Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Design and Technology Education

Design and Technology Education: What is it? Why do we need it?

more info will be posted here soon.

M

Monday, November 2, 2009

KPI

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

An organization normally has their own KPI. It is a measure of performance of an organization. It's usually used to help an organization define and evaluate how successful it is, typically in terms of making progress towards its long-term organizational goals.

What is your organization's KPI?

I have already been IPST




We are IPST : 8th is the title of a special semiar for new IPST members. It was held in 30 Oct - 1 Nov at Phurimat Resort and Spa in Rayong Province. The event was organized by the human resource department (HR). There were many fun activities to do during the program. There were 21 persons who are new IPST members. We were divided into two groups and we had to play games together. I had a great time there, somehow I felt like I had a good short vacation ;). During the program, two senior directors of the institute gave a talk for new IPST members. Both talks have inspired me to love the work more than before. The work we are doing here at the IPST has so much impact on Thailand basic education, so I'm proud of what I'm doing for my country. This progam has made me feel like "I've already been IPST". Below are some pictures from the program.







Monday, October 5, 2009

Work vs Study

Three weeks has passed since I started working here at the IPST. Everything is going well. Mostly I just observed the work. Now my boss has assigned some work to me already. That means I will probably be busy from now on. There are two main projects that I have to do. One is about development of a book about Design and Technology Education for Senior High School students. The other is about a research project regarding evaluating a curriculum that had been used in the last few years. Both projects have to be done within one year which is by June 2010. Since I am a new member of this division, I will have to take some time to learn it and get used to it. However I think that it's not so hard to work for this division as I've seen something for three weeks already now. Overall so far it's good to be here...but somehow it's too early to say whether this is what I really like to do.



I remember that oneday, when I was a PhD student, I was thinking of working at the same time as doing PhD, in fact, I asked my teachers at the Uni about whether I could work while studying. The answer I got from my teachers was that "you can't work right now, you should finish your study first". I'm now realized that why my teachers told me like that. Even though I don't have much work to do these days but I feel tired everyday after work. So I thought that if I worked while studying, it would be very difficult for me to do both things at the same time - I may not get my PhD done! I have to thank for my teachers for thier advice ;).

I don't have much time now to talk about things having been happened with me during the last few weeks...so please be patient...I will come back to share my work experience later...perhaps this weekend...;)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Home-town visit



Immediately, after my PhD study has been done, I went back to visit my parents in up-country. Going back to my home-town this time has been different from before since I'm not a student anymore, but rather I'm a real adult person now. The main purpose of going back to my village this time was to to thanks for the support and encouragement from my family. I was in tears when I met mom and dad :(, however the tear was not about negative sides, but rather positive :). I was like celebrity in the town, heheheh.

Although the main purpose was to visit the family, I also gave a speech at my old school that I was a student at secondary level. My intension about giving a speech there was to encourage students in the rural area. This is a good way of doing something useful for my hometown. I also donated some books for the school and also gave some gifts for the students. The old school visit was triumphant. Most of the teachers in the school used to teach me and they could certainly remember me. Some photos from the school visit can be found below :)

Right now, I'm back to the new workplace where I will be working for from now on. The first day of working at the new institute was good. Somehow it's a bit boring since I did not do anything much apart from setting up my computer and dealing with the contract. The boss was not there today. He has gone to a seminar outside of the institute. Even though it's new for me to work at this institute, however I knew all the members at the division where I work for already. So, it's not too strange to me to be here. In fact, it's fun to be with new colleagues.

I hope that my new work place will be the right place for me...my intension is that I will do the best I can, hopefully what I will be doing would contribute my country!
Man


Thursday, August 27, 2009

The moment of happiness














The stressful moment has now gone :). I'm very released and pleased to finish my PhD study. My dissertation defense went just fine, in fact it was very impressive :). Right now it's in the process of dealing with document things with the faculty of graduate study. Hopefully everything will be done within a week, so that I will have a chance to go back to visit my parents in upcountry. It's been such a long time that I have not seen my parents, and they have also been waiting for me to get the PhD done and look after them.

The success of my dissertation has come from the greatful support from my major advidor, Assisst Prof Dr Kwan Arrayathanitkul. He has taught me in many ways. I really appreciate him. Also the staff at PENThai group have taught me in many ways. The experience I've got from being a PhD cadidate for five years here is invaluable. Surely, I will never ever forget it. It's the great experience I have ever had since my childhood.

