In South Korean classrooms, digital textbook revolution meets some resistance

Ahn Young-joon/AP - Teacher Yeon Eun-jung, right, helps student Jeong Ho-seok study on a tablet PC during a lesson at Sosu Elementary School in Gwesan, South Korea in July. The country is now scaling back a plan to digitize classrooms by 2015.

By Chico Harlan, Published: March 24The Washington Post

SEOUL — Five years ago, South Korea mapped out a plan to transform its education system into the world’s most cutting-edge. The country would turn itself into a “knowledge powerhouse,” one government report declared, breeding students “equipped for the future.” These students would have little use for the bulky textbooks familiar to their parents. Their textbooks would be digital, accessible on any screen of their choosing. Their backpacks would be much lighter.
By setting out to swap traditional textbooks for digital ones, the chief element of its plan for transformation, South Korea tried to anticipate the future — and its vision has largely taken shape with the global surge of tablets, smartphones and e-book readers.

Of the 10 cities in the world with the fastest internet connections, the top five are in South Korea. The top two cities, Taegu and Taejon, averaged speeds above 20 Mbps, fast enough to download high-definition video with ease. Across the world, internet speeds are rising, averaging 2.7 Mbps at last count.

But South Korea, among the world’s most wired nations, has also seen its plan to digitize elementary, middle and high school classrooms by 2015 collide with a trend it didn’t anticipate: Education leaders here worry that digital devices are too pervasive and that this young generation of tablet-carrying, smartphone-obsessed students might benefit from less exposure to gadgets, not more.