According to an article by Chico Harlan in the Washington Post, South Korea is pulling back somewhat in its plan to revolutionize schools through the use of computers and eTexts. There is concern that students need real world experiences instead of seeing and learning everything through a computer screen. The fear is that students are already spending so much time with technologies that they need to be exposed to other learning activities. As a result of the change, both paper and digital texts will be used, and students in Grades 1 and 2 may not be included in the plan. Currently about 50 schools are in a trial stage of the “revolution”. Findings in the trial are that student attitudes toward learning improved, but there is no evidence at this time that test scores will improve.
Publishers, however, are working hard to produce digital texts, which were slated to be introduced in Korean schools by 2015. The companies, even considering the worries of educators that students are getting too much exposure to technology, are continuing with their work, because as one publishing leader says, “the shift is inevitable.”
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