched in 2025 that encourages local students to explore how they can participate in the city's World Heritage nomination process.
The program uses digital tools to help students collect and organize information, develop creative ways of presenting heritage, and communicate what they have learned to wider audiences.
The initiative comes shortly after the Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 25 at the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea.
The heritage property comprises 45 component sites spread across 1,979 hectares, ranging from porcelain workshops in the historical urban center to raw material extraction sites, transportation routes and traditional neighborhoods that together illustrate the industry's full production chain.
The AI course is an extension of the Jingdezhen Model education project launched in 2025 by education researchers, local middle schools and the team involved in preparing the city's World Heritage nomination.
The project used the actual nomination process as a learning context, asking students to investigate heritage, study local communities, and consider how the story of their hometown is communicated.
"Heritage is no longer simply a subject of knowledge in the classroom," says Li Jianyun, who oversees the heritage education component of the project and serves as its cultural heritage specialist.
It can instead connect history, geography, the environment, society, and future development through real-world problems, Li adds.
The project brings together different areas of expertise. Education specialists help teachers design interdisciplinary courses; heritage experts guide students in understanding the values of World Heritage, the nomination process and the principles of protection; and communications professionals help them explore new ways of telling local stories.
According to Xia Ri, who oversees the communications component, students have examined Jingdezhen's millennia-old porcelain industry from the perspectives of the natural environment, resource use, production methods, and community life.
By getting close to heritage, understanding it, and learning to tell its stories, students can gradually move from being learners of cultural heritage to participants in communicating the stories of their hometown, Xia says.
The organizers see the approach as a continuous experiment. The Jingdezhen Model seeks to connect heritage protection, education innovation, community participation, and social resources.
According to the organizers, the Jingdezhen Model connects heritage protection with school education, community participation and technological innovation. The project team plans to further connect with domestic and international resources and promote the Jingdezhen Model overseas, exploring new possibilities for heritage education and cultural transmission
