N. Korea provides state-of-the-art technology for future teachers

PYONGYANG. KAZINFORM North Korea has recently started to introduce state-of-the-art technology for the training of future schoolteachers in a possible world first.

At the newly remodeled Pyongyang Teacher Training College, the mostly female students study how to educate kindergartners and primary school children with the aid of virtual reality and 3D display technologies.

A group of Kyodo News reporters was granted rare access to the college late last week.

In one classroom is installed a large widescreen monitor on which are displayed animated avatars representing primary school pupils. Speaking to the virtual children through a microphone, they respond in a timely manner.
When a college student asked one animated pupil on the screen how he is, the boy quickly answered, "I'm very fine," just like a teacher and a child communicating in a real classroom, Kyodo reports.

The training program is apparently powered by artificial intelligence. But sometimes, other college students play the role of primary school pupils in a different classroom so that they can observe teachers' personality and behavior through the eyes of children, the college said.

By creating a situation more closely simulating reality, college students can learn how to interact with children more effectively, it said.

The college students also utilize projection mapping, in which images are mapped onto 3D objects, and augmented reality, a technology that overlays digital images onto the real world.

They can experience the natural environment and get a close look at the lives of wild animals and birds using 3D virtual reality goggles, as well as feel how things change their forms by scooping sand projected on the screen with their hands.

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