The challenges of integrating information technology into a Thai educational setting: The story of Tridhos School Village, Chiang Mai
Simon GipsonDean of Studies
Guildford Grammar School
The challenges of integrating information technology into a Thai educational setting: The story of Tridhos School Village, Chiang MaiSimon GipsonDean of Studies Guildford Grammar School | |
This paper is from the perspective of an Australian school principal who was involved in the development of Tridhos School Village, an innovative independent school in Thailand licensed by the Ministry of Education under a new category of Thai schools teaching in English. The paper works from a largely narrative point of view describing the initial vision and the development of the school and its approaches to curriculum, but centres on the articulation, planning and implementation of the extensive information technology infrastructure.The lessons drawn from this experience are transferable across cultures and countries. It is clear that the establishment of long term partnerships with the major technology providers is vital. It is also clear that any approach to technology reform in schools needs to ensure that there is adequate service and support for all aspects of the uses and applications of the technology. This comes through ensuring that there is also appropriate investment in expertise in technology personnel and in technology team leadership. Importantly, too, if the imperative is that the technology be fully embedded in the curriculum and the life of the school, then it is also vital that comprehensive training be given to teachers to ensure that they become confident experts rather than diffident users.
Supported at the highest level by government figures, politicians and the Ministry of Education - the Chairman of the Board of Governors is the former Prime Minister, General Prem Tinsulanonda - the school was charged with the goal of becoming a lighthouse for educational reform in Thailand. Tridhos School Village is located in a rural area in the north of the country and is endeavouring to implement an educational program based on best teaching and learning practices and infused with technology. This naturally led to a number of challenges and difficulties, not least of which was the issue of moving Thai teachers away from traditional paradigms of teaching towards more student-centred, experiential approaches to education. These issues had some of their roots in cultural difficulties associated with grafting reformist Western models of educational philosophy and pedagogy onto Thai models. Furthermore, there were significant challenges in establishing a school which could! effectively demonstrate exemplar practice in its uses and applications of information technology. This was especially so, when one considers the existing infrastructure available in that part of the country and the school's location: nestled in a remote valley north of Chiang Mai and subject to the associated difficulties of poor service, intermittent power supply, analog telephone lines, and shoddy workmanship.
Prior to any construction on the school site, The Endeavour Group - a United States-based educational consulting company - was commissioned to work with the architects and the curriculum designer to produce a Technology Plan that mapped out conceptually the Local Area Network and which articulated the hardware and infrastructure needs. The key decisions that arose as result of this plan on information technology centred on four interrelated issues: the choice of platform - PC or Macintosh; the network and networking protocol and design considerations on the networking topology; choices on software - what would best deliver the educational program; and Internet service provision - what would be the link and how extensive would it be. At the heart of all of the decisions to select the successful company was the school's determination to ensure that they saw themselves as being part of a! long-term partnership from which both parties - the school and the company - could gain. Clearly, this was a large project which would gain a great deal of publicity, especially as in Thailand no educational institution had set about designing itself with a focus on such an extensive and widely distributed network. The model of long term partnership that was pursued with the companies involved initially proved to be a productive one.
The lessons drawn from this experience are transferable across cultures and countries. It is clear that the establishment of long term partnerships with the major technology providers is vital. It is also clear that any approach to technology reform in schools needs to ensure that there is adequate service and support for all aspects of the uses and applications of the technology. This comes through ensuring that there is also appropriate investment in expertise in technology personnel and in technology team leadership. Importantly, too, if the imperative is that the technology be fully embedded in the curriculum and the life of the school, then it is also vital that comprehensive training be given to teachers to ensure that they become confident experts rather than diffident users.
How well an individual, an organization and an entire society can harness, access, share and make use of available information will ultimately decide their ability to generate economic growth and enhance the quality of life for all (Department of Science and Technology, 1995, p.1).Much of this demand for educational reform has been captured in the Thai popular press and is evident through political rhetoric and through government policy.
Yet, at the same time, there has also been the concern that Thailand does not lose its cultural heritage. Thailand is the only country in South East Asia not to be colonised - though there is some considerable debate about the role of the British from 1855-1926 and the Japanese 1941-45 (see, for example, Penth, 1994; Phatanothai, 1994; Osborne, 1995; Reynolds, 1991; Woods, 1991) - and as such has a unique linguistic and cultural identity. This perspective was endorsed by comments in the Thai press which argued that: "If a parent wants their child's Thai, language and culture to remain strong, then they should choose a Thai school" (Krunyawath, 1996). Hence, the challenge has been to "globalise" education, without compromising cultural identity.
It was against this educational reform movement that Tridhos School Village was conceived and developed. At the centre of the formative vision was the desire to provide an educational experience that would address the perceived needs of the country: critical thinking, creative problem solvers, skilled in the uses and application of information technology, and fluent in English. In this way it would act as a model for educational reform in Thailand.
