It has been pointed out that although the `software (SW) education mandatory` is expected to be started in Korea from next year, the content that is the core of education is still poor. Although the Korean government and related organizations are expanding the development of educational contents, most of them are still in the level of translating foreign contents such as the UK, and the educational SW for some coding is controversial about plagiarism.

According to the Korea Resources Agency of the Public Procurement Service source on July 13, the Korea Science and Creativity Foundation, a division of the Ministry of Creation Science and Technology, will issue translations of foreign textbooks for overseas and middle school software and will complete development of content from next month to the end of the year. The translated texts are Switched on Computing (English for 5th and 6th graders) and Compute-it (Computing for KS3, 3rd grade).

The Korean Science and Creative Foundation has already finished translating textbooks for elementary school students in grades 1 to 4 and middle school textbooks for grade 1 and 2 since 2015. The Foundation stated, "The current curriculum for elementary and middle schools in Korea is not enough to strengthen SW education, and there is not enough textbook for SW classes that can be used in educational field." The textbook is expected to be translated will be used in the SW school education.

Besides, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Foundation have developed supplemental textbooks in 10 categories, including artificial intelligence, unmanned automobiles, Internet of Things, and sports statistics. However, the core of education is the British. The UK is the first country to implement SW education for elementary and junior high school students since 2014, and has been organizing the SW curriculum as a regular course for one hour every week.

Besides, the Naver Entry Education Research Institute, which has concluded an agreement for the development and dissemination of SW education content in 2015, has been controversial among the community and users for the plagiarism of SW overseas. The entry developed in 2013 is educational SW that learns coding principle by making simple animation and game by block assembling method like puzzle.

The entry points to the difference between the development language and the way it works. However, it does not mean that the ‘scratch’ developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2007 and the form and method of ‘Blockly’ developed by Google in 2012.

A user of Entry said, "I have used both Scratch and Entry, but I feel like it is plagiarized the scratch, except that the entry is in Korean. I do not know if the Entry was developed in a hurry, it is uncomfortable, complicated and rough feeling."

Domestic SW industry expert said, "There is not enough content for high school students starting next year as a general option. There is a very insufficient content to support the teachers who can teach coding in front of SW education.” He also said, "Even though the overall preparations for SW education are not fully prepared, the Ministry of Education is focusing on visible projects such as Wi-Fi and PC diffusion rather than developing high-quality SW textbooks and securing teachers. If this trend does not improve, the SW private education market will grow.”

By Lee Gyung Tak kt87@


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