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Future Forum's young research fellow, Khorn Vuthy, was published on Kiripost on 8th
August 2024. Check out the original article here, and read it below!
The Cambodian government has long signalled its commitment to increasing digital literacy through the country’s education system in high level strategy documents.
For instance, in the Pentagonal strategy Phase I, it plans to push for the development of Digital Economy and Digital Citizens by continuing to promote digital literacy among citizens, including the inclusion of basic digital skills in education curricula and provision of training programmes on digital skills in various sectors.
Previously, in 2018, the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS) formulated the Policy and Strategy on Information and Communication Technology in Education, which acknowledges the importance of technology integration in the education system that aims to equip students with digital knowledge and skills.
Some of the policies enacted by the government around this topic, however, may actually be unintentionally working at cross-purposes with its goals. One policy in particular stands out.
In October 2023, MoEYS officially announced Instruction No.50 banning smartphone use in classrooms and stating they be banned for general non-educational purposes. Other electronic devices were also banned due to the discovery that students used smartphones and other electronic devices to play games or use social media during lessons.
Subsequently, more schools have widely implemented the smartphone ban, and school smartphone regulations have so far been endorsed by the public, especially by students’ guardians.
It should be noted that the governmental guidance did leave some room for flexibility for phone usage in schools, saying that they might be allowed in the classroom as learning tools. However, there has been little official information on how phone use might be integrated into the educational curriculum in practice.
The reality is that banning smartphones from the classroom, without providing additional guidance to teachers on how phones might be used as educational tools, has the potential to undermine efforts to build up Cambodia’s digital human resources.
Simply put, smartphones are the primary, or even only, digital tools that many Cambodian students, particularly those who attend government schools, have access to.
Cambodian teachers should be encouraged, trained and given guidance on how to incorporate smartphones into their lessons in ways that transform their students into active digital learners.
Smartphone usage and potentiality
People use phones. Kiripost/Siv Channa
In 2020, on average 69 percent of students had access to a smartphone for online learning and 84 percent of them are secondary school students. Some 20 million Cambodians paid for phone services in 2020, moreover, 16 million paid for mobile broadband, accounting for 98 percent of the population.
It may seem self-evident, but just having access to these tools on a daily basis increases students’ digital literacy. On average, students with access to a smartphone or a PC scored between 36 and 56 points higher on ICT tests than students without any devices.
With the proper structure and curriculums in place, Cambodian students could benefit from smartphone-assisted instruction in the classroom.
For instance, in an article in the Phnom Penh Post, one Phnom Penh resident and father expressed his opinion that the government’s guidance does not make sense in this digital age. He pointed out the ways his son was able to use his phone as a tool for learning, saying, “My Grade 6 son can use a smartphone to access news from around the world, gaining knowledge beyond my expectations.”
A teacher from Hun Sen Prey Nop High School in Sihanoukville, who was also interviewed, also acknowledged the educational potential of smart phones, saying, “I don’t support students using mobile phones for playing games. However, if they use their phones for educational purposes, like conducting research or solving exercises to enhance their knowledge, it’s beneficial.”
Let’s consider what kinds of lessons teachers could create that take advantage of the digital tools students have available to them.
Smart use of smartphones
A person checks her phone in Phnom Penh, June 16, 2023. Kiripost/Siv Channa
Use of smartphones in the classroom might challenge teachers to get creative with how they approach incorporating technology into their lessons.
Consider a secondary school English lesson that challenges students to use their phones to interact with online English-language poetry resources from poetryfoundation.org, including its mobile app.
A teacher could, for instance, challenge his or her students to find and read a poem a day and choose 10 unfamiliar English-language words. The students could then use mobile resources such as Google Translate to look them up and then write sentences using those words. Or consider a lesson where an English teacher challenges their students to use their smartphones to research a historical event and gather primary and secondary sources. An assignment could then ask the students to pretend they are a journalist covering that historical event in real-time, and to write an article exploring various perspectives on the event.
For Khmer-language classes, there are also several Khmer-language educational apps that have been developed that teachers could make use of. For instance, consider Khmer Legend, an app that contains classic Khmer stories.
One assignment suggested by this M-learning guide for Cambodian librarians proposes that students in Khmer Literature classes use the app to find and read a classic story, and then write their own modern-day version of that tale.
Assignments like these don’t only challenge a student to use their research skills, reading skills, writing skills and their creativity, they also teach students about the kind of resources that are available to them, at their fingertips, on their phones.
Some Cambodian teachers are already incorporating smartphones into their classrooms in innovative ways.
For instance, teachers are harnessing mobile tools such as Aan Khmer, Let’s read and Smartbooks app to teach Khmer Literacy and proficiency in reading. Pisey is an example of a Grade 3 teacher with over two years of experience at a rural primary school in Angkor Thom district, Siem Reap province.
She supports her students in their learning through innovative and engaging techniques. She incorporates mobile applications for literacy learning using her phone in her classroom instruction and lesson plans. She uses the Aan Khmer M-learning game and says that since using it, her students are able to recognise vowel and consonant sounds more clearly.
Or, consider this interesting pilot training on map use and reading with high school teachers, which was taught in 2019. This training curriculum was conducted by Open Development Cambodia (ODC) and the Department of Information Technology. Beside map reading, teachers were taught how to use basic smartphone apps, such as Google Maps, Open Street Maps, Google Street View and Google Earth.
After the three-day training, teachers who undertook the workshop said they were committed to teaching their students what they had learned. They also said they did not think it would be a challenge to integrate these lessons into their classrooms because most students own a smartphone and are fast learners when it comes to technology.
Smartphone curriculum development
Students study in a classroom in Cambodia in 2020. Kiripost via UNICEF Cambodia/Antoine Raab
When considering how to integrate smartphone use in the classroom, MoEYS and developing partners should be aware of the potential for teachers to put up resistance to the change. Typically, not all teachers are willing to change their traditional classroom approaches by adding technology.
These teachers might also face personal challenges in adopting the technology. But, as the mapping training mentioned above demonstrates, with the right support, teachers can adopt these kinds of teaching strategies and feel confident to share them with their students.
Students across Cambodia are already using their smartphones for gaming and social media. Through strategic approaches in the classroom, perhaps young Cambodians may begin to see the machines in their pockets as tools for learning and self-enrichment.
Sem Kosal, a Mondulkiri teacher with a salary around $400, is in the classroom with a pile of student papers. He said, “Grading over 60 student papers is burdensome and necessitates devoting personal time, despite the absence of additional compensation”.
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