When embedded in a meaningful curriculum framework, information technology can assist the students to transcend the boundaries of the traditional classroom, bringing learning to all facets of their experience, and in so doing, enhance the Thai family and cultural values that underpin the TSV project (Bain, 1996, p.4).Thus, not only would an extensive use of information technology meet the skills requirement of an emergent Thai workforce, it would also offer an opportunity for students to participate in a more global educational experience, for information technology can globalise a student's experience through communication, curriculum enhancement, research and empowered teaching and learning.
This report recommended a comprehensive plan to be implemented before the school's opening in May 1997. Importantly, the plan was tightly coupled to the school's curriculum design and took into account the desired pedagogical practices which emphasised cooperative learning approaches.
After consulting with the curriculum designer and the educational leadership team, the architectural design team, and network consultants, The Endeavour Group submitted the Technology Plan. The Plan made a number of recommendations on the network requirements, software system design strategy, support personnel, school-home connectivity, classroom connectivity, hardware system design, Internet strategy, testing and implementation, professional development, and general costs. Importantly, the Plan was a comprehensive description of the information technology requirements of the school which had been tightly tied to the curricular and pedagogical design of the educational program.
The Technology Plan thus became the blueprint for the development of the information technology infrastructure and the resources of the school. From the Plan, Requests for Proposal (RFPs) were developed to structure a bidding process to acquire a network installer, hardware and software suppliers, and Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Hence, at the heart of all of the decisions to select the successful company was the school's determination to ensure that they saw themselves as being part of a long-term partnership from which both parties - the school and the company - could gain. Clearly, this was a large project which would gain a great deal of publicity, especially as in Thailand no educational institution had set about designing itself with a focus on such an extensive and widely distributed network. Furthermore, it was not a one-off purchase of hardware either, for the scope of the project and the projections for the future meant that, with success, there would be significant and ongoing purchases over many years. Hence, in negotiating with the companies tendering bids for the project, the recurring argument proposed by the school was that whoever was successful in the bid would realise significant benefits from a long-term relationship. Not only would there be an ongoing purchase of equip!ment, but that other educational projects would follow from this.
The difficulty for many of the potential companies was that this was simply not the way that they were normally used to doing business. Instead, it appears their focus was high volume turnover, limited long-term support and maximum profit. Furthermore, in a culture where bribery in business is a cultural norm, and personal interest often elevated above long-term business advantage (see Phongpaichit and Piriyarangsan, 1994), it became difficult in obtaining comprehensive, appropriate and detailed returns for the RFPs.
Thus, the demands and extent of the network and the insistence on this partnership caused a rapid and significant attrition of the companies in the hunt for the contract. At the end of the day, there were only two who were capable of responding to the demands of the RFP, but only one submitted a comprehensive and professionally adequate quotation for the networking and hardware and software solutions. Even still, it was problematic, often erroneous, and subject to a number of significant and necessary revisions before it was finally accepted.
Apple International and Apple Asia were subsequently approached, using the same arguments of the advantages of a long term partnership and highlighting the commercial potential of being involved in an educational project of this scale in Thailand. Apple was very receptive and initially gave significant price advantage to the school in its first round of computer purchases. Indeed, the landed price per unit for the school was cheaper than the cost price for the national dealer, Sahavariya - who incidentally held an Apple monopoly in Thailand. Apple also offered financial support in software and network development. However, with the succession of internal crises that Apple experienced through 1996 and 1997, and its significant reorganisation and apparent refocussing away from education, most of these advantages tailed away soon after the preliminary purchase.
In addition, this relationship was based very much on the personal connections created with Apple executive staff in Cupertino and Singapore and sustained by Tim Ellis, the Executive Director, and Simon Gipson, the Director of School Design and School Principal. When both of these key players left the project in the middle of 1997, the partnership lapsed, and Tridhos lost the price advantages that it had established. It is clear, therefore, that the concept of partnership was seen to have significant merit by Apple and was financially advantageous to the school. However, the weakness of this partnership lay in its dependence on a set of personal relationships. Despite the fact that assurances with Apple were negotiated and confirmed in writing, as soon as key personnel at Tridhos and at Apple moved on, the partnership dissolved. This was largely due to the fact that Sahavariya had been by-passed by Apple in their pricing structures for the school and had as a consequence !made very little money from the deal. Despite the importance attached to long -term partnership, as soon as the restrictions from Apple appeared to lift, Sahavariya, aware of their monopoly, reverted to their normal pricing structures for schools which were based on significantly higher profit.
The reason for these high Internet access fees comes as a result of the financial interests of the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) who control ISP licences. CAT takes 40% of access fees on a leased line. In December 1996, the set fee for a dedicated 128 kb/s line was B105,000 per month (around $A2,500). The profit for CAT is evident; the incentive not to reduce fees clear, despite government and political polemics about the importance of Internet access for all.
In October 1996, a proposal was submitted to NECTEC, a division of the Ministry of Science and Technology, who were pioneering SchoolNet, a program to enable government schools in Thailand to access the Internet. This proposal outlined a mutually beneficial plan whereby the school would acquire cheap Internet access in return for assisting schools in the Mae Rim to develop their own technological infrastructure and in training teachers. The proposal was rejected on the grounds that the school was non-government, and therefore not qualified for any grants under this scheme.
