Key results
1. ICT Policy
An ICT policy working group, comprising directors of various ministry education departments has been formed. The working group met to update each other on developments in ICT in their departments and to discuss the draft ICT policy. On 8th April 2004, an ICT Policy Workshop was held to allow a wide range of stakeholders to have an input. Support was given by ICT Policy expert, Cédric Wachholz, from UNESCO Bangkok. The workshop provided an opportunity for staff from different departments to liaise and discuss progress and future plans for using ICT. Input was collected from participants and will be used to amend the draft Policy.
2. E-learning Bus
The E-learning bus has been on the road now for 7 months. So far, over 1,600 people have had access to its facilities either using laptops, digital cameras or watching educational videos. Eighteen out of 24 provinces have been visited so far. Over 30 educational VCDs have been put together in Khmer on health and life skills. The videos on HIV/AIDS are among the most often requested. The work of the E-learning Bus was featured in a 10 minute programme on National TV. This was shown once in French and once in Khmer.
3. Teacher training
The Teacher Training Dept (TTD) has continued its training of teacher trainers in ICT using our resources and master trainers trained by the project staff. So far over 250 teacher trainers have received 96 hours of ICT training. The project provides technical support – scheme of work, training manuals, CD-ROM of resources – to the training. An outline curriculum for primary and lower secondary teacher training has been drafted, distributed to the colleges and amended using their feedback. A detailed scheme of work now needs to be developed based on this curriculum. The project will liaise with the group of experts who have just started working in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport on curriculum reform so that the teacher training curriculum in ICT is developed in line with proposed plans for school curriculum. 45 hours training in ICT in education has been given to 20 teacher trainers at the National Institute of Education, which trains teachers of upper secondary schools.
Training manuals and a glossary of ICT terms for teachers have been developed in Khmer. A few modifications need to be made before these are printed. A training CD-ROM containing learning resources – software, templates etc. has been put together and copies have been given to all teacher training colleges.
4. Computer donation
A total of 165 secondhand computers donated by Japan and Korea has been distributed to teacher training colleges. Although not originally in the plans, these donations have been a crucial part of the project without which training of student teachers in ICT would have been able to take place in only a handful of colleges. Now, all but a few colleges have enough computers to equip a computer room. All computers are checked and have suitable software and Khmer fonts installed before they are sent to the colleges.
5. Intern/volunteers
An Intern from a local college who was on his final year of an IT course, joined the project for 4 months. He checked the donated computers and installed software, training staff from the TTD at the same time. He has also provided support to the E-learning Bus. After his internship was competed, he continued to work as an unpaid volunteer for some time to complete his work. The daughter of the project analyst has also worked on the project as an unpaid volunteer. A project like this provides good two way benefits - ICT experience and English for the volunteer, technical support for the project - and is to be encouraged. There have recently been enquiries from a teacher trainer from the National Institute of Education who would like to offer his services to the project.
6. Content Development
Work to set up the National Clearing House web server for educational resources is underway. As part of their ICT courses, teacher trainers produced teaching resources in Khmer and these will be uploaded to the clearing house website when it is ready. Meantime, the local NGO ‘Open Forum of Cambodia’ is translating information about ICT from UNESCO into Khmer for inclusion in their website.
7. Pilot Projects in Non-formal Education
In consultation with the Director of Non-formal Education Department, two locations have been selected as pilot projects. The first is a complementary school for secondary age students who have been out of school for more than two years. This school will be supplied with equipment and their staff trained to enable them to offer ICT literacy classes to their students.
8. Liaison with other Organizations
To plan their work with disadvantaged groups around the country, the E-Learning Bus team regularly liaises with a wide range of NGOs and with staff employed by the Nonformal Education Dept. Printed educational materials are collected from various organizations and are distributed wherever they will be of most benefit. For example, posters on mine awareness are given to community learning centres in those areas where mines are a hazard. Work with the following organizations has been most notable:
- UNICEF - VCDs on HIV/AIDS produced by UNICEF are used by the ELearning Bus team and these VCDs and posters have also been distributed to every teacher training college by the project.
- Room To Read – this NGO has thousands of books (most in English) to distribute to libraries around the country. Our project distributes application forms where appropriate encouraging people to use this resource. Books from here will be given to our two pilot projects in non-formal education.
- Schoolnet, World Links and Initiate Project – these three projects are also working in ICT in education and project staff have worked in cooperation with them for common benefit.
- Community Information Centres (USAID, Asia Foundation and Open
Forum of Cambodia) – these 24 centres provide free Internet and library access. We have used these centres for Internet training and have spread the word about their facilities to all out trainees around the country.
Update: Phnom Penh, May 31st 2004