Japan and Thailand Cooperate in Educational Network for Practical Information Technologies (enPiT) Project

The Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, has signed a cooperation agreement with University of Aizu to participate in the Educational Network for Practical Information Technologies (enPiT) project, managed by the University of Aizu’s Creativity Development Program and supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).  The program is designed to enhance practical learning skills for future innovations by applying information technology to solve actual problems in the community through project-based learning management. 

To date, students from 37 higher education institutions from universities around the world have been recruited for the project.  With the recent agreement signing, the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, will be one of the cooperating institutions in the enPit project for the next five years.  

To represent the Faculty of Education in the project, the Department of Educational Technology and Communications has nominated Ms. Thanaporn Manosumrit, Ms. Napa Champatip and Mr. Siwakorn Malakul, 3rd, 4th and 5th year undergraduate students.  

With interests in abandoned houses, wastelands, space conditions, city potential and historical occurrences in Minami, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, the student representatives, along with students from the University of Aizu and Nihon University, have analyzed the issues to design a prototype project to develop and utilize technology for the community.  Upon completion, the students presented their projects to the Minami Aizu Municipality through web applications, displaying the utilization of abandoned houses and land. Three web applications have been launched to solve the problems in the community: 

1. VH Sharing – a web application that collects and promotes vacant home use.  The app provides people with information about uninhabited or abandoned houses, giving people a way to buy/sell their own houses at a negotiable price.  The application aims to minimize the negative perception and disadvantages of abandoned and uninhabited houses and home buyers can receive information about the houses before committing to a purchase.  At the same time, the home seller has more chance to sell the house, even if they do not live in the area.

2. ‘De Lorean’ – a web application that provides information about upcountry houses in Japan for interested homebuyers.  Home seekers can easily find information on a house before making a deal to buy or rent.

(Presentation: https://youtu.be/-T9OkOE_Tag)

3. RETURN – a web application developed as a broker for renting or selling abandoned homes.  The app incorporates storytelling to raise awareness of the value of the domicile and boosts the incentives for starting a business to develop the community in the homeland, including creating marketing strategies to promote business.

All three projects are adaptations of technology know-how to practically solve real problems and were developed with considerations to the social context of using web applications.  Target groups can be reached immediately and the app is suitable for the changes of living in a sustainable global society. 

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