Nakhon Nayok

Today we visited Nakhon Nayok, one of the ten STOU regional centers. Next Sunday we will visit a provincial center at Petchaburi.

When we left today it was raining hard. Both of us got on the back of Oy's motorbike and rode to the dock. We made it. By the time we got across the river the rain had stopped. The taxi drive to STOU was a little fast and there was no seat belts. We arrived a little early and had a Thai breakfast. We then all got in a van and drove to Nakhon Nayok. We were joined by Robin, who is from England. Robin works for STOU International Relations. It was fun talking with him. We also were joined by Shaiful Alam a Professor of Agriculture from the Bangladesh Open University. It was valuable to share perspectives with him. He is at STOU to study the agriculture curriculum. He is staying at the conference center.

At Nakhon Nayok we got to see a video demonstration, it worked well when we connected with Lampahng. They are using eMeeting from French Telecom. The video is not currently being used for educational purposes. The current usage is for meetings. The quality was very good.

I got to spend some time talking with the person who provides computer support at the center. I asked him how he learned his skills and he said from technical colleges, workshops, and self training. It does not sound like he provides training or support to the local users. At least, through translation, that was my impression. They do have a wireless connection set up, but I was not clear who was using it.

I found a press release about STOU adopting a state of the art Juniper network. I did see some Juniper equipment while I was there.

I have not seen the diversity of delivery of distance education that we see in Alaska. I do not think that they see the possibility of synchronous distance delivery, at least they are not implementing it. Again, this is an impression, not a fact. The prime model of course delivery is correspondence, supplemented by technology, and seminars. Final tests are the prime method of student evaluation and course completion. There are many caring and creative people, committed to lifelong learning and distance delivery, but I do not see the full spectrum of delivery methods that we use in Alaska. Correspondence dominates the delivery of courses.

In the lobby of the regional center there was a ThoThai paid internet station, interesting.

There was a seminar of community (village) leaders while we were visiting. The subject was providing preventative health at the local level. It was interesting to see the people and the presentation.

One thing that was curious, is that I saw no students. We were there in the morning, but the regional center was also in a somewhat isolated rural area next to an army base. The setting was beautiful. The Professor from Bangladesh also mentioned the location as a little odd. It was explained that the land was donated. Again these are not conclusions just impressions from a very brief visit. I assume at other times that the center is well used.

Returning on the boat I saw a very young mother riding across the river with a very young baby. She looked very worried. A man gave up his seat so she would not have to sit in the sun. Here worried look was very striking. I can not help observing and feeling for the people that I see.

We just added some cement to expand the front walk to Jit's families home. One tree is surrounded by cement. I can not see how it will survive, but an odd thing is that there a sponges and pieces of rubber sort of tied to the tree. Jit said that her dad believes that it helps plants grow.

There are many ad-hoc stores in our community. Two of them provide Pepsi with ice, it only cost about 25 cents. At one store there is a protective dog. When customers go there, they settle the dog down or take it for a walk. Our dog in Fairbanks has a similar temperment. Their dog is really beautiful and I would like to make friends with it. It is one of the only real owned dogs that I have seen in the community.

I also asked Anne to see if she could arrange a meeting so I could learn about the academic decision process at STOU. I am very curious based on my experience on curricular affairs and the CRCD academic decision process.

A good and productive day.