Eye on technology

A computer novice a few short years ago, elementary school art teacher, Somkiat Kiatruangchai, has become expert enough to lead a session of the TechEX conference held recently at Ruamrudee International School.

That was a big reason behind the recent TechEX (technology exchange) conference for international school teachers and administrators held at Ruamrudee International School (RIS). The conference drew a wide range of participants from technology sophisticates to illiterates. One of the best attended sessions, in fact, was “technology for complete dummies,” a bare bones introduction to software for digital photography and video.

By his own admission Ruamrudee elementary art teacher Somkiat Kiatruangchai would have fit into the dummy category a scant four years ago. By this year, however, he had become expert enough to be a TechEX presenter – and a well-received presenter at that.

Mr Somkiat’s use of technology is not what you might expect. He is not, for example, using the computer in his art classes to produce art. His students are still creating their art the old-fashioned way, by hand.

Instead, Mr Somkiat has busied himself scanning or digitally photographing his students’ work for display on the Internet. As a result, RIS elementary students have a huge and impressive art gallery on the well-known Artsonia website as well as Mr Somkiat’s own section of the RIS website.

The result has been a dramatic increase in parental interest in the elementary art programme, Mr Somkiat relates. “Four or five years ago, parents never bothered to come and look at our art programme. They didn’t even know what we were doing.

“Now, I get regular feedback from parents,” he says. “I get lots of visits from the parents now. It’s really nice.”

RIS elementary school web art gallery; INSET: Somkiat Kiatruangchai

The web galleries have also been a big boost to student pride, particularly the Artsonia gallery. There, students receive comments on their work and they may even attract fan clubs. The members are largely parents and relatives, but it is an ego-boost nonetheless.

Like many teachers who use information technology, Mr Somkiat is largely self-taught with some assistance from helpful colleagues.

“I am lucky that I have a lot of friends at school who know this technology. So I just asked around and explained about my website idea. I asked them how to do it – maybe ten minutes to a half an hour at a time. Then I went and started working on my own. When I had a problem, I went straight back to ask that person,” Mr Somkiat explains.

You can enter the RIS elementary school art galleries from the following links. Notice that Mr Somkiat also posts his lesson plans on the web.

http://artsonia.com/schools/rudee1
http://www.rism.ac.th/class/ES/somkiat/art2003/index.html
http://www.rism.ac.th/class/ES/somkiat/art2003/lessonplan2003/lp2003aug25.html

Bradley Arnold

According to RIS technology curriculum coordinator, Bradley Arnold, Mr Somkiat is an excellent practitioner of what has become an important technology goal at the school.

“We encourage teachers, administrators and others in the school to set up web pages that provide parents with vital information about their students and their students’ classes. Some teachers, (like Mr Somkiat) post their lesson plans and assignments on-line. Some, using password protection, post student information which parents can access. Teachers and administrators also post messages to parents on the web.”

With more than 1,000 computers for a student body of about 1,800, managing IT at RIS is a major undertaking, Mr Arnold explained during one of his TechEX sessions. Unlike many schools in the region where the management function is carried out by a single administrator, IT oversight is carried out by a three-person committee.

“One-person control is every effective if that person really knows what (s)he’s doing or has very good vision. But I’ve often seen that that person has his or her own agenda and no one can say no,” Mr Arnold observes.

The RIS IT committee consists of a technology director, a technology support coordinator and a technology curriculum coordinator. The director sets the overall vision, Mr Arnold explains, while the support coordinator takes care of the maintenance and the actual purchasing. As curriculum coordinator, Mr Arnold says his job is to make sure the IT equipment and system is appropriate to the students’ learning needs and, just as important, to make sure the equipment is used.

One of the first functions of the committee after it was established in 1998 was to sort out a rather chaotic situation of diverse, often incompatible, computers, operating systems and other IT equipment. The committee has since settled on two major computer vendors, Apple and IBM.

Apart from solving the compatibility problems, this has had several other advantages, Mr Arnold explains. As a steady and reliable customer, the school has been able to obtain favourable financing and technical assistance, he says.

For example, IBM, and more recently Apple, have accepted leasing arrangements. “We work with a bank to arrange financing for our purchases so that we can pay monthly for our computers and other technology resources. At the end of three years, we own the computers. If we did not do this, we would have to buy our equipment with cash or with one large payment which is quite impractical for us.”

Having three voices on purchasing decisions also helps prevent problems before they arise, Mr Arnold says. “If I want to initiate a curriculum project of some kind – if I want to do wireless in the classrooms and I want to get notebook computers for students, I can have all the reasons in the world, but if our tech support coordinator can’t support it, it’s not going to work,” he says by way of example.

One of the functions Mr Arnold has taken very seriously is developing a fully transparent, accountable and efficient information technology programme at RIS. Everything about the programme is meticulously detailed in a 40-page technology committee manual, covering its purpose, organisation and development plans. There are policy statements for RIS faculty, staff and students on the acceptable use of technology and the resource borrowing procedures they must follow.

Conferences generally draw their share of vendors seeking a venue to show off their products and TechEx was no exception. This gave the learning post an opportunity to get a first-hand glimpse of a number of cutting-edge products in the IT field.

Composition teachers were naturally drawn to the Vantage Learning booth which was showing off a web-based artificial-intelligence writing assessment program widely used in the United States.

The program, called MY Access!^TM, is capable of instantly scoring student compositions on a wide-range of topics and giving students diagnostic information to help them improve their writing. For teachers, the advantage is obvious. It frees them from hours of grading drudgery, freeing them for more direct and focused instruction.

Representatives of Gale, the world’s leading provider of information resources, were also presenting, showing off their vast collection of electronic resources. What caught the learning post’s attention was one particularly provocation resource in a package of electronic products generally offered to libraries.

Known as the Opposing Viewpoint Resource Centre, it is an incredible on-line collection database of materials on social and political issues ranging from abortion to terrorism. It includes a huge store of reference materials, and it is also regularly updated with full-text selections from 30 major newspaper and news magazines.

But this resource is much more than raw information. It is designed to help users make intelligent and strategic searches. There is a well-thought-out and extensive research guide to help users understand the basics of research and to approach these often highly controversial issues in a fair and balanced manner.

On the hardware side, 3M was present showing off its state-of-the-art 590,000-baht electronic whiteboard. It is at once an interactive multi-media projector for a single audience while at the same time it can double as part of a remote-meeting system, capable of connecting with up to 20 outside sites at the same time. Alas, Thailand currently lacks the bandwidth necessary for local users to take advantage of the product’s full capabilities, the 3M representative said.