South Korea, which leads the world in high-speed broadband connectivity, appears ready to convert all paper textbooks into digital versions within the next four years. Not only will students read from smartphones, tablets (most likely Samsung) and smart TVs, but the Education Ministry wants to move all nationwide testing online as well. In addition, the ministry will encourage students to take college-level courses under the “University-Level Program.” As if all that wasn't enough, the ministry will use Internet Protocol Television to run after-school programs teaching foreign languages, multiculturalism and other subjects. It’s the advent of tablets that makes all this possible. Korea’s decision is sure to spark interest not only among American educators and college students -- who have long complained of textbook publishers who charge exorbitantly -- but also among the business community as a whole. Companies are already looking for ways to go paperless by moving documentation and training materials online, where they can be updated easily, quickly, and inexpensively. The missing component in the American system, of course, is ubiquitous broadband. That's been relatively easy to achieve in Korea, a country that is both  small and highly urbanized. Source: eSchool News