What would it be like to conduct a training workshop on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea?

I pondered this question when I was informed about a UNESCO mission to conduct a five-day workshop on developing multimedia resources for schools in Pyongyang.

The UNESCO Bangkok ICT in Education team was invited by UNICEF to conduct the course for 22 staff of the Multimedia Production Centre, a facility within the North Korean Ministry of Education.

To me, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is probably one of the least accessible countries on Earth. International media reports about the country are generally negative.

The Multimedia Production Centre, where we held the workshop, was equipped with a small TV studio, modern film editing facilities and a dozen computers loaded with video and multimedia authoring software. The equipment was far from being from the Stone Age.

The centre is located in the heart of the capital and has been funded by UNICEF Pyongyang.

We were highly impressed by the technical skills of the participants, the majority of whom have been working in the field of multimedia production for over five years.

As we introduced new software to them, they quickly analyzed it and were able to use it with ease after a short while. However, as much as they are skilled in handling computers, they lacked pedagogical skills and the capacity to produce quality learning content that will appeal to children.

To date, the centre has produced a few VCDs to teach language skills to children. However, these CDs were rather boring and probably not that helpful as a medium for instruction in the classroom.

It is not enough to know how to use the software. People need to understand the pedagogical methods and prepare the content in a way that children can assimilate the content with enthusiasm.

In North Korea, a network connection was not available and none of the participants had ever seen the Internet. Therefore, they had never encountered popular websites such as YouTube, or used web applications such as Google Earth or the virtual world Second Life, which we demonstrated using short film clips.

The training was designed with as much hands-on-practice as possible. On the first day it focused on ICT pedagogy integration, delivered by UNESCO Bangkok ICT Programme Specialist, Miao Feng-chun. The remaining four days involved group work and training in software which is helpful in producing multimedia resources.

We demonstrated the potential and benefits of Free Open Source Software, which would be easy to adopt for local needs. Great excitement greeted Joomla, a content management system used for the production and management of complex websites.

"I am very keen about working on websites. I would like to set up the first website of the Multimedia Production Centre and upload it into the intranet of the university," said one of the course participants.

Launching a website on the intranet would make it accessible to only a few people as the country isn't connected to the WWW.

We also inspired the participants to translate Free Open Source Software into the Korean language. As the source code is open to everyone, it is very easy to modify the language of the menu interface. At the end of the course, the centre staff agreed to train school teachers and university lecturers in utilizing the software.

Forget about North Koreans pictured in the media as working robots, who follow their tasks without a smile and little emotion. This impression was far from what we saw.

Whether on the streets of Pyongyang, or in the countryside, our trainees were thoughtful, concentrated, critical, laughing and talkative.

It was fun and a pleasure to work with them!