1. Narrowing The Digital Divide in Cambodia
Good morning my name is Sophie Nop, and I’m studying the digital divide in Cambodia.
Sophie Nop
Student Researcher

2. Country’s Challenges Nationwide genocide
Brain drain from civil war and migration to other countries
The average age of Cambodians is 25, young and hardworking people but limited opportunities
“Widespread of internet use was as recently as 2011” – Embassy staff
Before discussing the current technology culture and how technology access and computational thinking can be improved in Cambodia, it’s necessary to understand Cambodia’s history. Civil war from the 1970’s have lingering impacts and created a brain drain in the country. Millions of lives were lost and many survivors migrated to other countries. Losing the majority of intellectual capitol in such a short period caused a domino effect of other challenges, especially in STEM education. As some of you might know, educated professionals were targeted during the civil war or Khmer Rouge regime.

3. Technology has advantages in every discipline
Technology has advantages in every discipline. It connects our worlds, and makes things that seem impossible, possible. The digital divide occurs when some communities have access to technology, as well as the knowledge to develop their own technology, while others do not.
International telecommunication union research showed that Cambodia is the country with the least amount of internet access. Although this is an older study, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Lao still remain countries with very little access to internet and technology compared to other ASEAN countries.

4. Sustainable Mobile App Curriculum
In Cambodia, there are only 3 universities that teach computer science, and they are all based in Phnom Penh, the country’s capitol. Initially, I was working in Siem Reap to help decentralize technology access.
Because mobile phones are prevalent in Cambodia, I wanted to pilot a mobile app development curriculum that would train the instructors on how to build mobile apps and have the instructors teach it to students while studying the relationship between students and instructors. However, I was met with cultural barriers that shifted my research.
Sustainable Mobile App Curriculum

5. We know that STEM education is most effective when students get to engage with the material independently. However, current education practices emphasizes rote memorization. For example, a director at a well known organization in Cambodia shared that in preparation for his exams he would sit in a tree and remember the book word for word and get 100% on his tests because he can repeat back everything the teacher wanted him to. At the same time, he also stated that he couldn’t solve physics problems that weren’t in the book because problems in the world didn’t have predefined answers. This is problematic, in order for Cambodian’s to solve problems for Cambodia’s future, it’s important to be able to think critically.
In addition to rote memorization, classroom culture like saving face made it challenging for students to ask instructors questions about materials because often instructors memorized the solution themselves and don’t have a deep understanding of the concepts. Although STEM education and computational thinking seemed to be lacking in less populated areas, Cambodia’s capitol is rapidly growing their technology culture through experimental learning.
STEM Education System

6. In Phnom Penh- Development Innovations piloted Technovation last year
In Phnom Penh- Development Innovations piloted Technovation last year. It is a 12-week long program that trains young girls to develop mobile apps through MIT’s App Inventor.
And this team of 5 Cambodian girls ages between 11 and 12, from Liger Learning Academy were selected out of 1,000 teams to pitch their mobile app idea at the World Pitch Summit at Google. Although they didn’t take home the grand prize it was evident that the youth in Cambodia are eager and capable of contributing to technology on a global scale.

7. Another positive example was when I was a mentor at the YSEALI STEM educational workshop in Phnom Penh. My team consisted of participants from Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Thailand. And at first, saving face was preventing open discourse, and due the limited time frame of the STEM challenge. I helped create an environment where participants can be direct while also being respectful. By using the build break build method in the US where we sandwich a critique between two genuine compliments participants didn’t take the critiques personally and was able to focus on the design challenge. At the end of the conference one of my mentees said that she never had anyone who pushed her so much because they believed in her. She said she never experienced mentorship like this and she will take it back to her country.
This proved that although in a culture where education is very teacher centered, and saving face might hinder underlining messages, that a group of young diverse minds can come together and also be direct and respectful to achieve a common goal. It also