Development of Multimedia Educational Material (SEAMEO-APCEIU Collaboration)

• APCEIU provided guidance for all the activities of the project, including editing and packaging the material;
• SEAMEO Secretariat coordinated meetings and reports related to the project, and disseminated the multi-media materials to the Ministries of Education in Southeast Asia and other educational institutions;
• Dr Wajuppa Tossa, who was also involved in the first phase of this project, and a long-time SPAFA partner, was involved in re-writing the folktales, and facilitating the recording; and
• 12 performance artists from Southeast Asia and Korea narrated the stories in the national languages and English.

This collaboration between SEAMEO and the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) was the new phase on the development of teaching-learning materials on Southeast Asian and Korean folktales.  In this phase, SEAMEO SPAFA coordinated the recordings of story-telling sessions, through story-tellers from the region, that were compiled in multimedia material (DVD and on-line) for use in Southeast Asian and Korean classrooms.  Through this project, school children will have a better awareness and appreciation of their own countries’ folktales and the oral literature of the region, which is line with SEAMEO and APCEIU’s shared goal of education for inter-cultural understanding.

In 2010, APCEIU collaborated with three SEAMEO Units, namely SEAMEO Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts (SEAMEO SPAFA), SEAMEO Regional Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH), and SEAMEO Secretariat, in implementing a project called ‘SEAMEO-APCEIU Collaboration on the Development of Learning Materials on Asian Folktales’.  The project publications, ‘Telling Tales in Southeast Asia and Korea – Teachers’ Guide’ and ‘Telling Tales in Southeast Asia and Korea – Situation Analysis’ were developed as outputs.

APCEIU co-operated with SEAMEO in 2011 to implement a project called ‘SEAMEO-APCEIU Collaboration on the Development of Multimedia Educational Material’.  The project presented folktales of Southeast Asian and Korean in a more user-friendly format by developing audio-visual content that will draw the interests of children in primary education as well as supplement teachers in their delivery of the tales in classrooms.  The multimedia material are available both on- and off-line in consideration of the diverse technology infrastructure of the Southeast Asian region.  The project was funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) of the Republic of Korea.

• Develop and disseminate the collected folktales in a learner-friendly multimedia format;
• Increase the level of cultural literacy of children in primary education in Southeast Asian countries and Korea; and
• Strengthen cultural exchanges and cooperation between Southeast Asian countries and Korea through common educational materials.

Teachers and school-children in primary schools in Southeast Asia and Korea.

• Re-writing the tales “Telling Tales from Southeast Asia and Korea: Teachers’ Guide”;
• SEAMEO-APCEIU Meeting for Multi-media Educational Material Development to record story-telling sessions of the folktales in English and local languages;
• Development of user’s manual;
• Editorial meeting;
• Post-production and packaging of the material; and
• Dissemination of the materials (on-line and DVD).

Multi-media format: DVD pack and on-line, with a user’s guide.

• Enhanced appreciation and awareness in school-children of the folktales of neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia and Korea.
• Educators will confidently use story-telling techniques in the classroom, as supplemented by the multi-media material.
• More cooperation among professionals as they share knowledge and techniques in developing the multi-media materials on folktales.

The primary users of the multimedia material (DVD and for download on-line) are teachers who, by integrating story-telling in school subjects, will show the materials in class, and discuss the lessons therein.  More than a learning material, teachers would learn how to tell stories and use them in class; therefore, story-telling skills are transferred to them and hopefully they will continue to use these skills.

Also, as proved by the other multi-media materials produced with APCEIU and SEAMEO Centres, there was great interest among the Ministries of Education to make copies of the materials for wider distribution among teachers.  Therefore, such interest should also be carried over in this project, especially because as electronic or multi-materials they are cheaper to reproduce.