Information Society Watch

2006, Penporn Pagram and Jeremy Pagram, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC)

This paper discusses at the topic of e-learning from a Thai perspective, examining the links between culture and education in Thailand and looks at the way Thai students are taught to learn. The paper reports on one author's research into this area and includes suggestions for designers of Thai e-learning. The authors contend that that copying e-learning styles from overseas countries may not be suited to Thai students and more importantly, inappropriate e-learning styles may affect Thai culture through influencing the values of the new generation.The authors argue that many countries, both developed and developing, are rushing to embrace this new educational technology. Perceived benefits in both cost of delivery and educational outcomes are often the driving force. This has led to a new phase in the globalisation of education, with education being sold on the world market like any other product. With this global trend come issues that go beyond those of content, delivery and even language. E-learning materials are very expensive to produce so their success largely depends upon economies of scale, often this leads to a one-size-fits-all pedagogy. They show that even locally produced e-learning materials can suffer in this way as often the content is local but the instructional model is international. The result is that often local content is plugged into overseas e-learning templates, without the model of instruction being modified to suit the learning style or the culture into which it is being delivered (Adapted from authors).

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