Moreover, I could not finish this study without the support and help from my dear friends at the PENThai group. The friendship I have with them here can't be compared with any other thing. It can only be feeled by heart and mind. Thank you so much for your support.

In addition, I remember that the philosophy of Mahidol Uni is "The true success is not in its learning, but in its applications to humankind", meaning that this does not mean that I've successed already, but it's just a starting point in which I need to apply the thing I have learnt to the real life by myself, and that would be the true success if I can do it well.

Thank you so much, my teachers and friends
M@N

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

When the dream nearly comes true :)

It's been such a long time that I've been studying in the PhD program. There are a lot of things that I have learned since I enroled in this study program. Friends, teachers and others who I've been involved with have taught me in many ways. I have never thought that I would have a chance to study in a PhD program, and never thougth that an outback boy like me would have a chance to be involved in this community. Well, it's very unusual that a person from a small village far away from the city can come to the position which is so much different from his parents and his community where he grew up. Even more, when someone from a poor family comes to the big city to follow his big dream that would have been different from what he has thought....oh...sounds so strange! But...that's ture...

Well the topic of this post is the dream....so you may have probably wondered, what's the dream about? Hehehehe...in this current moment, you have read something about my posts already...they were mostly about the study :)...so surely, the dream is still involved in the study. When I was a kid, I didn't think that I would have a chance to be a doctor, I mean a person who has PhD degree. I remember oneday when I was an undergraduate student at a Uni in Isan, my relative said something to my mom....it's something that quite funny on that time...she said, "why would you say that...he is going to be a doctor!" My mind was thinking like..oh..dear this is funny... I thought it was funny since I was only an undergrade student, but my relative said that I would be a doctor oneday... well she didn't really mean that I think, but she didn't know that what the doctor was...LOL. Anyway...what she had said on that time seems to me that it was somthing that quite amazing...you know what? Because what my relative said is nearly true!

Sorry to post something that is not really useful this time...but i just wanted to express my feeling which is quite stressful at the moment...but it's alright and in fact it's kind of satisfaction, really.

All the best to eveyone and thanks for reading my post

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Writing a PhD dessertation

Almost a week has gone since I wrote the last post. As usual I've always been thinking about the study, but in the positive ways! My PhD dessertation has just been done yesterday. I'm very pleased that I've finished the writing. I've sent it out to some of the examiners already, except the external examiner, but the next step is the thesis defence. Some thoughts came up in my mind oneday and I thought I'd like to share with you guys here. Let's go ;)

The thought that came up in my mind was something about the language we use in writing a desserttation. My point of view is that people may think that a thesis could be easier done if we write in our own language, but I found it difficult in my own language. Strange! isn't it? You see my thesis has to be done in English, however I need to write in Thai for one page (the abstract). At first, when i started writing the thesis, I had a difficulty writing in my second language (English), but after writing for a while, I found it easier to write in English. Perhaps, a lot of technical terms I used, and also they are new in this field of research study. That's why I found it difficult to write in Thai since our community does not have the right word or even if they have, they do not have the word that is really suitable. And somehow I don't know whether it will be very worthwhile for people in this country as they hardly understand English :(. Well...it's just my concern, really!...however at least some people in similar field would get some ideas from the work I've accomplished.

Anyway i need to rush now...maybe i will come to review this post agin when i have time....let me know if anyone have some thoughts regarding this post.

Monday, July 27, 2009

The story of a PhD Candidate: Episode II

It had been a busy time for me over the last few days. That's why I did not have time to post the second episode of these writing series. I had some good time during the weekend, but somehow I still had something in my mind - always thinking about my study . Never mind, as long as everything is going well .

Following the last post, I had proposed to talk about my PhD studying experience as well as all things regarding a PhD program, I was going to share some thoughts about studying in a PhD program - what does it look like?, why do we need to do a PhD? and so on. So now I'm hoping to go to some points I wanted to share.

