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GOESAN, South Korea (AP) — Outside the classroom a hot summer day
beckons, but fourth-grade teacher Yeon Eun-jung’s students are
glued to their tablet PCs as they watch an animated boy and a girl
squabble about whether water becomes heavier when
frozen.
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The small scene in this rural town is part of something big: South
Korea is taking a $2 billion gamble that its students are ready to
ditch paper textbooks in favor of tablet PCs as part of a vast
digital scholastic network.
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France, Singapore, Japan and others are racing to create classrooms
where touch-screens provide instant access to millions of pieces of
information. But South Korea – Asia’s fourth-largest economy –
believes it enjoys an advantage over these countries, with kids who
are considered the world’s savviest navigators of the digital
universe.
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A 2009 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, a Paris-headquartered grouping of wealthy nations,
found 15-year-olds in South Korea scored highest in their ability
to absorb information from digital devices, beating runners-up New
Zealand and Australia by a large margin.
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At Sosu Elementary School in Goesan, principal Jo Yong-deuk speaks
of a future in which his students interact in virtual reality with
Ludwig van Beethoven and Abraham Lincoln. In the classroom, the
children scribble answers in their tablet PCs with touchscreen pens
as they watch the video clip explaining the scientific properties
of frozen water.
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“I liked this chapter, but my favorite clip is one where they show
how flowers blossom and trees bear fruit in spring,” 11-year-old
Jeong Ho-seok said with a wide grin.
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More than 60 primary, middle and high schools are now using digital
textbooks as part of their curriculum, according to the state-run
Korea Education and Research Information Service, which provides
technical support for the program. Seoul believes it can finish the
$2.1 billion program to build a single computer network packed with
high-quality digital content by 2015. Replacing textbooks with
tablet PCs will account for a quarter of that budget.
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According to South Korean officials, France is handing out tablets
in the Correze region and is pushing to expand digital material,
while Japan began distributing tablet PCs in a primary school last
year under a pilot program. Info-communications Development
Authority of Singapore said on its website that Singapore began
adopting tablet PCs in 2004.
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But Kim Doo-yeon, a South Korean official leading the project, said
his country will have no trouble competing.
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South Korea is one of the most wired places on earth. More than 80
percent of South Korean households have broadband access to the
Internet, according to the statistical office here. U.S. Web
hosting company Akamai said earlier this year that South Korea
enjoys the fastest Internet connection in the world. South Korea
also ranks first in wireless broadband subscriptions, according to
an OECD release last month.
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Lee Sang-hyeob, a student at Sosu Elementary School, spends a lot
of time at home playing online games and chatting with schoolmates.
Another Sosu student, Jang Woo-dam, often surfs her school’s
website to see messages from friends.
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The 2009 OECD study says there’s a positive relationship between
students’ use of computers at home for leisure and their digital
navigation skills. “Proficient digital readers tend to know how to
navigate effectively and efficiently,” the study said.
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The study said students who read online more frequently also read a
greater variety of print material and report higher enjoyment of
reading itself.
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Another telling example of the influence of the Internet on this
nation of 50 million is the number of so-called PC rooms, or
Internet cafes, which stood at 15,000 as of December last year,
according to the PC room business association.
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PC rooms, which usually operate around the clock, have long been
the breeding ground for South Korea’s so-called professional
e-gamers, whose popularity has given birth to an industry dedicated
to airing their matches and promoting high-tech gadgets through
them.
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Enchanted with games, Jeong Yu-jin, 16, has been teaching himself
programming since he was a child and is now developing a game that
warns of the consequences of global warming as a player clears
stages filled with challenges like angry polar bears and crumbling
glaciers.
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“Technology is a way for me to turn my imagination into a reality,”
said the student at Korea Digital Media High School, one of many
technology-oriented schools that have proliferated as electronics
giants like Samsung have thrived.
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Kim, the South Korean official leading the tablet PC project, said
the country envisions a digital scholastic network for students to
go beyond digital textbooks and national boundaries.
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“In the future, all our students will be connected to a single
computer network that allows them to also learn from teachers in
other countries,” Kim said.
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Loaded with video, animation, photos, voices, songs and Web
documents created by experts and by teachers and students, digital
textbooks allow students to enjoy a custom-made learning
experience, Kim said. Kids who fall behind in a regular curriculum
can start from levels they feel comfortable with.
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Young North Korean defectors struggling to adapt to South Korea
could also benefit from having tablet PCs. More than 21,000 North
Koreans, including children, have come to South Korea since the two
countries’ 1950-53 war. Many choose to study in special schools to
catch up before they attend regular ones.
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Those who study digital technology and education have been
generally positive about introducing digital textbooks, but there
have also been warnings that Internet addiction may deepen among
South Korea’s teenagers.
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The number of students addicted to the Internet amounted to
782,000, or 12 percent of the total student population, the
Ministry of Public Administration and Security said last year. The
government, worried by the problem, plans to increase the number of
counselors dealing with Internet addiction to 5,500 next
year.
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“What is essential in digital learning is to promote as much
interaction between teachers and students as possible, rather than
just leaving the students to themselves,” said Kwon Jung-eun, a
senior researcher at the state-run National Information Society
Agency.
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