Recently, I’ve been conducting a research on the topic “Towards the integration of ICT in Cambodia’s Education: Promoting the use of technology in the learning and teaching process at public upper secondary schools in Phnom Penh”. I spent my winter vacation (Dec-mid Jan) in Phnom Penh trying to collect all the neccessary data for my research. With the help of some of my students, I managed to collected information from a sample of 500 students and 200 teachers. In the process, I found out, through the phone interview with the principle, that Hun Sen Bun Rany Wat Phnom is the first among the very few high schools in Phnom Penh that access to intenet to introduce the integration of computer and internet in the teaching and learning process. Its SMART SCHOOL program, which recieves finanical and technical support from the Malaysian NGO, started in October last year after many years of preparation. This program was aimed at making use of technology to increase student’s and teacher’s motivation and to improve their the teaching and learning. Due to the limited resources, this program was introduce to only grade 10 students in English subject. In the program, all grade 10 students have the opportunity to study English 3 hours a week in the computer lap whereby the teacher use the interactive resource on the internet to teach their students.
I was very interested in this program and would like to use it as a case study for my research, so I asked permission from the school principle to come down to the school and observe the interaction in class. After several observations and a survey, I found out that both students and teachers find the program interesting and useful. However, I have observed some loopholes in the program. Most important of all is the lack of teacing methodology. Despite having well-designed resources, many teachers did not know how to make good use of them, as most of them are computer/internet illiterates. Training of the teachers is a must if the school wants to benefits from the program. After discuss with the school principle, I agreed to voluntarily conduct a knowledge-and-experience-sharing workshop all the English teachers in the school.
After some arrangement with the school, the workshop was scheduled in the morning of Friday, January 09. twenty teachers turned up. In the workship, I presented about breif background of ICT, the use of ICT in varous sectors: business, commerce, agriculture, health. I also touched on the expected benefits and constraints of using ICT in education. Mostly importanly, I gave a short lecture on teaching methodology and gave a teaching demonstration to show how teacher can use technology in their teaching . Overall, the workshop went well and I was glad that all of the participants found it useful.
Here are some photoes taken during the workshop:





The followings are photos taking in a class during my observation


