An international education fair kicked off Wednesday in the southwestern city of Yeosu for a five-day run to seek and discuss the direction of future education in the era of digital transformation.
The opening ceremony for the Korea Glocal Education Fair 2024 at Expo Ocean Park in Yeosu, some 320 kilometers south of Seoul, brought together about 900 officials from the central and regional government bodies, including Education Minister Lee Ju-ho.
Also in attendance were South Jeolla Gov. Kim Yung-rok, South Jeolla education superintendent Kim Dae-jung, North Gyeongsang education superintendent Lim Jong-sik and Lee Bae-yong, chair of the National Education Commission.
In his speech at the event, Education Minister Lee said, “This event is very meaningful in opening the stage for sharing a regional-based education reform model with the world.”
Gov. Kim expressed hopes that the event would “feature various forms of future education, focusing on the region’s characteristics, including a large number of stude
nts from multicultural families and small-scale schools in farming and fishing villages.”
Michael Sandel, a professor at Harvard Law School and author of the famous book “Justice,” delivered a keynote speech, followed by an opening concert featuring K-pop music.
The fair will run through Sunday under the theme of “Education for Coexistence and Sustainable Future,” jointly hosted by the South Jeolla Office of Education, the Ministry of Education, the South Jeolla provincial government and the North Gyeongsang Office of Education.
It will feature special lectures by world-renowned education leaders, conferences on future education, glocal future classrooms, future education exhibitions and festivals, and cultural and arts exchanges, according to the organizers.
The Glocal Future Classroom, which is considered the core content of the fair, will showcase a classroom that students will attend in 2030. Students use digital devices instead of pencils and notebooks to search and obtain the information they need w
hile in class, and robots move around the classroom to help enhance their overall learning experience.
There will be special lectures on future education and the lecturers include Sandel; Tan Oon Seong, former president of the Singapore National Institute of Education; Thomas Frey, executive director of the DaVinci Institute; Paul Kim, the associate dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University; and Korean American robotics engineer Dennis Hong.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
