Culture Ministry and Press Foundation Launch News and AI Literacy Training for Elementary, Middle, and High School Teachers

12 Training Sessions Scheduled Until September

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on July 28 that it will launch a training program, in cooperation with the Korea Press Foundation, to enhance news and artificial intelligence (AI) literacy among elementary, middle, and high school teachers.

The training will utilize 'BigKinds,' a news big data analysis system operated by the Korea Press Foundation, and 'BigKinds AI,' a news-based generative AI. BigKinds is a news big data platform that has accumulated over 1 billion news articles from major domestic media outlets since 1990. It offers a variety of services, including keyword trend analysis, related word analysis, and topic-based issue summaries. Since last year, an AI-powered chatbot service has also been added, providing a user-centered experience.

The 'BigKinds-Based News Literacy Teacher Training' will be held a total of 12 times from July to September at the Media Research Institute of the Korea Press Foundation. Each session will accommodate about 30 teachers and will include four hours of lectures and hands-on training on news big data and generative AI, aimed at improving news and AI literacy. In addition, participants will share examples of news and AI literacy classes and directly design lesson plans that can be applied in educational settings, focusing on practical training. The entire training program is free of charge, and registration is accepted online on a first-come, first-served basis. All teaching materials will be provided to participants, and a certificate of completion will be issued.

The BigKinds-Based News Literacy Teacher Training was designed to confirm the value of news literacy education as a solution to problems arising from changes in the digital environment, such as algorithm-driven confirmation bias and the spread of fake news. At the same time, it aims to enable the effective use of big data and AI technologies in news literacy education in the field.

A policy official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "We hope that, through this training, news literacy education based on BigKinds will become established in schools and that students' critical thinking skills regarding the media will improve, even if only slightly." The official added, "The Ministry will continue to support news and AI literacy education in various ways so that it can become widespread in all educational settings."