Educa 2011 At Bitec

Educa 2011 at Bitec

By The Nation

Some 50,000 visitors are expected to attend the 4th Annual Congress for Teacher Professional Development or Educa 2011, which will be held at BITEC Bang Na from October 12-14.

About 30,000 have already registered to attend the event, which will feature world-class educators, 100 workshops, and an expo of teaching materials and innovations.

Educa 2011 would be a platform for Thai teachers to receive new knowledge from all corners of the world, Pico Thailand Plc CEO Silchai Kiatpapan told a press conference last month.

"Pico aims to make EDUCA the new learning source for teachers and educational personnel for Thailand's educational development in a long term," he said.

Pico will co-host the event with the Office of the Education Council, the Office of Basic Education Commission, the Office of Higher Education Commission and Burapa University's Faculty of Education.

This year's theme is "Reform, Reform, Reform" - in line with the country's need for effective education reform, he said, explaining that there must be reform of human resources, the system, and procedures at the same time.

While the conference will present universal and successful ideas from various countries, the 100 workshops will cover all dimensions of classroom learning development. The expo will have companies showing off teaching materials and innovations, such as Thanatham Education's 3D classroom and A Master's Smart Board and science learning kits.

Speakers at the international conference include Sir Michael Barber, a former education adviser to the Blair government in Britain, US developmental psychologist Howard Earl Gardner from Harvard who created the Multiple Intelligence Theory, he said. For more details go to www.EducaThai.com or call 0-2748-7007 ext 134.

-- The Nation 2011-09-06