K.I.Asia NewsBytes
Partnering for Sustainable Development:  June 2007 (#96)

Feature Story: 

K.I.Asia builds on its experience using ICT for education by making this the theme for the next Owen G. Kenan Conference.

The Kenan Institute Asia has been working for more than eight years to help Thailand work out ways to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve learning opportunities for Thais. Becoming a learning society is critical to remaining competitive in a world in which innovation, information, knowledge and high-tech skills are vital for success. To build on the Institute’s experience, K.I.Asia’s Executive Committee has decided to make “ICT for Better Learning” the theme of the 2008 Owen G. Kenan Conference.
The conference will provide an open forum for discussion of a wide variety of policies, methodologies and projects.

The annual Kenan Conference brings together key decision-makers from the government, private sector, NGOs and universities to discuss critical issues for Thailand’s sustainable development. In the long run, there is probably no other issue more critical than how people learn. With more than 10 million students at the K-12 level and millions more outside of school who need education, the challenge is enormous.

The Problem:

The 1999 Education Act recognized that Thailand’s education system is not keeping up with global competitors. The Act mandated sweeping changes, but eight years later the needed improvements are still slow in coming. Recognizing that the traditional teacher-centered, rote-memorization model was no longer adequate to the challenges of fast-changing knowledge, the Act called for student-centered approaches to provide students with learning experiences rather than facts. Information technology was specifically highlighted as central to these reforms. The education system was expected to learn how to use Internet-connected computers as tools for student-centered learning, improve “higher-level thinking”, promote project-based learning and teamwork, and help small and isolated rural schools overcome their learning disadvantages.

K.I.Asia’s ICT in Education Projects:

K.I.Asia was an early partner with Intel in launching its “Intel ® Teach to the Future” program in Thai K-12 schools. This program provides teachers with strategies to develop digital literacy, creativity, higher-order thinking, communication and collaboration.  With extensive course materials adapted from well-tested Intel programs around the world, Intel ® Teach shows teachers both new technology and new methodology. The program has now trained more than 30,000 teachers, a large-scale effort by any standards, but still well short of the more than 600,000 teachers who need training.

K.I.Asia assisted Oracle to train Thai teachers to use Oracle Think.com website. This website allows teachers and students from schools all over the world to use the latest software in support of education. Oracle emphasizes project-based learning and the website allows students and teachers in many different countries to collaborate on teacher-designed projects.

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