Dr Siriwan Chatmaneerungcharoen,
Phuket Rajabhat University, Mac and iPad, Thailand

As dean of the College of Education at Phuket Rajabhat University, Dr Siriwan Chatmaneerungcharoen is inspiring the next generation of education leaders in Phuket, Thailand. With over 70 members of staff and 4,000 undergraduates in her department, her vision is to build a strong community and foundation for local educators by providing them with the best tools and training for teaching and learning. And for Dr Chatmaneerungcharoen, that starts with Mac and iPad.

“My goal is to support students and existing teachers, and keep them working in Phuket. I believe these resources and community are critical to solving our teacher shortages, creating economic opportunities and preserving island culture,” she says.

Dr Chatmaneerungcharoen understands first-hand how important technology is for modern education and the challenges of using unreliable devices. So when the university offered her the choice to use Mac, she did — and was impressed by the stability, intuitive user interface and seamless compatibility with her iPhone and favourite apps like Keynote and Microsoft Office. Inspired by what’s possible when choosing the right device, today, Dr Chatmaneerungcharoen uses and recommends Apple technology across her staff and department programmes.

One of these initiatives is the Innovation Center, which she funded with the support of the Ministry of Education. Here, she and her team are teaching educators how to use technology for paedagogy, and highlighting its positive impacts for their local schools and communities. The space offers all educators across Phuket’s islands training and professional learning sessions on everything from leadership skills to creating dynamic lessons with Mac, iPad and Apple TV.

Dr Chatmaneerungcharoen also travels across the district to bring education sessions and inspiration to remote and rural areas of Phuket. She commutes to islands by longboat to meet with head teachers and, with Mac in hand, has the flexibility to bring her Innovation Center trainings to hard-to-reach leaders and educators. Often, she’s accompanied by student teachers completing their pre-service hours. They’re equipped with iPad, which Dr Chatmaneerungcharoen recommends as the best all-in-one device to create and deliver engaging lesson content, especially out in the field.

“I don’t need to tell my staff and student teachers that Apple technology is the best. Instead, I show them,” she says.

Still an active educator herself, introducing new instructional methodologies using technology is one of the most rewarding parts of Dr Chatmaneerungcharoen’s role. “In Phuket, we have a long tradition of supporting nature-based education — we head outdoors, or the environment comes into the classroom,” she says. In one lesson, her student teachers go out into the local mangroves to record photos and videos using Camera and Padlet on iPad, which they incorporate into their lesson plans to create localised, collaborative, project-based learning experiences for their students.

By choosing to support her vision and mission with cutting-edge technology, Dr Chatmaneerungcharoen and her staff are helping to solidify the future of Phuket’s schools.