Vision for Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University in 2017 Bradley Opatz EDU Future of Education Dr. Kaiser

Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University (MCRU) MCRU is a higher education institution that offers degrees at the bachelor, master and doctorate levels in the fields of Education, Management Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Technology, and Muy Thai and Thai traditional medicine (Home MCRU, 2012). MCRU serves all Thai citizens that have completed mathayom-suksa 6. Located in a rural village, many students come from households that have an income from agricultural production.

Vision: “To be a quality university capable of producing graduates and carrying out research for society by the year 2013” (Plan MCRU, 2012). Mission: “1. Producing high quality graduates and conducting research, providing academic knowledge, maintaining Thai culture and arts in accordance with the needs of society and carrying out royal projects 2. Developing the university’s management system to improve competitiveness 3. Improving mechanisms to foster stakeholder participation and good governance in order to drive task achievement to meet goals” (Plan MCRU, 2012). MCRU aims to raise its standards in order to comply with the requirements laid out by the Ministry of Eduation and become a proper higher education institution.

Trends in Educational Technology The utilization of multiple technologies by young people: Laptops, mobile phones, mp3 devices, and gaming consoles are listed as technologies that are concurrently used by students. Weaving these technologies together in a fashion that is most convenient to the student also falls under this trend (Becta, 2008). Assimilating Educational Technology successfully is a notable concern: Project Tomorrow (2009) asserts that after the issue of funding e-learning programs is determined, the ability of qualified teachers in utilizing the technology is the main issue. Similarly, Becta (2008) finds that the recreation of out-dated pedagogies with new tools could be a major problem in the implementation of e-learning technologies.

Economic and Public Policy Trends Betts, Hartman & Oxholm (2009) finds that increasing numbers of students are expectant of technology in the context of higher education, including a “wireless campus environment, multimedia classrooms, web enhanced courses, optional online courses, electronic resources, access to the library’s digital collection and administrative records, and 24/7 tech support” (p.11). The collaboration between the government, corporations, higher educational institutions and civic leaders in terms of cost and quality of instruction in higher education is crucial to raising the employment expectations of graduates (Betts, Hartman & Oxholm, 2009).

Demographic Trend A pertinent demographic trend includes the rising number of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in Thailand. There are 2-3 million refugees living in Thailand, although only 500,000 are registered (Im-em, 2010). As of 2011, only 5% of refugee children were registered for school (Arphattananon, 2012). Yates (2008) calls for policy makers and those in positions of power to examine educational policy in order to benefit tomorrow’s citizens. Burmese refugees/CLDs in Thailand will continue to alter the demographic make-up, increasing the number of minority students. Attention needs to be given to successfully educate CLD students at MCRU.

Constructing Scenarios Scenario planning: Mietzner and Reger (2005) regard scenario planning as “improving decision making against a background of possible future environments” (p.224). Imagination, especially within an educational context, is integral to scenario planning because it necessitates the questioning of basic assumptions (2005). The main challenge in producing a scenario is the fact that scenario building is extremely time-consuming that requires expert knowledge on the subject (2005).

Scanning Scanning: Sobrero (2004) believes that scanning the current environment in order to produce scenarios of the future needs to include analyses of “social, economic, political, environmental, and technological changes”. Data should be in the form of research as well as observation and should come from a variety of databases on the county, state, national and international levels (2004).

Vision for Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University in /7 supported campus area network (CAN) Blended learning environments will combine both in-class and out-of-class learning; online classes will also be available. Collaboration between students and teachers will have a platform through class websites, or wikis. Access to e-learning programs, e-books and supplemental materials will also be available through class wikis. The use of visualizers, projectors and electronic whiteboards in classrooms Students will have access to tablets with English-Thai dictionary and grammar apps that also connect them to class wikis, making a portable classroom possible. Educational technology training for teachers and those in administrative positions will take place at regular intervals to ensure updated knowledge; teachers will also be exposed to teacher training seminars that focus on current pedagogies. Social collaboration with the leadership of MCRU and the Ministry of Education will ensure that the latter’s goals in English language acquisition would be met in preparing for, and entering, ASEAN and the AEC in 2015 and beyond. MCRU will also recruit CLD students from areas where participation with royal projects is already underway on the Thai-Burmese border, embracing cultural diversity.

5 Challenges 1) Overcoming resistance from administrators who are unwilling to make changes. 2) Overcoming resistance from teachers who do not want to change their teaching methods or learn and implement the necessary educational technology. 3) Obtaining a suitable budget from the Thai government in order to invest in educational technology and required, ongoing training. 4) Students that do not have ready access to technological tools such as smart phones or computing devices. 5) Overcoming resistance from administration and teachers that do not want to enroll Burmese students.

5 Opportunities 1) Increasing administration knowledge of educational technology, leading to ongoing improvements. 2) Increasing teacher knowledge of technology that will be passed on to the student. 3) Diverting government funds from unnecessary administrative hierarchies to directly benefit students. 4) Increasing student familiarity of technology regardless of economic level. 5) Embracing multiculturalism through CLD student success which will, in turn, help the Thai economy to stay competitive.

5 Ways MCRU Should Prepare for Change 1) Hiring staff in harmony with the author’s vision. 2) Begin examining potential English e-learning programs. 3) Network with other Rajabhat Universities that already implement educational technology. 4) Re-focus the vision of the institution to reflect a forward-moving university. 5) Apply for funding from non-governmental institutions.

Call to Action The creation of a teacher task force that includes each Faculty, which will determine what technologies are specifically needed in order to develop a proposed budget through use of a wiki. The creation of a student task force open to all students from every Faculty should be created to determine student projected needs by using a wiki. Contribution from all levels of MCRU is vital to a shared vision where participants feel they are integral to the implementation.