Anika Begay
Some parents have reservations about the South Korean government’s plans to introduce tablets with AI-powered textbooks into classrooms, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The tablets are expected to be introduced next year, and by 2028, teachers will be using these AI textbooks for all subjects except music, art, physical education and ethics. The government hasn’t shared many details about how it will work, other than that the material would be customized for different learning speeds, with teachers using dashboards to track student performance.
In response, more than 50,000 parents have signed a petition calling on the government to focus less on new technologies and more on the general wellbeing of students: “We, as parents, are already experiencing many problems at unprecedented levels arising from [our children’s] exposure to digital devices.”
Lee Sun-youn, a mother of two, told the FT: “I’m worried that excessive use of digital devices will negatively affect their brain development, their ability to concentrate and their ability to solve problems – they already use smartphones and tablets too much.”
