Tablet PCs in lower primary education in Thailand: is it really the right time?

This article was originally posted in the Bangkok Post (12-10-2011)

In response to the election promise of the Pheua Thai Party to provide all first graders with a tablet computer to enhance learning and improve Thai students’ digital literacy skills, questions have been raised on how this should be incorporated into Thai education. Recent publications have raised issues such as the quality of the Tablet PCs, the schools’ digital infrastructure to facilitate the use of Tablet PCs in classrooms, and the need for teachers to be educated in this new form of learning and teaching. However, before we answer the question how to use tablet PCs in education we need to ask ourselves another question, namely that of whether it is the right moment in lower primary students’ cognitive development to introduce the use of Tablet PCs.

Students in grades 1-2 devote much of their energy and attention to develop first language literacy skills and mathematic skills. These skills have been emphasized by the Thai Ministry of Education as essential in any child’s learning and form the basis of their future education career. An opinion shared by many other education institutions around the world. It is not surprising that recently developed education models for early childhood education and early English language education recommend not to distract students during this stage of development. Lower primary school students need all their cognitive and attentional resources to focus on first language literacy development and mathematics.

Thailand is going to face great difficulties if it attempts to introduce tablet computers as fully fledged learning tools at the lower levels of primary education for a number of reasons. First of all, until now relatively few learning applications are available in Thai language and the Operating Systems (OS) used for tablets all feature English. This means that students have to acquire some form of basic proficiency in English to navigate their new learning tool. This has been acknowledged by Education minister Worawat Auapinyakul and he encouraged schools to provide extra English tuition to tackle this problem. However, this extra English tuition would unnecessarily interfere with the primary learning foci of Grades 1-2. Also, the abstract language needed to navigate the tablet is by no means a match for grade 1 or 2 students if it will be part of the instruction in class. Secondly, if the Tablet PCs are to be used as full learning tools the educational applications focused on Thai language and featured in Thai should currently be available. This, unfortunately, is not the reality in Thailand at the moment and even in Europe the major publishers are struggling to match learning content approved by local education authorities with currently available learning applications for tablet computers.

Education minister Worawat Auapinyakul claimed that the major benefit of the introduction of Tablet PCs in Thai education is that textbooks will be available on these tablets, which in turn would save a substantial amount of money and free students from their heavy backpacks. This, in its most simple form of application, would still pose the problems listed above. From an educational perspective it would not justify the introduction of tablet PCs if we go by the idea that any educational innovation should be focused on enhancing the learning experience. If we don’t pay attention to the arguments raised over the last months, the use of Tablet PCs in grade 1 will only hamper the learning experience.

If Thailand wants to portray itself to the outside world as innovative and establish its position as the hub of international education in Southeast Asia it should start collaborating with local and international publishers of Thai textbooks and learning materials to develop interactive learning applications for use in grades 4-6. At this stage of their education primary school students start using computers more independently at home and they will be better able to navigate and interact with the interface of tablet PCs. First language literacy skills have been fully attained and they will be better able to deal with more abstract concepts. In addition, they will be able to understand the abstract language and terminology in English needed to successfully use a Tablet PC in the classroom.

Thailand has a lot of potential but it should be warned by mistakes made in the past. Getting teachers to use tablet PCs in grade 1 is probably an educational innovation of a larger scope than the proposed paradigm shift from a teacher centered to a learner centered teaching style, the aim of the 1999 Educational Reform. It requires a thorough rethinking of how we approach learning and teaching in Thailand. Although Secretary General for the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) Chinnapat Bhumirat has announced that a manual is being developed to train Thai teachers how to use tablet PCs in education, its success is far from guaranteed if we have to judge it by the success rate of the implementation of last 1999 Education Reform. Thailand should be careful not to take success of educational innovation for granted on the basis of policy changes only.

QR codes in English language teaching

I have just set my students an assignment in which I sent them a QR code of the website of our university's M.Ed in TESOL website. I have not told them it's called a QR code.

The quest is to find out what the picture/code is and how they can use it in their class. The objective is for them to use the internet in their search to unravel the code of the picture, download the apps onto their cellphone and view the website. This will not only improve my students' level of computer literacy and knowledge about online applications that can be used in class, but also show them the concept of 'hard fun' rather than just fun. (The concept and rationale of hard fun is explained in an article by Chris Johnson of NIDA called "Games, really?"

In addition I hope this will encourage them to think about ways in which they can get their English language learners to use their cell phones in class effectively within an educational framework with for instance QR codes in a PowerPoint Presentation.

I believe that using simple apps like this in class as part of an assignment, for instance a web-based information gap activity in which the assignment is posted online, will increase students' social and cognitive engagement in class in a pedagogically responsible way.

I hope that my students will find this website by using google with the right search terms in the labels that I have used for this post.