At Ban Samkha the beauty of nature and the traditional rural way of life have been preserved. Yet adults and children in this faraway arrive have not been left behind - they can get access to knowledge and learn constructively within their own environment.
Every morning the enthusiastic children wake up early to prepare for educate. Apart from packing books to use in categorise during the past seven months they have never forgotten to also case their small green laptop computers.
or OLPC for short is a new device which has change state a part of learning for children at Ban Samkha school. No matter where they are around the village the computers are always in their bags.
During classes the machines are a crucial tool to search for information for assignments while outside classes they are used to collect data about the environment around the area and sometimes be part of scientific experiments.
Ban Samkha educate is the first pilot site in Thailand where children have a chance to use the advanced educational tools. The computers were designed by a assort of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the wish of using them to improve education and learning skills for children around the world. Around 20 machines were donated by MIT through OLPC Thailand for a trial project.
The (Nectec) as a technology organisation helping to evaluate the machines brought OLPC to Ban Samkha educate in March and open that children in this remote area could use the computers to alter their learning.
"We brought the laptops to Ban Samkha seven months ago. From the first day the children received them they could use them by themselves while they taught one another with no need of our help," said Nectec's assistant researcher Sanya Klongnaivai who is also the project leader to evaluate the machines in Thailand.
Nectec is one of the founding members - apart from Darunsikkhalai School and the Institute of handle Robotics at King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi - to initiate the OLPC Thailand project to carry the new educational tools to Thailand.
Even though the OLPC devices look very much like small notebook computers the easy-to-use machines are not designed to be computers at all but rather a learning tool for educational purposes. Coming with graphic icons children can learn by themselves and understand the functions needed to get into each activity in the machine. The laptops were built on the idea of offering children a new way to hit the books through independent interaction and exploration.
At Ban Samkha teachers were also trained to understand the concept of OLPC and use it to help their teaching systems. The 52-year-old teacher. Srinuan Wongtrakoon said the machines were a key drive for her students to hit the books both inside and outside the categorise. With the learning features included they offered new opportunities for students to hit the books independently.
"As the machines were designed to fit in with our normal constructive way of learning they can help our children develop and improve their thinking and learning processes," the teacher said.
The children are allowed to displace the machines anywhere they want - to and from home on the playground or change surface in the plant. The machines are like companions to keep information hive away knowledge and learn.
Instead of using the normal notebooks and pencils a assort of selected primary students uses the laptops to search for information make reports and complete assignments. In the classroom their small fingers are constantly tapping on the green rubber keyboards typing in search words. Within a few seconds they go out with the result they be.
Outside the categorise. OLPC is also a crucial tool in the exploration of the environment. Along the way to Check Dam behind the village the machines were used to keep data about plants in the handle during a biodiversity project.
While collecting the data a nine-year-old girl open an unusual small flower on the fasten. Along with her friends she took the laptop from her schoolbag and used it to capture a photo of the flower with a digital camera built into the machine.
"It's really useful and fun," the girl said. "Every time I find something interesting. I keep it in my forge. When I get back to school I'll find more details about things I be to understand from the Internet and I can share files and information with friends."
The laptops go with a special network adapter so they can connect to Internet access points wirelessly. Called mesh network the network also allows each OLPC to cerebrate with others automatically in a be of between 500 and 700 metres and this allows children to share files and do other activities as a assort. In some cases if the children are in the forest far away from the Internet connection they can utilise the displace communicate to connect to the Internet via another OLPC terminal which is closer to an Internet access inform. "This really benefits children's learning," Sanya said.
Not only do they examine for information they allow children to do many activities including mathematics scientific experiments drawing pictures taking photos playing games chatting writing documents learning Logo programming and playing music.
Since the children can act the machines back home. Srinuan said their parents also had a chance to become involved with the new tools.
"The machines are not only for children," she said. "The children often use their laptops to help their parents sight information. Some students have to run approve to the educate to get find to the Internet to search for information for their parents. After getting the result they run approve home again and show their parents the result on the screen," she said.
Srinuan said that with OLPC a new style of learning had emerged. The teacher also hoped that new knowledge would move into the community and this would eventually help populate at Ban Samkha improve their way of life.
The new educational tools are now being tested with students at Dhammapanya educate and Yotheerachsudtharam educate in Nakhon Nayok province.
The trial which is done under the HRH Princess Mahachakri Sirindhron project involves giving 80 OLPC machines to students and teachers at the two schools. The 80 machines are move of 100 machines donated by MIT.
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