Some parents have expressed reservations about the South Korean government’s plans to introduce tablets equipped with AI-powered textbooks into classrooms, according to Report in the Financial Times.
The tablets are due to roll out next year, and teachers are supposed to be using the AI-powered textbooks in all subjects except music, art, physical education and ethics by 2028. The government hasn’t shared many details about how this will all work, other than that the materials are supposed to be tailored to different learning speeds, with teachers using dashboards to monitor student performance.
In response, more than 50,000 parents have signed a petition calling on the government to focus less on new technology and more on the overall well-being of students: “We, as parents, are already facing many issues at unprecedented levels caused by [our children’s] “Exposure to digital devices.”
“I worry that excessive use of digital devices could negatively affect their brain development, their concentration and their ability to solve problems – they already use smartphones and tablets a lot,” Lee Soon-yeon, a mother of two, told the Financial Times.