Digital classroom trial a success: BMA
Bangkok has launched the first digital classroom powered by Google Workspace for Education and Chromebooks at Thai Niyom Songkhro School in Bang Khen district to promote the use of digital technology to improve both student learning and teacher capability.
Governor Chadchart Sittipunt presided over the launch on Tuesday. He was joined by his deputy Sanon Wangsrangboon, executives of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)’s Education Department, Google (Thailand) Ltd, The S Curve Ltd, and other officials.
Chadchart explained that the project is an expansion of the online classrooms implemented during Covid-19, noting that teachers already have access to lesson materials in digital format.
“The new digital classroom project will focus on encouraging children to participate in classroom activities as well as create their own work,” he said. “It could be a demanding job for teachers in the beginning, but after the format is set we can adapt it to other subjects and schools of different levels.”
Chadchart added that during the pilot phase, students showed positive responses to topics such as English pronunciation and their overall academic performance also improved.
The governor said that after the success in a grade 4 classroom, expanding digital classes to all grade 4 students at Thai Niyom Songkhro School should be no problem, since the classrooms are all equipped with computers.
“However, succeeding in one school is meaningless, as we have to expand the project to cover all 437 schools under the BMA,” he said. “We plan to have all schools organising digital classrooms at the grade 4 level by the end of next year. To do this, the city will need at least 2,000 computers or laptops.”
BMA is accepting donations of new or used desktop and laptop computers at its facebook page, he added.
The digital classroom project is a part of BMA’s education policy that aims to use technology to make classrooms more modern as well as improve overall quality of the curricula and learning techniques.
Besides Google and The S Curve, other partners in the project are Asustek Computer Ltd, and the Centre of Excellence in Educational Invention and Innovation at the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University.
Google has provided two of their solutions, namely Workspace for Education and Chromebook, to promote 21st-century skills among teachers and students and prepare them for global citizenship.
