The Central Region Non-Formal Education Center, Ban Magrood, and some observations.

2/10
Today we are going to visit the Central Regional Center for Non-Formal Education in Ratchaburi. On the way we will stop at the Don Whey market. As we return we will see the Nakhom Pathorn Chedi. Nook will go with us since she does not have any tests to take.

The Non-Formal Education Regional Center is in a beautiful campus with many buildings, trees, and lawn. It is a former boy scout area. It looks like a summer camp. We visited a computer class where the students were learning web site creation using Dreamweaver. The students were nurses and teachers. The web sites looked well done. They had a server on site to publish the web sites. Amnart Choosuwan is the director of the center and speaks excellent English. The courses they teach seem practical and appropriate. Developing a Community Plan, Day Care, PHP and My SQL, Excel, Word, and Traditional Herbs were some to the courses offered.

The Center hosted E-Learning courses that were content based. People sign in and take the courses, the only support is through Web Board or email. If people want a certificate they need to pay a fee and come to the center to take an exam. Some of the courses have a supporting seminar at the end. The method of course delivery, whether workbooks or web based seems common in Thailand. Except for a few examples I do not see "teaching" in E-Learning. The responsibility for motivation and inspiration is entirely left with the students. The two exceptions to the content based E-Learning that we visited were outstanding, but more common is the passive presentation of material. The center has also developed a site for learning English that looked like an excellent resource for motivated learners.

If there was one thing that I would recommend it would be for E-Learning lessons to be "taught" using all the Internet tools available to provide communication and individualization. Every person I have met is committed, skilled, caring, and professional, what I do not see is the focus on human interaction as a necessary part of the learning process. I would love to be professional colleagues with the people I have met.

We visited the community of Ban Magrood. There is a community web site at www.magrood.com . The Non-Formal Education classroom is a bamboo building with palm frond and straw roof. There are two computers and a large study area. We met with the web site author and the community leader. The community, Ban Magrood, is a UNESCO demonstration project like Ban Samkha. I was very impressed with the web site creator, he took a course and has used that skill to develop a useful web site. Some of the uses that people make of computers is looking for funds for the community, information for community planning, and home accounting. Adults use the computers at the Education Center, and the Regional Center and at an Internet cafe. The web site has current community news on it, it scrolls like a web log so you can see the history of the recent activities. I was impressed and learned a lot from our community visit.

Driving back we visited the large Nakhom Pathon Chedi and got stuck in traffic on the Rama VIII bridge. Traveling with the people from Non-Formal Education, especially the Assistant Director is a joy, there is story telling and laughter. We asked Nook about the trip and she said that she had a much broader view of E-Learning, she said it would be great for mu9 to have some of the projects she saw at Ban Magrood. She also said it was the first time she had seem important people, professors and directors laugh and tell stories. She was surprised about their behavior. After we were dropped off we went out to eat before we took the taxi home. In the evening Nook gave me an embroidery that she made. I had to promise to have it on my wall in Alaska. I will fulfill that promise.

When we were at the Chedi there was a large roll of orange cloth that people signed with their wishes. I think the cloth well be put around the Chedi. Nook wished that she would do well on her tests and get into the university that she was hoping for. She want to study business. Jit wished that our families would have happiness.

Some observations
This morning as we were getting ready to go to Non-Formal Education there was a large Monitor lizard near the house. It was rushing down the path and jumped in the water. I am glad the lizards are afraid of people. If the lizard is near the community I imagine the dogs will get pretty upset.

Yesterday there was a large Green snake on the entry way to our home, it looked slim, like a Garter Snake. It crawled under some old coconuts. Jit said it was partially poisonous, but I am not sure. I looked around Google and could not identify the snake.

On TV there was a shot of some illegal logging, what was amazing was that they were using motorbikes to haul large logs, the logs were about 3 feet long and stacked on the back of the motorbike, maybe three or four logs on each motorbike.

Today there was a newspaper article that Honda has sold 50 million motorbikes since the 1960's, the picture reminded me that when I was in college in Bellingham Washington I owned a Honda 50, which is very similar to the current Honda Dream. I loved the motorbike, for awhile I sold my car and only used the motorbike for transportation. I even took a 50 mile trip to my grandmother's home with the motorbike. I had forgotten until I saw the picture.

Coming home from TNT yesterday we were next to a large truck, looking out of the passenger side of the truck, looking down on us, was a tiny dog. It made the taxi driver laugh. It was pretty funny.

When flying into Bangkok it is easy to see large community complexes, usually a large square of buildings with a road down the center, on each side of the rectangle there are shop houses. At street level the scale and organization of the buildings is hidden, there will just be a street, usually with a sign over the front, and a very busy looking community. From the air it looks very different.

On our drive I saw two motorcycles parked beside the highway, we made a U-Turn to go back to the Non-Formal Education Center and I could see that there were two boys swimming in a pond beside the road.

We passed a bus repair garage, there were old buses, diesel engines, and the ground was black with spilled oil. One of the workers was soaked in oil. There was a young child, maybe two years old, playing with a plastic trike. He was in the oil also. An unforgettable image.

On the way home, in the space of 15 minutes I saw three accidents, a motorbike fallen over with the driver and passenger hobbling around, a rear end "fender bender" between a van and a car, and a pickup truck flipped upside down in the middle of the road. I could not see the passengers.

Coming over the Rama VIII bridge we were next to an immaculately restored white 1961 Chevy Impala. It looked like it is was in perfect condition.

The Rama VIII bridge is beautiful, the large tower with a lotus blossom on top, the pattern of cables of the suspension bridge, and the form of the tower are beautiful design. The bridge is a little outmoded, only four lanes, but who ever was the engineer did a beautiful job. From the river the bridge is outstanding.

In Thailand there does not seem to be a clear boundary between private interest, business interest, and public interest. The demonstrations against Thaksin are serious. I hear serious political discussions. People are worried that Thaksin has sold the country. Political and business behavior that would lead to jail sentences in the United States are tolerated in Thailand. It is sad because with globalization good government practices and good business practices are crucial to compete.

Two United States citizens were killed in Northern Thailand. One of the people killed was supposed to be a relative of the former royal family. The scary part of the incident is that the newspapers say that the police did the killing. One of the police men that was interviewed said that "it was an 11mm gun, the Army uses 11mm guns, not the police"!!! Somehow I do not think that is a reassuring comment. When people are suspected of wrong doing they are transferred to "inactive positions" not fired. There are many newspapers accounts of police wrong doing, it is scary to think about.