By YOUNG MONEY Staff
6 July 2011

Educators worldwide have often wrestled with a difficult set of problems posed by textbooks, but Korean teachers and students may finally be done with the hassle. MIT's Technology Review reports that South Korea plans to replace its text books with electronic versions and tablets.

The new plan comes in two phases, moving all elementary school students onto tablets by 2014. All other materials would be digitized by 2015. Channel News Asia reports the total cost is expected to come at around 2.23 trillion won, or around $2.1 billion.

"It is going to be costly to develop the online textbooks and also acquire the tablet personal computers," Guil Elementary School researcher Kwan Chan Mi told the news source. "And we also expect high costs in developing the contents since there will have to be more variety than the original textbooks."

Technology Review had previously reported on the massive, dual-screened Kno tablet that looks to entirely replicate the textbook experience on a tablet, however Korea is more likely to adopt a model from its domestic electronics giant Samsung. The massive potential order could offer the company a substantial boost after its relative failure with the Galaxy Tab.