[Sponsored Report] Bringing tech museum to rural communities

Students from Saryang Elementary School and Saryang Middle School, located on Saryang Island, Tongyong, South Gyeongsang visit the Samsung Innovation Museum through Gear VR headsets. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Samsung Electronics has started the Visiting IT Museum educational program at their Samsung Innovation Museum (SIM).

The Visiting IT Museum program is a community service program in which Samsung Electronics staff members visit students who live in rural areas, far away from Samsung Digital City in Suwon, Gyeonggi. They then introduce the newest products and the museum to the students.

The program, held on a bi-weekly basis, started with visiting Saryang Middle School, located on Saryang Island in Tongyung, South Gyeongsang on Sept. 6.

This program provides a mini exhibition that shows students IT instruments from the past, and also gives a virtual tour that allows the students to visit SIM through tablets and Gear VR.

The virtual tour is comprised of three booths. At the first, students can see exhibits from the museum on a tablet PC. The second booth utilizes VR technology to show the interior of the through Gear VR, the newest virtual experience apparatus.

The last exhibition booth connects SIM and the school on a live call. A representative from SIM gives a tour of the museum to students, and facilitates a Q&A session as well.

SIM, which opened on April 2014, is the only electronic history museum in Korea. 180,000 visitors from in and out of the country, including global IT business leaders, have toured the museum.

Samsung Electronics also plans to host other IT educational programs in order to support the Ministry of Education’s Free Semester Policy, which allows students to use their semester to explore their career paths and job opportunities. On Sept. 28 and 29, the company provided a large-scale IT program for 3,000 students who participating in the Free Semester Program ? a first for a private sector company.

BY KIM KYU-EUN [kim.kyueun@joongang.co.kr]