## 1 Introduction  
Modern men and women living in the 21 st century across the world agree that we have now entered the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, during which we need to coexist with AI [1]. Moreover, in the Republic of Korea, where 95% of the total population uses smartphones and various ICTs converge, the smartphone penetration rate ranks highest in a survey spanning 27 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan [2]. A significant number of individuals in the country engage with ICT for most of their day, starting from the moment they wake up until they go to bed in the evening, and even during sleep at night. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many work routines, educational activities and art performances conducted offline in the past to online spheres, leading more and more industries to rely on digital technologies and accelerating the pace of digital transition across all industries. Of course, there are hundreds of countries on this planet, and not all countries are equal when it comes to digitization [2]. However, the fact of the matter is that all countries are moving along the same path and none of them will be immune to the influences of AI technology and cutting-edge ICTs. AI is growing ever stronger thanks to machine-learning and deep-learning technologies, and we will witness the emergence of so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI) capable of performing all intelligent tasks that can be performed by human beings up to now, beyond the constraints of the narrow AI solutions available to date, and perhaps even super AI that surpasses human intelligence [3]. To avoid being dominated by technology but to create or utilize it amid the rapidly changing technological landscape, we need to have creativity, in addition to technological understanding [4; 5]. Creativity has been defined in various ways by experts on different subject matters. The studies on human creativity in the 1970s to 80s when modern research on the notion of creativity started, defined creativity as a process of transforming existing things into something unique. Outcomes of such a process can be tangible or intangible, and they must be unique, made by their creators. In addition, creative outcomes must serve the purpose and value specified by the creators [6]. When a digital transition is occurring in all industries, creative thinking competency is deemed an essential element that needs to be learned and taught [7]. In an intelligent information society characterized by complexity and diversity, jobs performing repetitive and straightforward routines will disappear. Therefore, we need to foster talents who can create new things by combining knowledge, information and technology with human sensibility, which machines cannot match. Understanding technology is also a critical competency, next to creativity in preparing for a future society. Someone who can understand and utilize technologies in an intelligent information society can lead any technology-based industry [8]. Technical education (TE) has been defined differently in terms of its meaning and scope along the historical path of technological evolution. When technical art relied exclusively on human hands, manual arts were regarded as the subject of technical education, whereas as mankind entered the Industrial Age, technical education refers to industrial education that teaches about the technologies required for industrial development. Then, as the significance of science and technology became prominent after the launch of Russia's artificial satellite, technical education covering science and technology became popularized [9]. The scope of technical education has been further expanded recently to cover ICTs, including AI. Technological understanding is required for specialists and engineers to be mobilized at industrial sites, but it is also appreciated as an element of the literacy required for the entire population, as ICT is now intertwined with all our daily routines.