Thailand Urged to Revive Free-Tablet Project

[Jacob Maslow]

Pupils In Class Using Digital Tablet With Teacher - Stock Image

Thailand is attempting to adapt to the digital age to help bolster the country’s economy. One of the suggestions presented by Adobe is to revive Thailand’s free-tablet project. The project would give free tablets to all students.

According to a recent survey, 77 percent of educators in the Asia-Pacific felt that mobile devices were a way to aid the teaching process.

Prayut Chan-o-cha put a halt to the free-tablet agenda shortly after taking control of the government. Initially, the project was not as successful as the government had hoped. While a good initiative, there was not enough planning to train teachers on effective methods of teaching with the tablets.

Content for young students at the time was also sparse, causing many tablets to go unused in a school environment.

Trevor Bailey, Adobe’s senior director, states that tablets would be money well spent. While he knows that using taxpayer money must be done wisely, tablets would be an affordable way to push Thailand’s youth into the digital age. The hopes are that students will not only consume content, but that they will eventually be content creators.

There has been no news on Prayut’s response to the free-tablet initiative. With pressure to boost the country’s technology sector, the initiative may be considered.

-- 2015-04-07

[selftaopath]

Seriously? TIT remember?

One partial sentence in this article rings true, "...not enough planning to train teachers on effective methods of teaching ..."

[yellowboat]

"Content for young students at the time was also sparse, causing many tablets to go unused in a school environment."

This is where the fun could have been, creating content. South China Morning Post has or had an office in Bangkok to edit their content. Thailand, when it was affordable and coupfree, would have been a good enough place for the creation of educational of content.

[jerojero]

Sure, under the suppression of martial law or Art 44, allow children access to world info. Will NEVER happen!

[comeondoit]

they would do better to finally revive the teacher`s education

[Bakseeda]

The problem as I see it was that the quality of the tablets was a big issue... ok if the kids are getting Samsung or something of that quality But complete waste of moneys if the tablets break after 2-3 months.. Also many many teachers in this country cannot use computers themselves.. so, how can they show and teach the children to use them.. Yes in a perfect world free tablets would be Great.. But this is Thailand and ignorance and corruption are rife .. It was just another vote grabbing idea by Yinluck and her band of thieves...

[Thailand]

And just when you think it it could not get any dafter.

[lostinisaan]

Education in Thailand Let them eat tablets

The chief problem is that children's educational attainments are falling, even as more money is being lavished on the schools. Thailand now spends about 20% of the national budget on education, more than it devotes to any other sector. The budget has doubled over a decade. Yet results are getting worse, both in absolute terms and relative to other countries in South-East Asia.

http://www.economist.com/node/21556940

That was still "Yingluck time"....please not again. All the stories about bad eyesight of seven year olds, caused by tiny monitors, etc...

Here an older TVF thread about something nobody needs.:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/582447-thai-expert-tablet-computers-slow-brain-development-in-children/

[Rhys]

Gezz, they still don't get it.. more teachers not tablets.. quick fixes are not long term answers....Thus we can speculate, somebody or groups were given an incentive...

Reading a book is much better than reading off a tablet...the studies will come out showing that student will have more eye issues as a result.

Very disappointed in MOE..again.l

[lostinisaan]

"Prayut Chan-o-cha put a halt to the free-tablet agenda shortly after taking control of the government. Initially, the project was not as successful as the government had hoped. While a good initiative, there was not enough planning to train teachers on effective methods of teaching with the tablets"

"Prayut then immediately updated his farcebook page and farted.".

What a bunch of lies. Plenty of them are still somewhere in unopened cartons at our school.

"The project was not as successful as the government had hoped". Or:

The god damn thing had never ever started and these goofy researches in Bangkok with not more than 10 kids and five teachers per class only found out what we already know.

It doesn't work. But the kids can teach their teachers how to finally use them.

Why don't they rename their project to SET "Students Educate their Teachers?"

Thailand, the hub of laughter.....

[i claudius]

We must revive it. As we have sold all the old ones

[55Jay]

Be interesting to see if / how Mr. P handles this proposal.

[worgeordie]

I wonder how many of the original tablets given out are still working,

and what happened a bout the contract they had with the Chinese

company that could not supply the tablets,lots of questions that will

never be answered i suspect.

regards worgeordie

[ratcatcher]

And here's what it looks like in a Thai school. (Somewhere out there up north)

High tech: Students use tablet computers at the Ban San Kong school in Mae Chan, northern Thailand, last month. | AFP-JIJI