7-minute talk

 My last talk for October is done and I now feel quite relaxed ka.

The whole session, organized by Stimson Center, ran for an hour to share feedback and takeaways on education, labor and health from the Mekong-US Partnership  (MK-US excluding China na ka) from the earlier forum in Cambodia and a hybrid session of research findings by Mo, Dr. Romyen Kosaikanont. Mo is the current SEAMEO RIHED Director who was Visiting Fulbright ASEAN Scholar at Stimson Center for 3 months. (Stimson is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank which aims to enhance international peace and security through a combination of analysis and outreach in Washington D.C.)

Even though my short session went for only 7 minutes, anyone who knows me well would know I took much much longer to prepare ka.Here are what I did/learned as a panelist this time:

1. For me, I think the shorter, the harder na ka. Agree mai ka?

2. My style of preparation is to rehearse quietly in my mind and so my 2-page ppt helped keep my talk in good time. I ended 40 seconds before time allotted. 

3. Basically, I stressed the importance of the following:

- MK-US partnership needs to aim at a shared future, which is still lacking. Mekong countries should be able to discuss common needs and priorities for collaboration with the US, and come up with one big picture for MK-US.

- What should be given more attention includes monitoring and evaluation plus syntheses of best practices from many projects and activities that move beyond merely collections of numbers and outputs undertaken.

- The US sees its role as donor-partner while Mo and I agree it should be partner and learner who will get to know more about our MK contexts to collaborate better. In terms of relationship, being a donor or partner sure gives a different meaning especially about people-to-people interactions and the benefits of sharing. The MK subregion has a lot to share and learn among the member countries and with the US, from cultural diversity to local wisdom and collective intelligence.

- Since Cambodia's forum gave the highest priority on integrating soft skills into hard skill training, there should be some sandbox-like test, engaging key stakeholders (including faculty members and university senior leaders) with full M&E and a synthesis.

4. Several questions were raised and I found it unexpected in such a session. In any case, I managed to respond ka.

1) Women and girls in education -- awareness of it as an issue and combine it along with support for LGBTQ 

2) What Thais thought of the two rivers, Chaopraya as our main river and Mekong as 'minorities' -- Ignorance is gone as we promote more knowledge about ASEAN and its integration plus get more learning from exchanges and media.

3) Data collection and sharing.-- work collaboratively among all concerned to pick up main data sets that are a must to have.

Over the weekend, I was impressed watching a presentation at BOT Symposium 2022 by Assistant Professor Thanee Chaiwat from Chula's Economics Faculty. One thing I could have used in my future presentations is to devote one slide pointing out only several keywords to make sure my main message is sent clearly.

Whew! so relieved all is done for October.

Happy Halloween and I sure deserve a nice treat ka😋😋

4 jobs with untold learning

 Swasdee ka, everyone. Hope it's been a fine Tuesday ka.

Today, another episode of my Podcast, 'Learn Plern Plern' is already broadcast ka. So I think it'd be good for me to reflect on learning from all the 4 episodes under the theme of 'Various Dimensions of Jobs' ka.

The 4 interviewees are from 4 different jobs, namely, Forensic Pathologist, Restaurant Reservations Manager, Inspiration Speaker, and Pilot Instructor. Each is really unique with so much to learn ka.

I'm very impressed talking with them all and here are what I've got ka:

- Family is the most important institution to nurture and enhance kids' passion.

- Despite the upsetting facts about the quality of our education, we still see quite a few graduates who after their reflections, realized how much they've got from their schools and universities. I'd encourage more reflections exercises used within the institutions and on one's own ka. My art therapy sessions also make me travel back to the past and my therapist said it seemed I always travelled back to my childhood ka.

- Movies are for entertainment and excitement which could offer partial facts.....never believe what we see like me learning from CSI and now realize that I was one influenced by 'the CSI effects' ka.

- 'Surprise Party' to be a real surprise needs care for big and tiny details of every step from communication with all in the hotel and restaurant to where the VIP guest would walk to by assuming two roles, our own and ourselves as the person to know exactly what could be seen or missed.

- As younger gens hop from one job to another much faster than before, immediate bosses should continue to give their subordinates the best advice and training so they perform their functions well and could hop out with practical skills.

- To be a successful inspiration speaker, one must show his/her real self as it's the very first step for listeners to believe what's shared. The joy in life can be different in each stage of age and experience so we should 'move' our happiness along!

- Our society is hesitant to ask questions about disability to the disabled while some disabled would be eager to share how they could lead happy lives despite. We all can increase our understanding from such sharing loei la ka.

