Regional educators gather to wish for a successful hosting of the Korea Glocal Education Fair 2024 at Expo Ocean Park in Yeosu, in this file photo provided by the Jeollanam-do Office of Education, April 29. Yonhap

An international education fair will kick off in the southwestern city of Yeosu late this month to seek and discuss the direction of future education in the era of digital transformation, organizers said Tuesday.

The Korea Glocal Education Fair 2024 is set to open at Expo Ocean Park in Yeosu, some 320 kilometers south of Seoul, on May 29 and run for five days under the theme of "Education for Coexistence and Sustainable Future," they said.

The first-of-its-kind event to be hosted in Korea will feature special lectures by world-renowned education leaders, conferences on future education, glocal future classrooms, future education exhibitions and festivals, and cultural and arts exchanges, according to the organizers.

It will be jointly organized by the Jeollanam-do Office of Education, the Ministry of Education, the South Jeolla provincial government and the Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education.

The Glocal Future Classroom, which is considered the core content of the fair, will showcase a classroom that students will attend in 2030. Students use digital devices instead of pencils and notebooks to search and obtain the information they need while in class, and robots move around the classroom to help enhance their overall learning experience.

There will be special lectures on future education and the lecturers include Harvard University professor Michael Sandel; Tan Oon Seong, former president of Singapore National Institute of Education; Thomas Frey, executive director of the DaVinci Institute; Paul Kim, the associate dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University; and Korean American robotics engineer Dennis Hong.

The fair will also feature the Republic of Korea (Korea) Education Pavilion run by government agencies and 17 municipal and provincial offices of education, the Edutech Valley run by domestic and international education companies, and the International Education Pavilion, in which 25 countries will participate.

Cultural exchanges and festivals planned during the fair include busking by future artists, performances by student art clubs, a media art show, a flash mob based on an AI-composed song, a career talk concert with mentors, such as composer Kim Hyeong-seok and football coach Son Woong-jung, the Glocal Cultural Exchange Street run by countries from around the world, and global friendship projects.

"The Korea Glocal Education Fair is not a one-off event," said Kim Dae-jung, governor of education for South Jeolla Province. "It will be meaningful as a signal that will bring about a great transformation in the nation's future education." (Yonhap)