Non-Formal Education, Northern District

After taking the overnight train to Lampang last night, we spent most of the day today at the Center for Non-Formal Education in Lampang. As I might have mentioned before, this is a bit of a research trip for me, to learn more about how rural people in Nothern Thailand are using IT and the Internet in education.

We had a facinating talk with Dr. Suchin Petcharugsa, one of the instructors at Non-Formal Education. He is a follower of Seymour Papert and other MIT scholars, and is trying to bring Constructionism to education in Thailand. It reminded me a lot of my graduate studies where we were trying to build constructivist learning enviroments. (Or, in other words, educational software where students would learn by doing and by building things.)

Dr. Suchin also stressed the need to do more than just throw money and technology at rural people in Thailand. All too often, governments try to solve the problem of poverty by spending money. But really what the poor people need is help learning how to solve their problems on their own. They don't need directives from above, they need facilitators to help them use their "local knowledge" to improve their own lives. They have to decide for themselves what their problems and issues are, and then work together to solve them. More than money or technology, they just need to be empowered to make their own decisions, in their own way.

Tomorrow we head to the tiny village of Baan Saam Kha to see how they have followed the advice of people like Dr. Suchin, and how they have been able to wisely use the technology they have been given to solve the most important problems in their community.