School visit in Kampong Thom

October the 10th we had a meeting with PTTC in Kampong Thom. The purpose for the meeting was to see if they want to be our partners in our exchange-program. I didn't understand much of what was going on in the meeting. My khmer isn't that good yet, but I got full report after the meeting. We hope we can welcome them soon as our partners.

See more pictures from our outreach.

e-tivities

ICT is a very hot topic i education both in Norway and Cambodia. Students and staff keep developing their skills in ICT and trying to integrate it into the different subjects. Here at PTTC (Teacher Training College) in Siem Reap they’ve got a very nice open resource center where students and teachers learn how to use computer. The challenge is to take it further so it can be a tool in increasing knowledge and skills. Gilly Salmon has done a lot of research on active online learning, and she is writing about how to succeed as a e-moderator. She present a five-stage model that provides an example of how participants can benefit from increasing skill and comfort in working, networking and learning online, and what e-moderators need to do at each stage to help them to achieve this success. The model shows how to motivate online participants, to build learning through appropriate e-tivities and to pace e-learners through programmes of training and development.
I find this model very interesting and I tend to follow it in my weblog-project.

Gilly Salmon (2002) : E-tivities. The key to active online learning: Kogan Page Limited, London

Transit in Istanbul

Here I am sitting, waiting for my flight to Cambodia. I have not been myself today. I have had this feeling of being outside my body. Me and my family are going to a place where we have never been before. Everything is new for us, and I have no idea what to expect. That makes me feel out of controll today.

Istanbul looks nice from where we are sitting, and that's from the airport. It's a shame being a such a nice city without being able to feel the atmosphere outside. It was to expensive getting a visa. Well, right no the excitement about going to a unknown place, is enough for me:-) Maybe it's a good thing have to waite here for six ours, so I can calm down a little bit after leaving all that's safe.

Weblog - a way to increase cross-cultural understanding

This year I, Somaly and Phira (my colleges from Siem Reap) will try out a weblog-project in teacher education. We want to see if weblog can be a tool in education and if it can be help for the student teachers to increase knowledge and understanding in their profession. We think that being a part of a network with students from HiA and TTC can give them awareness about what they learn in education. By getting respond or giving respond to someone who lives in totally different contexts will give new perspectives and self-awareness.

By communicating with someone threw weblog they loose the interaction face to face. Gilly Salmon thinks that “the lack of face-to-face and visual clues in online participation is a key ingredient of success rather than a barrier” (Salmon 2002:20). Research show that professors know distance-learning students better than their counterparts they meet face to face (Mills 2000:131 in Salmon). If that’s so, weblog can be a great way to increase cross-cultural understanding as well as getting new perspectives in what they are learning in education.

Salmon, Gilly (2002) e-tivities - The Key to active online learning. Kogan Page Limited