As described in the project task documents, a major assignment of the current report is to provide a framework and scenarios for in-service training of teachers and administrators in Thailand, especially at the secondary education level. This report provides not only a framework, but it also lays out a comprehensive design for in-service training and direct instruction through satellite delivery, local support for ICT direct instruction, and regional support for the local level. This is a summary of the proposed Asian Education Network (AEN):

The purpose of the Asian Educator Network is to deliver direct instruction to students and on-site in-service training to teachers and administrators at rural schools in order to improve school management, classroom instruction, and student achievement. (The AEN arrangement also will make community training in health and economic development possible through the same network.) Instructional delivery will be provided via an existing satellite and equipment based in secondary schools. Initially 12,000 Thailand schools will participate in the pilot project. After the pilot phase, service will be expanded to six participating countries in Southeast Asia and 13 Pacific Rim countries. The project will continue through a self-support model.

The Asian Education Network (AEN) will establish a self-sustaining hybrid television and computer network. The purpose of the network is to provide direct-broadcast satellite programming and data streaming of in-service training for teachers in ICT, learner-centered pedagogy, whole school reform initiatives, and subject matter discipline-related software files and applications. As an extension of the education sector's focus on teacher and administrator in-service training, training in other areas such as health promotion, vocational training, tourism and other economic development, and health-sector related training also will be delivered to community-based sites. Important features of the project are that it will be cost-effective and self-sustaining.

Since similar needs for in-service training exist throughout the Greater Mekong Sub-region, the Asian Education Network will occur over five years in three distinct phases: a three-year prototyping of procedures and processes unique to Thailand, followed by regional dissemination to Southeast Asia and further dissemination to the Pacific Rim. Thailand is uniquely positioned, both geographically and through its satellite assets, to conduct the pilot project and to take and a lead role in the AEN regional project. A pilot project involving 12,000 primary and secondary schools and 2,000 community centers will be set up in Thailand during the project's first phase. The two subsequent phases will expand distribution to six countries in Southeast Asia and 13 nations in the Pacific Rim and South Pacific.

Project deliverables will include television programming and software development that support educational reform, economic development, and health care issues in the GMS and Pacific Rim. School training will include such topics as ICT use and best practices in teaching, school-based management, and school administration.

Smaller Projects Within the AEN

Four smaller projects make up the total AEN project. The following describes the smaller component projects making up the total AEN project. Depending upon the availability and level of funding, these components are separate parts of the project that could be funded separately.

The Asian Education Network project is designed to provide a delivery method for direct instruction for schools in Thailand and subsequently to six surrounding countries. It will use the content of many ongoing projects in Southeast Asia to provide customized content to serve different needs of individual schools in Thailand and in the dissemination phase nations. The project will provide in-service and continuing education training for teachers and school administrators, as well as instruction for community health care and vocational training specialists.

The following smaller project components make up the total AEN project, and will be designed to fit the needs of individual schools of unique regions within Thailand and the countries designated for programming dissemination during its second phase.

1. Data Storage and LAN Hardware. Located at a local school, the direct broadcast dish antenna and satellite receiver connect a local server to the computer data signals provided by the ThaiCom 3 satellite. In turn, an easiLAB server connected to the satellite receiver functions as a central multimedia and applications server for the school. The server automatically records video programs for on-demand playing throughout a school. But beyond video, the server provides state-of-the-art access to computer assisted instruction (CAI), software applications, eLibraries, supplementary and advanced placement instruction, and a range of lesson planning, budgeting, and multimedia authoring programs for teachers and administrators. To provide software and lessons efficiently for all teachers, administrators and students at a school, this multi-use computer server is connected to a Local Area Network (LAN).

Teachers have access to their own computers, which may also be used at home for preparing lesson plans, presentations, and grading or marking assignments.

2. Multiuse Computer Laboratory: Each school has a multi-use computer laboratory that has 20 computer stations for students; students access the server from a standardized 20-station computer laboratory. One feature of this computer lab is that it may be scaled easily according to a school's needs and number of students. Called easiLAB, the computer laboratory provides both students and educational staff with a multidisciplinary, multiuse computer facility characterized by its simplicity of setup, flexibility in teaching different subject areas, and ease of use.

3. Regional Centers: Hardware and software support is critical to encourage effective use of ICT approaches. Regional and mobile support is an important dimension of AEN services. Regional ICT Multimedia Support Centers provide extensive software libraries, workshops, certification testing, working demonstrations, and coordination for ICT development for the schools in a region.

4. Mobile ICT Support: Various sizes of mobile ICT support vans and buses called MITSupport Vehicles (MITS) will serve a circuit of schools and communities. All MITS vehicles deliver, install, and perform periodic and critical maintenance on schools' computer hardware in a region.

Larger MITS vehicles serve rural areas and also function as supplementary mobile computer labs in discipline areas such as science, languages, and ICT use. Using an extensive Software Lending Library, the MITS vehicle driver/technician delivers, installs, and uninstalls software (on the subsequent visit) for temporary use for schools that may not be able to afford or justify a software purchase.

MITS personnel will provide on-site workshops and training before or after school hours to teachers and administrators in software and ICT development topics.

In the evening hours, MITS vehicles provide residents of nearby communities with access to community and economic development, vocational, and healthcare software and training. MITS vehicles also act as an e-Book Lending Library to communities through use of handheld computers and viewers. These devices are recharged by solar panels on the vehicle's roofs, so service can be extended to even communities without electricity.