Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

War finally ended in 1998

Economy stable

and growing

(but GDP $1,802,

cf. UK $35,130)

Growing links with other countries

(e.g. membership

of WTO)

Openness to the Gospel

Growth in the church (growing 10% per year; now 260,000)

How do we get Cambodians to wear moto helmets?

How do we assess individual programming course work in Cambodia?

I asked the Head of IT at NPIC if he could do it (for money); he thought about it for a while, but decided against

He suggested I teach the three brightest students in the third year to do it (they had studied Java, a similar language), but despite many regular meetings (and payment) they just couldn't translate their academic knowledge into practical programming

So, I worked on it myself for about a year, getting to the point of installing it for user acceptance testing (and some error message translation) on one of the TEEAC office computers

But, there was an 'organisational meltdown', and there was no-one in a position to accept and use the software by the time I left Cambodia in 2010; the chair of the reconstituted TEEAC board has just been in touch in the last three months about resurrecting the project!

Overview

History

Cambodian population now 14 million

Mark's Ministry

Signs of Hope

Hence 60% Cambodians are under 21

The Sinclairs

University teaching

Educational leadership

Management

Huge spiritual & developmental needs

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Shirley's Ministry

30 years of war, especially Khmer Rouge period (1975-9)

Lisa & Martin

Cambodia

In just 4 years, 2 million Cambodians died in a population of 6 million

Librarianship

Listening Ear

Blue Gate House

Mercy Medical Clinic

Khmer Rouge targeted intellectuals, including doctors, vets, teachers and academics, plus religious groups

Martin: studying A2 Maths & Sciences at Colchester Sixth Form College

Lisa: studying BA French Studies at ULIP in Paris

Served two terms in Cambodia, 2001-5 and 2006-10

(Isaiah 58:6-7, NIV)

Khmer Language

Unicode Keyboard Layout

The largest alphabet of

any non-pictogram language

33 consonants

(44 with diacritical marks)

65 vowels

subscript consonants

separate rounded alphabet

Q

Compared to a European language,

takes three times longer to learn

Iced Coffee Exercise

Level 3 Language Exam:

2-hour lecture

6-page technical essay

1-hour oral including dictation

TEEAC Database: Case Study

Daily Life

Most pastors in Cambodia are poorly educated and bivocational, and so must work hard to prepare sermons and teach their congregations

Lived in three houses over the eight years

In the general population, average educational attainment is about three years, and only rises to six years for those of school age.

What happened next?

Our last house was a p'deah l'vaing in a set of four; our neighbours were all Khmer, and it was in one of the main red light districts

The Theological Extension Association of Cambodia addresses this through self-learning modules translated into Khmer for pastors and other church leaders

Lisa & Martin attended international schools; in our second term, Hope; Lisa returned to UK aged 16

1

2

Students study with the workbooks, and then every two weeks, meet in a group with a trainer to review their study

Both Shirley & I occupied multiple roles, so each week was different as we split our time between our various responsibilities

In 2007, their course admin was in disarray, and they approached me to help them develop a solution

We were usually part of a Khmer-speaking church, but also the International Christian Fellowship

3

4

I recommended developing a Khmer language database using Unicode and Ruby on Rails

We often struggled with health problems: e.g. Lisa had both amoebic and bacterial dysentery at different points, and Shirley was evacuated twice with hemorrhagic dengue fever

We always had a house helper to do laundry, cleaning & some of the cooking; they were often a challenge: e.g. one of them stole from us, and another died while we were on holiday

We travelled around mainly by motorbike taxi (motodup) or tuk tuk, although we did try running a car one year, but that was more trouble than it was worth

Other Ministry

Dr Mark C. Sinclair

Moto Helmets: Case Study

I was chairman of the board of Hosea Ministries, an NGO working in drug education, rehab, sports ministry and community development for 18 months in 2006-8

Moto Video

I was part of our FES-affiliated student work throughout my time in Cambodia, including leading it for 9 months in 2004

I served on OMF's Development Work Council for six years, and was leader of our Education Team from 2006-10

Factors:

Temperature in high 30s, helmets too hot

Fatalistic attitude to life

Wearing of helmets is a new idea

High number of deaths from collisions

High cost of helmets ($12+) compared to income

Low police salaries (circa $25 pcm)

I was on the board of Hope international School for three years (including periods as both vice-chair and acting chair)

Solution?

Make it illegal for moto driver to not have helmet

Adverts encouraging 'safety helmets'

Police road blocks

Small fines for police income ($0.50)

Easier to buy helmet after a while

Became status (wealth) symbol

But, some drivers 'wear' helmet on handlebars!

RUPP

NPIC

Programming Practicals: Case Study

Kalibre

Seconded to RUPP as part-time Professor of Computer Science 2002-5

NPIC is a joint venture between the Ministry of Labour & Vocational Training and the government of South Korea

From 2007-9, I was Resource Manager of OMF's IPS Service Centre in Phnom Penh

First BSc in Computer Science completed in 1996-2000 with help from JICA

Seconded from 2006-8 as Professor of Information Technology and Chief Adviser to the Education Quality Office

The International Personnel System (IPS) was developed to handle all OMF's personnel, e-Learning and intranet server needs

In 2002, dept had 2000 undergraduate students, taught by 35 teachers, one with PhD in education, 10 with MSc, the remaining 25 only BSc

About twelve South Korean PhD qualified teachers, the remaining teachers Cambodian, plus me!

Factors:

Two co-presidents, one Cambodian, one South Korean

I was the only foreigner in the dept, and indeed, the only experienced PhD-qualified teacher of Computer Science in the country

The system was built on the commercial SAP platform, with initial customisation, project management and most analysis done in Singapore, but with all subsequent development and some analysis in Cambodia

NPIC was only in its second year of operation, with four-year BSc courses; aim was to develop third and fourth year courses by training up Cambodian teachers

Need to do assessment of actual programming

Programs submitted after one or two weeks

Many weak students copy from others

As well as cheating, not learning!

Strong students feel compelled to allow copying

Lots of effort to detect copying of programs

Usual practice is give zero mark to both

Average coursework mark for module very low

Developed an MSc for the teachers, where the ten with MSc taught their best subject, doing two-thirds of modules, and I taught remaining third

Solution?

I recruited and helped to train a team of six software developers, who with an expat development lead, were based in an office in Cambodia

Proved difficult, as all but the head of dept focused on existing teaching, with little incentive to learn

Clear statement that copying not allowed

Pass-fail on program submission

Minimal effort to detect copying

Give twenty minutes multi-choice test in class

Focuses on learning outcomes from exercise

Strong students do well

Even get marks from studying copied program

Aim is rewarding learning more than cultural change

In the week, everyone taught; at the weekend, the best taught the rest over two years part-time

The first two undertook six months training in Singapore, with the rest of the training on-site in Cambodia

One key outcome was head of dept won a scholarship to study for an MSc in South Korea

Admitted nearly 50 students, 15 lecturers from RUPP, some five from elsewhere, the rest recent graduates

Most were former students or colleagues of mine from RUPP and NPIC

Key observation was the importance of language and cultural adaptation eg eating lunch with the Cambodians

Best six did supervised research projects with me (replaced three of the twelve modules); one of these resulted in a paper published in an IEEE International Conference in Singapore

Since 2010, the Service Centre was spun off as a separate successful missional business with 25 staff, which I was able to visit in 2012

In the end, 18 passed the MSc in 2005, although there were problems in the teaching and assessment ...

By 2010, first teachers with overseas PhD returned to the department

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi