South Korea’s plans to introduce the world’s first AI-powered, tablet-based digital textbooks in 2025 have been mired in a firestorm of debate about potential privacy issues and worries that students are becoming overly dependent on digital devices. Despite these concerns, the country’s Education Minister Lee Ju-ho doubled down on the importance of transitioning classrooms to digital modes of learning while assuring teachers that they will be fully supported as they integrate artificial intelligence (AI) textbooks into their instruction.

The introduction of digital tools and infrastructure into schools is by no means a recent development and South Korea is not alone in exploring more technological aids in its education system. Barely a month ago, students in Singapore experienced the service disruption of the Mobile Guardian app, with 13,000 students from 26 secondary schools affected by a cyber-security breach. Used to manage students’ device use, Mobile Guardian offers teachers classroom management and web filtering tools and grants parents device control functions. The hacker remotely wiped devices via the cyber attack, leading scores of students to lose access to their notes in the run-up to exam season, heightening anxieties during this critical period.