- 'Safe travels' is much more meaningful when talking with a pilot instructor who's a pilot himself about decision making when in crisis and how they need to simulate various difficult times to always be prepared. Their 'check list' isn't offered to be ticked only but for them to ensure that all the required steps are seriously taken up ka.

Anything to discuss further mai ka?

First big EdTech event in Thailand

Hello to all ka.

 

Last week, I was asked to give a talk on the topic of, 'Innovative Mobility for Sustainable Learning and Living', focusing on AIMS (Asian International Mobility for Students Program... a SEAMEO RIHED's flagship project) ka. 

 

The event was organized in Thailand for the first time by BETT with a conference and expo. From its homepage, BETT is the global community for education technology to spark ideas, create connections, and accelerate trade, driving impact and improving outcomes for teachers and learners.

 

Admission was free and visitors could enjoy all the sessions plus free coffee and lunch ka.

 

My talk went for 20 minutes in a huge ballroom (and honestly, I was glad it wasn't filled up ka....if it did, I could have been even more nervous ka!)

 

Even when I've been sort of close in the RIHED circle, it wasn't that easy to prepare the talk. In any case, it was done by discussing several times with RIHED's Director, Dr. Romyen Kosaikanont to get detailed info for my further synthesis and proposed ideas.

 

Like other big conferences, the stage was well-equipped with tools to facilitate speakers from two screens down below the stage to show the slides, and digital time counter for us not to run over time ka. Both were biggggg enough for us to see clearly! Thank goodness. The technical team at the back helped with everything to make speakers' lives even simpler ka.....had a final ppt check on the stage screen and clipped a wireless digital microphone controlled by this team. Speakers only focused on the talks as someone would turn both on when needed.

 

I also had a chance to walk around the Expo section to talk with some exhibitors. Leading companies and agencies like Microsoft and the British Council were there ka. Quite a few promoted language learning tools. The British Council has both self learning and vdo talks with teachers online.

 

Here are what I learned from attending this event ka:

 

- Again, preparing a talk takes time to synthesize info and form some ideas that could be useful to the audience. With such a limited time, I didn't even share what exactly SEAMEO RIHED was. The session moderator was asking how to pronounce it and what it was for his own introduction ka.

 

- Such a stage setup and time alloted didn't allow any questions or comments like what traditional keynotes are na ka. (I quietly felt good kraaa!)

 

- On one hand, having BETT in Thailand was a real plus in an economic term (numbers of our Thai people hired to work for the two days and the hotel as its venue). On the other, it was unfortunate that not so many Thais were there to learn more about what's been going on in EdTech and what could be most applicable to our institutions.

 

I couldn't help but think of when I registered for a big event like NAFSA (International event for international educators held in the US). Fulbright had to pay a high registration fee. BETT was held here in Bangkok, offering free access and food! It could have been well-attended by seniors and many more from our university communities na ka.

 

- The exhibition section told us clearly that Thailand's still the right place to sell language learning courses ka . Wonder when we can cross this language barrier.....nothing can help much except each individual to feel self-motivated with the urge to acquire the language skills na ka.

 

- Personally, I think Thailand has always been able to keep up with modern technologies. But the challenging issues stay the same ka -- how to engage humans to optimize and maximize the use with integration to respond to reduce our weakness and strengthen our core objectives of learning. This was one of the key points I stressed in my talk ka. Technology isn't everything. IT people need to see themselves as part of the overall organization culture and driver of vision/mission. Both IT and others in the university community need to work together in some of the key processes with consistent communication.

 

-  After I was done with my talk, a few came to me to mention my energy ka. Wasn't sure how to react to it as I felt it could have been too much and I may need to learn how to control it not to be too much!?! However, if my energy level could draw people's attention, what could tell me about the content shared? Really curious about the latter ka.

 

Get sick with my sharing about speeches mai ka? If not, I have 2 more talks in the coming weeks and may share with you here naaa kaaa! Watch out kraaa!

Keynote experience

 Monday greetings to you all ka.

Last week, I was on a zoom session as a keynote speaker at 'FRIENDS Thailand National Conference on Internationalization at Home' on the topic of 'Internationalization at Home: a New Normal in the Internationalization', hosted by Mahasarakham University. This is ีืunder a joint cooperative project of ERASMUS with several Thai universities along with those in some Asian countries.

