[The Tokyo & The Chunichi Shimbun]タイの今どき大学事情

今夏から、チュラロンコン大のメディアフェローとなり、仕事の傍ら、同大の講座を聴講している。大学で勉強するのは二十数年ぶり。2回り近く年下の学生や留学生らと机を並べるのは、なかなか貴重な経験だ。 

初授業の8月上旬、一番乗りして教室で待っていると、学生から「アーチャーン(先生)」と声を掛けられ、思わず苦笑いした。机に大学ノートを広げ、ボールペンで日付を書き込む。ふと周囲を見回すと、みんなiPadを使っていて驚く。ノートとボールペンを使っている学生は見当たらない!  

教師はモニターにQRコードを映し出し、シラバス(授業計画)や テキストを各自のタブレット端末などにダウンロードするよう指示。課題の提出や連絡には、検索大手グーグルが提供するサービス「クラスルーム」を利用する。紙世代の人間には 隔世の感がある。 

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University Life in Thailand

From this summer, I became a Media Fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, and I’m auditing courses offered by the university. It has been more than 20 years since I last studied at the university. It is quite a valuable experience to sit next to the desk with young students and international students.

In early August, the first day of my course, I was the first student to arrive at the classroom, and as I waited, a student talked to me, “อาจารย์ (teacher),” and I couldn’t help but chuckle. I spread out my notebook on the desk, wrote the date in ballpoint pen, and looked around to see that everyone was using iPads. I didn’t see any students using notebooks and ballpoint pens!

Then, the teacher projected a QR code on the monitor and instructed the students to open the text on their iPads or other devices. The students use “Google Classroom”, an application software provided by search giant Google, to submit assignments and communicate with each other. For those of us from the paper generation, this is a different world.

Thai students are generally cheerful. We had the opportunity to do group work and have representatives come to the front of the classroom to present their work. The students didn’t mind making mistakes and the classmates would applaud and cheer loudly when they answered correctly. I think the high level of psychological safety probably contribute to the students’ positive attitude.

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