Ready? All right, let's talk a bit about studying in a PhD program. Personally, I think that studying in a PhD is not just going to the class and learn everything you want, but it's rather about learning everything you like by your own. You may wonder now, I suspect. I don't disagree that we still need to learn in classes sometimes, but I don't think we can learn all information we really want there. So my point of view is that most of the time we spend during the PhD program is to learn things you like by yourself. This sounds a bit strange, isn't it? I guess, this might lead one's mind to think that why would we need to go to a class or a Uni then as you still need to do things on your own anyway? Yep...this is a good question, but don’t forget that we go to the Uni to get some other things while study too. Of course, the main purpose of the study is to get the degree, however it's more than that - what else, mate? Well, while we study, we do lots of things with friends and teachers. We learn many things from what we do together, including fun or serious times. All the thing we have experienced while studying are the great things we will never have again in life and this is the way of preparing us before working in the real world!

That's all for today I like to talk...in fact lots of things are still in my mind, but I don't have much energy and good feeling for writing tonight...so let's wait for another post in near future...surely I will come back to go to more details...so don't forget to come back, otherwise you will miss out the thing you will never be able to find anywhere else! hehehe...

It's nearly midnight now...so I have got to go to bed...Good night
M

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The story of a Ph.D. Candidate: Episode I

What is a Ph.D.? Why do we need to do a Ph.D.? What would you expect when doing a Ph.D.? There are many other questions that one might have in his mind. But, personally, we won't be able to know what it really likes until we do it!

Well, why did I say this? I don't know either what I am writing here and why I need to write this post. Perhaps the reason that made me write this post might have come from my gut feeling right now! Oh...my goodness! what's that mean? In fact I don't know either what does the gut feeling really mean, but for my own opinion it's just something about the feeling that we are frustrated or something like overwhelmed with all things happening around us.

What do you up to mate? why would you say this? oh...gosh...now..I'm confused...what am I doing here...what is the point I'd like to post in this blog...oh...dear....please pull me back to the right way.

So let's take a break for a while before coming back to the point again.

Ok..now I'm alright...let's come back the point where we were talking again. Ph.D. is the point, isn't it? Yep, mate you are right...come on...go ahead. Now I know where to go.... Folks, just some thoughts that came up in my mind while I was sitting on the train on the way to go back home....the thing I was thinking was that I should share my experiences of myself about the life I have had while study in a Ph.D. program. It may be not much fun, but thought, at least, it may be useful for someone. Anyhow...I've been talking to many things now, but you might have thought that you haven't seen any information that was really useful for you, wasn't it?...hehehehe...maybe you are right...but please do not complain me just yet as I am trying to get the feeling that would make me write the story in which I like to share with you guys. Also my thought at first was that I was going to separate this story for two Episodes at least. This is the first episode, so don't expect too much to find something really interesting here for now. Oh...dear....it's nearly 1am now...I haven't gone to any points of the story yet...so I'm thinking it is not the right time to finish this post for tonight....I'm tired and sleepy now.....so I should come back to finish this story off later...perhaps tomorrow...

Please do not complain me about what I've written in this post. Come back to read the next post of this series later, I'm sure you will find it interesting and useful too..I hope.. LOL....

Thanks for taking your time to read till the end of the post. I would appreciate it if you could leave me a comment .

Best wishes to all of you.
M

Saturday, July 18, 2009

An impressive quotation! :)

One day, during the day, while I was reading a Physics textbook - kind of a new generation physics textbook - meaning that it’s been published recently and also it’s based on physics education research too - wow! What a pretty book ;), I found a really cool quotation in this book. So I just wanted to share it to you all here.

Let’s have a look. “A good problem-solving technique does not begin with equations. It starts with a firm grasp of the concepts and how they fit together to provide a coherent description of the physical world”. What do you think about it now?

This is the nice quote, I would say anyway. So why do I consider this as a cool quote? Well…perhaps it might arise from mind own experience as well as my research interests at the moment too. Some of you might have known me already. My Ph.D. thesis is related to conceptual understanding - definitely this has made me so impressed…thought you guys can imagine what I mean, can’t you?

Alright…I won’t go over the details of the quote, but if you are interested in this kind of things, you could have a look in any websites related to physics education research. You should be able to find out the information you are looking for, I hope. ;) Another option is that you can read new generations textbooks since they are mostly based on the findings from the physics education community these days.

Contact me directly if you need some guidance regarding this sort of information…don’t be shy, folks ;)

Also send your thoughts right away to me if you like…I don’t mind seeing your positive or even negative comments, though! I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks for taking your time to read my post.M@N