COVID-19 changed the way we communicate, care for others, educate children, work and more. In this context, what will disappear or what will be created is being discussed in the world to prepare for post-COVID-19.
Have you ever heard of the ‘Korean New Deal’? This is a national project established by the government on July 14, 2020, for economic recovery after the COVID-19.
Under the project, investment and job creation which will be made in the different divisions by 2025 revolve around the digital new deal, the green new deal, and the safety net. In particular, the Green Smart School, one of the four fusing tasks of the digital new deal and the green new deal, was also focused on the 2022 revised curriculum. Then, what kind of school system does Green Smart School mean?
What is a Green Smart School project?
Green Smart School. As its name shows, it means the combination of green schools that can realize experience-oriented environment education by creating various ecological environments and smart schools that can provide digital-based smart learning and personally customized individual learning education. The Ministry of Education explains the Green Smart School project as “a project to transform existing school facilities into smart learning environments for new-age and digital ways of learning, including the creation of large capacity multimedia classes.” Also the ministry expects the school building renovation project to create about 150,000 jobs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 190,000 metric tons annually. The first phase of the project is from 2021 to 2025, and the project is currently underway for approximately 2,835 old facilities.
The Vision and Goal of Green Smart School
So what is the vision and goal of this Green Smart School project? The Green Smart School 2.0 project is being implemented with the vision and goal of creating a happy future public school that seeks to foster students’ creativity and leadership and realize coexistence of study and rest. As one of the representative tasks of the Korean New Deal, we aim to expand the digital education base in all schools and transform old school facilities into future schools which are equipped with greening, smarting, and complex facilities.
Main contents of the Green Smart School project
Based on the outline presented above, we can know the key contents of the Green Smart School project have three major areas: spatial innovation, smart education, and green school.
First, spatial innovation provides several creative spaces such as science invention classes, maker rooms, and studios suitable for online classes, and individual spaces for discussion. These spaces can make various class options like creative class, subject-oriented class, and community class. In addition, school complexation occurs naturally in this process. Through the school facilities complex, school facilities are shared with the communities and educational activities are conducted with parents on weekends or after school. These sharing can support people’s lifelong education and self-development and strengthen the connection of schools and local communities.
Next is smart education. It transforms the classroom into a wireless Internet environment and supports tablets or laptops equipped with teaching and learning programs. Furthermore, AI and software education will be strengthened to lay the foundation for digital basic literacy.
The last key point is Green School. In order to realize a carbon-neutral school, high-efficiency building materials and solar power generation technology are utilized for energy saving. And management is automated by establishing a remote/integrated control system for cooling and heating. In addition to creating a green school in these technical aspects, various ecological environments such as school vegetable gardens, indoor gardens, and ponds can be created and used as rest areas or living textbooks.
Green Smart School Progress: Focusing on domestic and foreign cases
As of October 2022, about 330 elementary, middle, and high schools in Korea have been designated as eligible schools for the Green Smart School Project. The KongHang high school in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, where students and teachers participate in the design together, had the elements of future school by functioning as zero energy green school which is considering energy conservation and student health, smart school based on the ICT (Information & Communication Technology), and local SOC (Social Overhead Capital).
In the KongHang high school, there is a soccer field and a basketball field on the playground, and an ecological learning field is next to them. Ecological learning centers, such as parks, serve as resting places not only for students but also for local residents. There are various rest areas, including several tables, a single-seat sofa, and a terrace located outside the school. Moreover, students can freely relax by doing group projects or study meetings with their friends during breaks or lunch time.
In addition, the school has prepared a lot to create a smart class environment, such as installing HDMI and LAN cables in all classes. This school is a representative example of applying zero-energy technology certified by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and a new learning center where you can see various technological innovations in future schools such as eco-friendly green technology, infrastructure (SOC) for local residents, and ICT-based smart classrooms.
As Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has become a hot topic around the world, not only Korea but also many foreign countries are adopting a Green Smart School system. First of all, Khan Lab School in the United States aims to provide ‘communication-oriented education that identifies its strengths and weaknesses, and develops academic and social capabilities’ through autonomous learning. It introduces its own blended learning platform to perform project-based learning and operates non-grade education that moves to the next level when a certain level is reached. In the middle of daily work, well-being activities such as physical activities, gardening, and meditation are included. Additionally, self-evaluation of one's goals and feedback of the teaching and learning process are conducted through presentations.
@Danish Kurani
In addition, you can see various forms of green smart schools in various countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland. However, in many foreign countries, individual and self-customized classes seem to be relatively active compared to Korea because they carry out selective education or curriculum unique to school rather than national curriculum.
Realistic Limitations and Supplements of Green Smart School project focus on public opinion
Although it may seem like a perfect and good system from the previous explanation, there are also many objections and practical limitations surrounding it. Parents of some students whose schools were selected for the Green Smart School project continue to disagree. First of all, the biggest reason is that they have to take classes at the modular building in the playground during the construction period. An elementary school in Seoul even announced in an official letter that it would transfer students to nearby schools during the remodeling period and reopen after the school’s closure and construction.
In addition, this also caused complaints from parents about safety in schools in sharing school facilities with the region, which is one of the core contents of Green Smart School. There are some problems with the introduction of smart classrooms besides the space complexation process problem. First, a teaching/learning and evaluation system that meets the expansion of non-face-to-face remote education and changes in the educational environment in the digital era has not yet been properly established.
Moreover, if smart devices are used for learning, there are concerns about students' excessive immersion and dependence on digital devices. Teachers' capabilities for smart education are also insufficient in the current situation.
Teacher Education for the Introduction of Green Smart Schools
Accordingly, the Ministry of Education is preparing various means to strengthen teachers' digital capabilities. For example, they plan to select a T.O.U.C.H. teacher group or conduct training for teachers subject to AI digital textbooks. T.O.U.C.H. is the abbreviation of Teachers who Upgrade Class with High-tech, a group of teachers who implement high-tech customized education and lead students' growth through human connections with students in the era of digital transformation.
It will study and share ways to use artificial intelligence digital textbooks and instructional plans through group-centered task-based activities, discussions, and class performances, and lead the operation of digital schools from the second semester of 2023.
So far, we have looked at the overall contents, goals, and practical limitations of the Green Smart School project. Although there are still many shortcomings, I think it should be supplemented with interest rather than being blindly rejected because it is a process that must go through education in the future society and even society as a whole.