Hello! I'm Junbo Koh, an elementary school teacher with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. I hold an M.A. in Educational Technology with an integrated major in Applied Data Science from Seoul National University, where I'm also a member of the Learning Sciences Research Institute.
My research focuses on human-centered AI in education with a theory-driven approach to addressing real-world educational challenges. I'm particularly interested in how AI systems can foster learner agency so that learners can chart their own learning paths and take ownership of their lives.
I'm currently exploring how agentic AI can support professionals' agency from a human-computer interaction (HCI) perspective, and how large language models can support collaborative learning using natural language processing (NLP) techniques.
Feel free to reach out by email if you'd like to chat about research or anything else!
News
| Aug 2026 | ModumView, our real-time small group collaborative learning dashboard, won a Special Judges’ Award at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education teacher-developer hackathon 🏆 |
| Jun 2026 | Attending AIED 2026 right here in Seoul! Presenting “Peer and Tutor in One” and demoing Slidecaster. Come say hi 👋 |
| May 2026 | Our demo “Slidecaster” is accepted to AIED 2026 Interactive Events 📄 |
| May 2026 | Started serving as an AI Digital Education Lead Teacher for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education 🏫 |
| Apr 2026 | Our poster “Agent for Agency” is presented at LAK26 in Bergen, Norway 🇳🇴 |
| Mar 2026 | “Peer and Tutor in One” is accepted to AIED 2026. See you in Seoul! 📄 |
| Mar 2026 | The proposal I wrote got our school selected as an “AI & Digital-Based Leading School” with a $24K grant. I’m leading the one-year program as the PI! 🏫 |
| Feb 2026 | Back in the classroom! I’ve returned to teaching, now at Seoul Myogok Elementary School 🏫 |
| Feb 2026 | Finished my M.A. in Educational Technology & Integrated Major in Applied Data Science at SNU 🎓 |
| Feb 2026 | Received the Junior Scholar Fellowship from BK21 FOUR at SNU 🏆 |
| Jan 2026 | Two new preprints are up on arXiv: “OpenLearnLM Benchmark” and “Rewarding How Models Think Pedagogically” 📄 |
| Dec 2025 | Our teacher competency model for AI digital textbook-integrated instruction is published in the Journal of Educational Technology, my first paper as corresponding author 📄 |
| Nov 2025 | Pedagogy-R1 is presented at CIKM 2025 in Seoul, Korea 🇰🇷 |
| Oct 2025 | Attending AECT 2025 in Las Vegas with two presentations: our physics inquiry AI system and a scoping review of AI education in Korean elementary schools 🇺🇸 |
| Jun 2025 | My first first-authored journal paper, on a simulation-based AI system for physics inquiry learning, is published in The Journal of Educational Information and Media 📄 |
| Jun 2025 | Received the Jr. Priming Award from BK21 FOUR at SNU 🏆 |
| May 2025 | Received the Graduate Student Learning Sciences Research Scholarship from the Learning Sciences Research Institute at SNU 🏆 |
| Mar 2025 | Our paper on a generative AI-enhanced simulation for pre-service teachers is published in Computers & Education 📄 |
| Oct 2024 | “I See You: Teacher Analytics with GPT-4 Vision-powered Observational Assessment” is published in Smart Learning Environments 📄 |
| Apr 2024 | “DEBO, our ChatGPT-based debate partner” is published in Educational Technology & Society 📄 |
| Mar 2024 | Started my M.A. in Educational Technology at SNU and joined the Learning Sciences Research Institute as a researcher 📚 |
| Dec 2023 | My first paper! “Generative agent for teacher training” is presented at the NeurIPS 2023 GAIED Workshop 📄 |