Thus, the solution was simply to pursue the development of an Intranet which would emulate the World Wide Web using pre-selected, cached pages downloaded by faculty, and embedded in subject-specific home pages. This was all achieved by simple dial-up access through a Chiang Mai ISP. Nonetheless, monthly Internet fees were still significant. Arguably, therefore, the goals of "globalising" the curriculum were still achieved even if the vision for unfettered access to the Internet was not.
Hence, in spite of the extensive nature of the technology design and its centrality to the school design model, insufficient attention was devoted to strategies for ensuring that the best people were recruited. Arguably, if one is investing the equivalent of $US 1,000,000 in technological infrastructure, then a significant investment must also be made to ensure that the Technology Coordinator and Systems Administrator have the appropriate qualifications and experience.
As a consequence, the vision for the network was never realised. The lack of experience and the Technology team's resultant failure to address fundamental issues of planning and to attend to detail, meant that the faculty rapidly lost faith in the integrity of the Network and the support that they could get. The lesson learned here was therefore clear. At the core of any technological development within a school - or indeed any other organisation - must be a concomitant commitment to ensuring that the team charged with its implementation be appropriately experienced and qualified. And this experience is seldom cheap. Experience in Thailand, and in other schools in Australia and the United States, has shown that there is a tendency to under-value the importance of trained personnel in the effective use of information technology in schools.
As a generalisation, in any organisation when there are problems with technology, the first response of the user is to blame the technology itself. If no solution presents itself, then there is a tendency to revert to previous practice, and this often means a practice without technology. And, to an extent, this is what happened at Tridhos School Village. The network never functioned properly, and the technology team never implemented appropriate systems, checks, balances, policies and so on. As a result, downtime was much greater than it should be, support not as easily forthcoming, and communication from the team to the rest of the faculty limited. The faculty as a result found more and more excuses to retreat from using technology in their teaching; this in turn meant that students tended to use technology less and less in their learning.
The resignation of the Systems Administrator at the end of July caused further destabilisation and lack of confidence as the network became even more problematic and support more infrequently available.
Again, it is clear that the vision for technology at Tridhos was compromised by a failure to commit to fundamentals. Despite a significant investment in training of staff in information technology and its curricular and pedagogical applications, once school commenced there was little follow through and support from the Technology staff. The result of this was a decline in its uses and application in the classroom.
It is clear, therefore, that commitment must be made to ongoing support to ensure that the original investment in technology is protected and that it is effectively deployed in the classroom. The experience at Tridhos may be an extreme, but it nevertheless suggests clear lessons for all schools.
There is no doubt that commitment to a comprehensive information technology plan directly woven into the fabric of the curriculum and the teaching and learning model provided a highly articulated vehicle for educational innovation and a reforming vision. The tightly coupled connections made between technology use, curriculum and pedagogy at an early stage of the school development also meant that the design of classrooms and technology infrastructure could reflect the demands of the teaching and learning program. However, as experience in the project attests, the move from design to implementation can provide many complex frustrations and engender many costly problems if it is not conducted with integrity to the original plan and if sight of the original vision is lost. And, this was the case at Tridhos.
As has been argued, too, the model of long term partnership that was pursued with the companies involved were initially productive and promised much, but began to collapse when the personal relationships on which they were based foundered as a result of Apple's restructuring and changes in roles and responsibilities at Tridhos. If these kinds of partnerships can be established and sustained, however, there is much for both the provider and school to benefit from, and this is certainly true for schools in Australia and in the United States.
The poor leadership and limited levels of expertise in the Technology team at Tridhos also contributed to the disappointing use of technology within the program. It is argued that it is unwise to be parsimonious in these appointments, especially when seeking to recruit management and leadership expertise in this area. Money invested in staff of a high calibre will both protect and enhance the investment in technology hardware and infrastructure; failure to do so can result in the kinds of experiences detailed above: poor utilisation; limited return of investment; and ultimately a significant compromise of the original educational vision.
Thus, in attempting to respond to the drivers for educational reform in Thailand, Tridhos School Village embarked upon a comprehensive and visionary attempt to provide an educational experience infused with technology for Thai students. That it failed was not due to the initial design, nor to its commitment to information technology, but its failure to acknowledge the importance of sustaining partnerships with providers, its lack of commitment to recruiting key personnel, and the concomitant failure to provide adequate infrastructure support and ongoing training. In each of these there is a significant lesson for all schools engaging in comprehensive educational restructuring that coheres around the uses and applications of information technology.
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| Author: Simon Gipson Dean of Studies Guildford Grammar School 11 Terrace Rd, Guildford WA 6055 sgipson@iinet.net.au Please cite as: Gipson, S. (1998). The challenges of integrating information technology into a Thai educational setting: The story of Tridhos School Village, Chiang Mai. In C. McBeath and R. Atkinson (eds), Planning for Progress, Partnership and Profit. Proceedings EdTech'98. Perth: Australian Society for Educational Technology. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/edtech98/pubs/articles/gipson2.html |