Network operator SK Telecom released Albert School, a toy robot for computer coding education, on Wednesday.

The robot is the latest version of the company’s toy robot Albert and is specifically designed to help software education at schools. 

The previous Albert models can be only controlled by mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs, but students can write computer codes with PCs to control the new Albert School.

SKT has also created a one-year software curriculum consisting of 40 lessons for both elementary and intermediary levels.

“Computer coding will become easier for children as the new Albert allows them to create computer codes with cards and boards,” an SKT public relations person said.

A survey conducted on 1,130 elementary school students last year showed that a computer coding education program that made use of Albert had helped improve children’s creativity and ability to solve problems, according to SKT.

The “smart robot coding school” program received the top prize at the Reimagine Education 2015 Awards, an annual award event for education organized by Wharton School and QS Intelligence Unit.

The Korean telecom company is working with the Inter-American Development Bank to accelerate development in Latin America, and run software classes utilizing the Albert robots in Costa Rica by 2018. The trial classes for coding will start in the South American country in May.

At a meeting with the bank’s president, Luis Alerto Moreno, earlier this month in Seoul, Jang Dong-hyun, the chief executive of SKT, said that the company would make “utmost efforts” to bridge the information and education gap at home and abroad.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)