Japan and Thailand Cooperate in Educational Network for Practical Information Technologies (enPiT)
The Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University has signed a 5-year cooperation agreement with the University of Aizu to participate in the Educational Network for Practical Information Technologies (enPiT) project. The project aims to raise awareness and motivate creativity and is part of the Creativity Development Program of the University of Aizu. The program is within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan, developing creativity in the curriculum, as well as the learning paths that incorporate existing regional innovation system (RIS) and global understanding of the issue.
In the Creativity Development Program, project-based learning is promoted as a mean for students to engage with their communities. Student participants explore the Nishi-Aizu town, located in Fukushima Prefecture, and learn more about issues in their community (e.g., population decline as a result of young generations move to big cities, and a decline in tourism).
Knowledge and experience gained from exploring the town will then be used to find possible solutions to the aforementioned problems—the population decline and the decline in tourism. Chulalongkorn students, and the University of Aizu and Nihon University students collaborate and get creative with technology—creating websites and designing web applications.
Ms. Thanchanok Yammak and Mr. Kriengkrai Thirawongpaisan, Chulalongkorn representatives from the Department of Educational Technology and Communication, participated in this project through conducting virtual meetings and systematically analyze data using the Slack Application, few times a month with representatives from Japan.
Ms. Thanchanok Yammak's team created a website called De-Aizu. This website gives Japanese an opportunity to visit Nishi-Aizu, Fukushima. The team designed the web application that matched young Japanese with the same interests, so they can pair up to do the virtual activities. The application starts by asking participants to fill out their personal information and interests as shown below:
Once finished and clicked “Matching” button, participants will then connect to another user. If users need help and want to chat with their partner, “Cupid of love”—the helper in De-Aizu, and “destiny compass” will come into play. These functions, however, are only available if users are in the Nishi-Aizu area (See picture below).
De-Aizu also aids travelers/tourists in navigating the Nishi-Aizu by introducing activities that must do while in town. As a result, this fuels economy around town. Attractions (e.g., shops) have more visitors. Similar to the function that attracts young people, De-Aizu has special functions that only available for tourists who are in town.
Mr. Kriengkrai Thirawongpaisan's team designed a web application for Japanese and expats to wanting to visit the Nishi-Aizu. Users and participants would play game online, collect points and complete missions. Rewards in the game application would turn into rice saplings once they arrive at the Nishi-Aizu. They have to plant them until they can be harvested. This process requires them to travel around town and spend at the local shops to earn “the growth points.” The rice plant will grow according to the points received. Once mission is completed, players can get actual rewards, which are the processed rice products of Nishi-Aizu—the town's famous specialties.
