I can’t believe it’s already half way through my internship with UNESCO Bangkok. What did I actually do this past month? Currently, I am still working on the same three projects that mentioned in my first post. The first project is researching for non-formal education materials (curriculum, textbooks, or teacher’s guides, and policies among others) for a colleague to support Myanmar’s Department of Alternative Education. Some of the materials that I have collected so far are academic papers that evaluate Myanmar’s non-formal education system or case-studies and NGOs’ projects that were implemented to support out-of-school students. The second project is training a chatbot on the lifelong-learning website. It is quite fun and interesting, but nothing fancy like coding. I logged on the website through the admin account, and then go through lists of questions and answers. The team asked me to add some “humors” in the answer responses to make the chatbot more “human-like,” which is fun to revise some of the responses. Afterward, I will ask those questions in the chatbot and monitor the responses to see if I need to make any new changes. Next week, July 11-12, my team will hold a conference to launch this lifelong learning website, which contains 11 learning modules to teach policymakers about lifelong learning’s benefits for the community. More than 70 officials across Southeast Asia will join us, and I will help a colleague to facilitate two learning modules. I’m excited and am looking forward to it. These learning modules are opened to anyone who is interested in lifelong learning, and you can sign up to take the course and receive a certificate from us once you completed all the sessions.
Lastly, I help a colleague to redesign the Assistive Technology for Learning (ATFLearning) website. I’m almost finished with this project, which is researched mobile learning applications for people with disabilities such as autism, deaf, visual impairment and/or blind, and AHDH, etc. Afterward, I summarized the information, and then compiled them into a list of simple and easy-read layouts, so the IT colleague can redesign the webpage like the layouts I created. I have compiled more than 50 online learning applications and more than 20 learning tools or resources. From this project, I learned significantly about educational technology, the use of augmented reality, virtual reality and other technological applications to enhance learning. Creating this online platform of resources will increase individuals with disabilities accesses to education.
Two weeks ago, I participated in a two-days conference about refugees and immigrants’ education in Asia. The conference was hosted by the Inclusive Quality Education Team (IQE) of UNESCO, partnering with the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI). There were 31 participants from more than 10 countries, mostly Southeast Asia countries. It was an interesting and insightful conference, theoretically, due to all the political complication between governments that push back on the practicality.
On the fun part, I went on a couple of weekend trips and adventured through cities around Bangkok!
My first trip was to Ayutthaya, a capital of the Kingdom of Siam (previously called before Thailand) between mid-1300s to late 1700s. I biked all over different historical temples, and it was mesmerizing. I also went to Pattaya and relaxed at the beach for a weekend. There, I got a chance to go to a floating market, riding a boat along the canal that go through different local food vendors. My latest adventure was ride on a local train for six hours to a waterfall in Kanchanaburi Province, the western part of Thailand close to the Myanmar’s border. The train went through a well-known historical railway, known as the Death Railway, that was built by prisoners of war during World War II. It was a long ride, but full of beautiful natural sceneries. There, I hiked one of the most beautiful waterfall trail in Thailand, known as Erawan Waterfalls which has seven waterfalls.
It has been an amazing time, living, interning, learning, and adventures in Bangkok. Looking forward to more adventures on this second half of the summer!
The International Educational Development Program 
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