Friday, September 18, 2009

RI instructors train on mobile application

The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Open Learning Center (SEAMOLEC) has sent Indonesian instructors to Cambodia and Vietnam to provide training on developing a game-based mobile learning application.

SEAMOLEC Deputy Director of Program Ith Vuthy told a press conference in Jakarta earlier this week that the training was aimed at disseminating information about the latest of its programs: developing mobile learning technology.

From Sept. 7, two instructors have been training lecturers, IT staff and students of the National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia to develop a mobile game application that allows users to learn Indonesian words.

The organization had previously sent two other instructors to Vietnam to give training at the Hanoi Open University in August to develop a similar application.

They will also visit a high school in Hanoi from Sept. 21 to 26 and provide similar training for its teachers and students.

SEAMOLEC also sent students from Vocational High School SMK 1 Surabaya to assist during the training. Two students are stationed in Cambodia and two others are currently in Vietnam.
Cahya Kusuma Ratih, an expert from the organization, said the training included basic Javanese and mobile programming, and developing the mobile game application itself.

She added that trainees might not be able to develop a complex game after only a few days of training.

"But we also plan to hold discussions in each country for three months after the trainings. After that period, we hope they will be able to develop their applications to include 1,000 Indonesian words."

Vuthy said he looked forward to the applications being completed by the end of this year. "When they are ready, we will donate them to the people of the two countries."

SEAMOLEC, he said, had chosen Cambodia and Vietnam because they were the first to offer to host the instructors.

"This is a cost-sharing program, so whichever country comes to us we will serve them," Vuthy said, adding the organization planned to send instructors to other Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and Thailand.

Cahya said the training assistants for Cambodia and Vietnam were the best of their class of interns at SEAMOLEC.

"We have been training around 9,000 interns from 50 vocational high schools and universities from all over the country to develop mobile learning games. So far, we have produced 300 applications, although all are still in the early development stage."

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