ABSTRACT
Unlike some countries where COVID-19 broke out in the middle of the semester, South Korea, where the new school year starts in March, had more than 1000 confirmed cases before the start of the new academic year. As a result, the entire semester shifted to virtual learning. This chapter examines online schooling in South Korea during the pandemic: How digital-smart South Korean educators collaborated to turn the pandemic crisis into an opportunity; teacher influencers who have actively shared their educational content and voiced their opinions on educational policy; and the advantages and disadvantages of the centralized education system that emerged during the crisis. Authors also argue the need for media and digital literacy competency among policymakers, so that they fully understand and can creatively solve the new challenges in this era of digital transformation.
