Friday after lunch and following the t-shirt giveaway, it was time to play the Khmer version of the Social Media Game. (Watch the video that Preetam Rai took to see the game in action and the video by Thomas Wanhoff to see a report out of the game.). The game has been remixed into different languages and used in different training contexts, but this is the first time it has been to Southeast Asia.
I created this version of the game before I attended the Summit and had intended to tweak it prior to the conference, but didn't have time. The task, to pick the tools for a particular situation, was just not right in this context. There was not enough of a knowledge base of the Web2.0 tools and ideas. If I wasn't so dehydrated and still feeling stomach problems from the previous night's dinner, I might have tweaked it on the spot with some of these ideas:
- Assign group leaders to each small group who knew more about the tools.
- If there was all-day instruction on the Web 2.0 tools, this would have worked as a culminating activity.
- Activity geared to just becoming familiar with the tools and concepts. Perhaps have them flip through the cards and come up with a list of questions.
- Used fewer cards and focused on the content of the half-hour web2.0 workshop
There is a certain humility you experience as a trainer when something doesn't work perfectly .... but that is the interesting part, the process of continuous improvement and that is where most of my real learning has taken place. And, while not the most enjoyable process in the world, it is definitely the most valuable.
In reflection, after watching both Preetam's video and Thomas Wanoff's video of the game in process, I guess I should be so hard on myself.
I wasn't sure whether I was feeling awful from being dehydrated or from the experience of something not translating well, but this young woman approached me afterwards and asked if she could keep the cards and to use in her class. She was a teacher. That made my day! I noticed that none of the other card decks were returned, so maybe the others will be put to good use ...
During the Web2.0 workshop, I spoke about tagging. I tried very hard to use Cambodian photos and images in the curriculum, but was not able to find something that represented tagging. I used the pen image that I've used before and I knew that it would not translate. After the workshop, John Weeks created a Khmer image for tagging using Angkun.
The Angkun was used for the another activity that we might use "sticky" dots for in the US. Baskets labeled with future projects for the Cambodian bloggers to do as a community were set out. People were given two angkuns and asked to vote for the project and to sign up if they wanted to help with the project. Maybe my next visit to Cambodia I will have time to get to local market and pick some up for souvenirs. Here's what Lux wrote about the Angkun:
angkunh: as we approached the closing of the summit, one beautiful student asked “why do you give all of us the angkunh“. a great answer from john: “because u r the seeds of new generation of bloggers. angkunh is a kind of seed.” i asked myself then “john, u think i’m old?” i don’t mind about it anyway.
Photos from Thomas Wanhaff
The afternoon also included a small group role play exercise. We were divided into small groups, were handed a bunch of props, and a concept. My group was assigned to "Social Media." First we discussed the definition of the term. It became clear that social media in Cambodia means "any media that can solve social issues." The young woman in the pink shirt suggested that we create a role play around how media might help resolve the issue of domestic violence.
From there, we created a play about how a woman who was beaten by her husband (played by Thomas Wanhoff) learned about blog by an NGO from her friend and went to an Internet cafe in the village where she was able to get help and make her situation better. I got to play the role of the woman (and thankfully no photos of me in performance, but if view Thomas Wanhoff's entire video you'll see our group right before we go on stage). We were able to do a great job at the performance because Denith helped coordinate the play. He also narrated. Despite being dehydrated and recovering from dining on ants the previous night, I learned a lot from participating in this exercise.
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