The below is what I'd like to share ka:

1. In case some of you are interested to know what IaH means crafted by Beelen & Jones, 2015, it reads, 'The purposeful integration of international and intercultural dimensions into the formal and informal curriculum for all students within domestic learning environments'. In this meeting, I proposed an extended definition that could fit better in our context, which is 'Our purposeful intention to integrate international and intercultural dimensions into the formal, informal practices/actions with all students in any learning environments, physical and/or virtual across the worlds'. 

2. Normally for me,  a talk in English takes much longer to prepare. In addition, during this covid period, lots have happened with more to keep up ka. It's great in a way to be kind of forced to read and think a lot more, not only the most updated for the audience, but what could be integrated for further use in the Thai context and hopefully some others in the region.

3. When we emphasize more on Internationalization at Home (IaH), it could be worrying as  we must make sure we understand 'internationalization-- IZN'. So I proposed time to ask 'why' again for both IZN and IaH. I also challenged the Thai and overseas participants not to think of 'new normal' but 'new abnormal' (got this term from Khun Tonson, Santitarn Sathirathai).  I believe that we must not think of work step by step only anymore when we can make things even more unique to keep pace with the changes of the worlds (e.g. physical, virtual, metaverse.) 

4. There were only two who asked questions. One from the Philippines who asked if we should engage support staff in the IaH process. The answer was a 'yes' and it seemed that in his situation, support staff didn't want to when they too could play a key role. Sessions to interact closely with them in some ways should be organized ka.

The second one was from a foreign student in a Thai university who asked if it was ok to ask for mental help. I was so glad she asked ka. In our private chat, she said she was relieved to hear from me that what she felt could happen to others. We need to include mental health support seriously in the universities,  in our orientation and discussions with students and the whole university community ka.

5. I graded myself a 'B' because I could have prepared much better to think of 2 things ka: 1) some good stories to go with key topics to make the talk more interesting and powerful. 2) several other related issues as a back-up if there was more time given after the welcome session. I hope I can manage better next time ka.

Happy Monday na ka.

Facebook hacked!

 Hello everyone! As you can see from the subject, it's what I wish to share today ka.

A friend lined with a screenshot talking with 'me' through messenger, asking her to go to 7-11 to transfer 1,000 baht as 'I' had to be self-quarantined. That was the beginning of my jump to have several who told me in further detail too.

Lessons learned from this incident are:

- Our friends and former colleagues are really kind and wish to help out. One former colleague called to say even she was surprised why I asked her, she felt very good that I did ka!

- Observe and check further. One ajarn went into that Facebook page to find info from there. She found only the full name and date of birth which stated that I was born in 1964. She knew right away it wasn't me as I'm older ka:))! She called the person who didn't answer anything and left the chat.

-  Ask the owner when we aren't sure about the strange request....several did line or call ka.

- With the open access from 7-11 at the limit of 1,000 baht, it's the big gap for people to receive money without having to tell the name and the account number ka.

On my end, here are several ka:

- My habit of writing in English helps tell quite a few that it may not be me and the Thai language used was far away from my own way of talking ka. This person wrote, 'ทำไรอยู่จ๊ะ' ....not my style loei ka.

- Thank goodness my friends know that I wouldn't go around asking for money ka.

- Don't be lazy to change the password and though I change mine periodically, it isn't enough ka.

- I now not only know a little better how not to be hacked, I also appreciate my younger ones who came to check and walked me through the process of two-factor authentication while a very dear junior friend, Bank, offered to help as soon as he knew my Facebook was hacked ka.

Hope you don't have such an experience ka.

Amazing caring

There's a story I really wish to share today, showing how powerful one caring heart can offer ka.

It's about Tom, one of my dear dear น้องเรือเยาวชน (one junior participating with me in the Ship program) who works for Thai International Airlines ka.

About 9 am several days ago, Tom's colleague, Ong, found it strange that Tom didn't show up since he has always been much earlier. Ong knows where Tom stays so he went there. Luckily, Tom's room is on the second floor and though without access to Tom's place, Ong could manage to enter from Tom's neighbor's back door.

He found that Tom was lying unconscious on the floor not far from the bathroom. According to Tom's mom, Tom was turning 'green'. Tom's now being hospitalized and when I went to see him, he looked quite good!  Tom can't speak yet but when I teased him, he laughed out loud.....we couldn't be happier! He would need sessions of physical therapy to become fit again ka.

Within this shock, this was a wonderful story na ka. Ong's caring with his sense and actions has saved one life. Tom is a really good person himself and his routine could also be one good factor for Ong to see. Definitely Ong was fast to notice it and take actions when it didn't seem right. 

Bless Ong's beautiful caring heart ka!

Hope it won't be a too wet Monday to you all ka.