iPad or Galaxy Tab? Students in South Korea take their pick ahead of shift to digital textbooks

SEOUL – Some 70,530 electronic devices have been distributed to seventh-grade students across middle schools in Seoul to help them transition to digital textbooks that will be used from 2025, said the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Wednesday.

The devices will provide diverse learning resources and interactive educational content for students.

To keep students’ devices powered and ready for use, the Education Office will install charging stations at each school and set up a service centre with trained technical support staff to help with repairs of school laptops and tablets.

All middle schools will have charging stations installed in their classrooms by October, according to the Education Office.

To address concerns about the immediate and long-term effects of exposing students to gadgets, the school-issued devices have a function that shields students from harmful websites, Internet content and gaming applications.

They also have a screen time limit to prevent students from spending too much time looking at screens, and to minimise distractions in the learning environment.

The gadgets will have a lost-property reporting system and a device management system, a function that enables the educational institutions to administer and maintain the devices.

Students were allowed to choose their devices from among five models, including a Galaxy Tab from Samsung Electronics, Apple’s ninth-generation iPad model and LG’s Whalebook, a cloud-optimised laptop powered by Naver’s Whale operating system.

They must return the gadgets upon graduation from their schools.

“For a smooth and stable shift (from paper-based books) to digital textbooks, (the Seoul Education Office) will continue to provide diverse school support by learning what the education field wants,” Mr Cho Hee-yeon, Seoul’s education chief, was quoted as saying in a press statement. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK