Ben Leong
Dr Ben Leong is currently an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests are in the areas of networking and distributed systems. In recent years, he has been working on applying AI for education.
At NUS, he has been recognized for excellent teaching with a number of teaching awards, including the NUS Outstanding Educator Award in 2015. He also served as the Chair of the CS Department Standing Teaching Committee from 2017 to 2020.
From July 2014 to June 2019, Dr Leong served as the Director of the Experimental Systems and Technology Laboratory at the Ministry of Education (MOE). From Jan 2021 to Dec 2023, He served as Director of the Centre for Computing for Social Good & Philanthropy (CCSGP) at School of Computing (SoC).
In 2020, Dr Leong was appointed Chief Data Officer of AI.SG, the national AI Programme and since Dec 2020, he has been Director of the AI Centre for Educational Technologies (AICET), where his team applies AI to build software platforms for education.
Keynote Address
Differentiated or Personalised? Rethinking Learning Design in an Age of Generative AI
The terms differentiated learning and personalised learning are often used interchangeably, yet they represent fundamentally different theories of how learning should be designed, governed, and scaled. As classrooms become increasingly heterogeneous—and as generative AI enables unprecedented individualisation—the distinction between these approaches is no longer semantic but structural.
In this talk, we contrast differentiated and personalised learning across cognitive, pedagogical, and systemic dimensions, examining how each approach shapes curriculum design, teacher practice, equity, and assessment. Drawing on evidence from cognitive science and emerging AI-enabled classrooms, we argue that differentiation is a teacher-orchestrated model for managing variability, while personalisation is a system-level reconfiguration of learning pathways and agency. We will discuss how GenAI is likely to impact the practice of differentiated learning and discuss the implications for a high-stakes assessment system like Singapore.