On 17 March 2008, Khunying Kasama Vorawan na Ayudhaya (third from left), Secretary General, Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), Ministry of Education; Prof. Viroon Tungcharoen (fourth from left), Rector, Srinakharinwirot University (SWU); and Prof. Said Irandoust (second from left), President of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Application of Digital Library for Education Project (KIDS-D System) at the Ministry of Education.
The MoU signing was also attended by Prof. Vilas Wuwongse (third from left), AIT Vice President for External Relations; Associate Prof. Somchai Chuchat (third from right), Vice President for External Relations, SWU; Associate Prof. Wipavee Anupunphisit (second from right), Vice President for Research, SWU; Dr. Kanitha Ruchirote (right) of SWU; officials from three parties as well as distinguished guests from TOT Public Company Limited , Advanced Info Service, Plc. (AIS), National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), and Q.Point Software Services Limited.
KIDS-D emerged AIT’s realization on the importance of increasing learning opportunities and sustainable education development in Thailand. The primary objective of the project is to build a digital repository, that collects and stores information resources, valuable for learning and teaching. Various types of materials such as books, articles, still photos, moving images, slides, music, video or teaching records will be kept in electronic formats so that teachers, lecturers, students in primary and secondary schools, and other kids in Thailand can access to these valuable resources regardless of time and place. Inevitably, this effort will increase educational opportunities in Bangkok and other regions of Thailand extensively and thoroughly.
AIT applied and customized Dspace and Greenstone programs, which are open-source softwares initially developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) U.S.A. and Wikato University, New Zealand, to systematically manage digital contents in various formats by applying a standard set of Metadata into the internal structure of data. Users can then easily create digital collections by themselves and distribute to other units conveniently.
In this project, OBEC and SWU will apply the digital library system developed by AIT to store and retrieve learning and teaching materials including other valuable information resources owned or created by the institution. The success of this initial cooperation will indicate the future application of the system within the government and private sectors. The main target group of the project is primary and secondary schools nationwide. Students, teachers, self-study students and the general public are the identified end-users.
OBEC, SWU and AIT will appoint a committee with members from each party to work together. OBEC and SWU will coordinate with various units under their supervision to provide valuable content including learning and teaching materials created or owned by schools or other educational institutions for storing into the system. OBEC and SWU will seek more demonstration schools and staff to work on the preparation of hardware, software, and network before the system installation. AIT’s role will be to function as the system developer by performing system installations, capability training of staff on system use, management and administration.
Above: AIT President Said Irandoust (left) hands a token of appreciation to Khunying Kasama Vorawan na Ayudhya (second from left) and Prof. Viroon Tungcharoen (right) .
Below: Khunying Kasama Vorawan na Ayudhaya (third from left), hands a token of appreciation to AIT Pres. Said Irandoust (second from left), while Prof. Vilas Wuwongse (left) and Prof. Viroon Tungcharoen (right) look on.
