"Fostering Edutech Prospects" KT Wraps Up Elementary Education Content and Technology Contest

(From left) Kim Seok-jun, Head of Incheon Creative Economy Innovation Center; Jo Yong-sang, CEO of Ice Cream Edu; Baek Hyang-eun, CEO of award-winning company Creative Ballet So-ye; Lee Dae-geun; Yoon Hyun-mo, CEO of Three Ditada; Koo Do-young, CEO of Toomiyu; Kim Hoon-bae, Executive Director of KT Media Platform Business Division; Shin Geum-seok, Managing Director of KT SCM Strategy Office

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Eun-mo] KT announced on the 24th that it has concluded the “Elementary Education Content and Technology Contest,” which has been underway since March to revitalize the smart home learning market based on edutech.

This contest was held to support startups and prospective entrepreneurs in commercializing and entering the market by leveraging synergy with the elementary student smart home learning service “Olleh tv Homeschool X AI Home Run (Olleh tv Homeschool),” jointly developed by KT and Icecream Edu and launched last month. The event was co-hosted by KT, Icecream Edu, and the Incheon Creative Economy Innovation Center (Incheon Innovation Center).

From about 90 applicant teams since March, KT and Icecream Edu selected four final teams through document screening, interviews, and presentations, awarding certificates and prize money of 10 million KRW. The winners included startups ‘Toomiyu,’ ‘Changui Ballet Soye,’ ‘3D Tada,’ and prospective entrepreneur Mr. Lee Dae-geun. The winning teams will receive support for subsequent commercialization processes, including service distribution through Olleh tv Homeschool.

Toomiyu is a startup offering the service ‘2DUB (Toodub),’ where students can improve their English speaking skills by dubbing short videos divided into sentence units themselves. Using AI technology, it precisely analyzes the original video’s voice and the user’s stress, intonation, and pronunciation to provide detailed coaching by category. This allows students to easily develop English conversation skills at home.

Changui Ballet Soye developed a solution that uses augmented reality (AR) and avatars to enable children to follow ballet movements in videos, gaining physical training and psychological development benefits. By utilizing avatars synthesized in real-time with 3D animal characters, children can enjoy ballet lessons at home.

Additionally, 3D Tada’s ‘Tada Craft,’ which allows 3D block stacking play on tablet PC screens using 3D modeling technology, and Mr. Lee Dae-geun’s word repetition learning service through the drawing process received high evaluations from the judges and were awarded.

Kim Hoon-bae, Executive Vice President and Head of KT Media Platform Business Division, said, “The education market is a field where synergy is created through the combination with future technologies, and cooperation among platform operators like KT, various startups, and developers is especially important. KT plans to continuously nurture the smart homeschooling sector, which is rapidly emerging as a new market in the post-COVID era, together with strong edutech companies, using this contest as an opportunity.”