During March 23-24, 2022 – Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University organized a workshop, “Preparation for Metaverse instruction” for instructors and personnel of the Faculty. Assoc. Prof. Sumalee Chaicharoen, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Education conveyed an opening address. The workshop featured talks by Assoc. Prof. Issara Kanjak, Ph.D., Vice Dean for Strategy and Organization Development and Dr. Samart Singma. The workshop also trained the participants to use the “itals.tech” platform that constructs a metaverse learning environment for learners. This platform, integrated with the XR (AR,VR,MR) technology, has been invented by a researcher team of the Faculty to be used in instruction in the era of virtual reality.
Assoc. Prof. Sumalee Chaicharoen, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Education explained, “The present situation of the operations of the Faculty of Education, under the new normal age, reflects the challenges in education management. We are working in a hybrid workplace, relying on multiple operations that necessitate enhancement of digital competency of all lecturers and personnel so that we will be able to undergo the present-day changes and the expected changes to arrive in the future. We need to drive forward our institution under the challenging conditions. Today, the Faculty is honored to have Dr. Samart Singma, who is a notable and competent expert in digital platform development and the application of technology in Metaverse instructional approach. Hopefully, all of us will become a global citizen who can work smoothly from anywhere.”
Assoc. Prof. Issara Kanjak, Ph.D., Vice Dean for Strategy and Organization Development added about the details of the project, “In order to develop the innovation that can accommodate the future education to produce future learners, METAVERSE is one of the innovations that we want to learn about in order to use it for developing the qualities of learners. How to achieve it is the question that the working team of the Faculty of Education has discussed. We can see that the present-day world is applying digital technology especially Metaverse, which is being focused by everyone in the world now. The role of our faculty is to make Metaverse tangible, bringing about educational benefits. We continued our ideas from the learning processes and technologies we already have in stock. However, we understand that Metaverse is an innovation that enables learners who have already learned to construct something in the real world, which is not only virtual. Once in the Metaverse, learners are able to learn, act and react with the lessons and with others in real time. This means the former scope of e-learning is no longer an obstacle. With this reason, we have worked to make lessons with a simple platform from Metaverse, and we came up with a platform called ITALS, which is an abbreviation of a new program to develop educational manpower for the future. It is the integration of innovations. During the past 2 days we have conducted a workshop for personnel in the Faculty of Education, both the academic and supporting staff and personnel at the demonstration school at all levels. Carrying out changes or making a policy work is not only the function of administrators, instructors of the faculty are also the key people who should pioneer in transferring the innovation to the civil community. Our target is not only having innovations for educational development, but also creating the working environment to meet with the future world.”
