K.I.Asia NewsBytes
Partnering for Sustainable Development:  April 2008 (#100)

Feature Story:

Each year the Kenan Institute Asia organizes the Owen G. Kenan Conference on a topic of strategic importance to Thailand’s social and economic development. Established in memory of one of the Institute’s founding trustees, Mr. Owen G. Kenan, the conference brings together key decision-makers to discuss national development strategies in a different area each year.

This year, the seventh Kenan Conference “Information and Communication Technology for Better Learning: Innovative approaches to corporate – public sector collaboration” was held on March 25. The objective was to discuss ways to use ICT for more effective and more accessible learning. The participants heard the latest from leaders in the field, analyzed and shared their experience and agreed to work together more effectively in the future.

Prof. Dr. Taweep Sirirassamee, from the Ministry of Education, opened the conference, emphasizing the importance of ICT for small and remote schools as well as for continuing education. He said the Ministry could not implement a strong ICT improvement program without help from the private sector and understanding from political leaders.
He said ICT was particularly important in teaching science and English – areas in which standards were falling due to a shortage of quality teachers.

Innovations in Technology:

The conference’s first panel discussed the fast-developing role of ICT in learning. Mr. Larry Berger, CEO of Wireless Generation, described innovations in teaching and learning technology, focusing on a program he developed called mClass Software which uses handheld devices for assessments of individual student reading and math abilities. He said that this program has been adopted by more than 90% of the teachers who have tried it. He said that ease of use and time savings were critical issues in the adoption of new technologies for teachers who are already overburdened. 

Mr. Berger, speaking via satellite teleconference, predicted that several new technologies for handheld devices and display screens coming out soon would have major impacts on education.

Dr. Benjalug Namfa, Director of the Bureau of Academic and Educational Standards, told participants that a key objective of the use of ICT in schools was to change passive learning to active learning. She said that this was a major challenge because most teachers had experienced only passive learning themselves. Effective use of IT would allow students to take charge of their own learning, she said, but this would require re-training and re-motivating teachers in more than 30,000 schools so quick results cannot be expected.
Mr. Faycal Bouchlaghem, General Manager of the Emerging Markets & Segments Development Group at Microsoft told the conference that ICT was critical for developing higher thinking as well as the computer skills needed in the workplace. He described the Microsoft Multipoint devices that allows interactive learning in a classroom with only one computer.  Dr. Basheerhamad Shadrach, Senior Program Manager of Telecentre.org, described how ICT can support non-formal education as part of a national “learning eco-system.

A second panel discussed efforts to improve higher level learning and provide better livelihoods through information technol