THNIC announces award results of the 2024 ‘เว็บครู.ไทย’ Contest, creating an online teacher community to enhance learning in the Digital Age.
The Thai Network Information Center Foundation (THNIC) organized the award ceremony for the 2024 ‘เว็บครู.ไทย’ Contest, presenting awards to teachers who created prototype websites for online teaching. This year, 11 teachers were selected from the nationwide training center level contest, focusing on presenting quality content in a format that is safe and easily accessible.
On Saturday, November 2, 2024, Khunying Kasama Varavarn na Ayudhya, former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, presided over the award ceremony of the ‘2024 Webkru.Thai’ Contest at the Khunying Prayong Auditorium, Satri Sri Suriyothai School. Dr. Sornprapa Siripattarawit, Director of Satri Sri Suriyothai School, gave the welcome speech while Mr. Poonsak Sakkatatiyakul, Advisor to the ‘เว็บครู.ไทย’ project, gave a report.
Dr. Pensri Arunwatanamongkol, Executive Director of the Thai Network Information Center Foundation, introduced the ‘เว็บครู.ไทย’ project, saying that it aims to provide teachers with tools to keep various lessons easily accessible for students. She considers that websites are still necessary nowadays. Even though teachers have groups on various social media platforms, there may be issues of sustainability if such platforms change their policies or their accounts are blocked, causing students to be unable to access their lessons. Websites are also an option where teachers hold rights on their own content.
“Websites are thus essential, and using dot th (.th) and dot ไทย (.ไทย) websites creates security because they can verify the creators’ ownership,” said Dr. Pensri.
The Thai Network Information Center Foundation is an organization that manages the domain names of Thailand, both .th and .ไทย. They organized a workshop on website creation with the domain names .th and .Thai in 2024 for the second time to enhance knowledge and understanding of the country code domain names .th and .ไทย. The purpose was to develop web-creating skills for teachers and basic educational personnel to use code domain names .th and .ไทย practically and thus be able to transfer knowledge to students and encourage teachers to use information technology to manage learning for the benefit of students, communities and society in the Digital Age.
For the ‘2024 เว็บครู.ไทย’ Contest, 11 winners were selected from over 700 teachers who attended the workshop on “Creating a Website with .th and .ไทย Domain Names.” at 11 training centers nationwide. Ms. Sopha Kotsombat of www.ครูโสออนเลิร์น.ไทย, from the Nakhon Ratchasima Center, received first prize; Ms. Worawan Puttipat of www.ครูออย.ไทย, from the Ayutthaya Center, was named first runner-up; and Ms. Sasithorn Kiewkor of www.วิทย์ครูนก.ไทย, from the Bangkok Center, was named second runner-up.
First Prize
Ms. Sopha Kotsombat
Website “www.ครูโสออนเลิร์น.ไทย”
from Nakhon Ratchasima Center
First Runner-up Prize
Ms. Worawan Puttipat
Website “www.ครูออย.ไทย”
from Ayutthaya Center
Second Runner-up Prize
Ms. Sasithorn Kiewkor
Website “www.วิทย์ครูนก.ไทย”
from Bangkok Center
On this occasion, there was a seminar on the topic, “Entering the Digital Age Safely: Reducing Threats to School and Teacher Websites”, hosted by Mr. Poonsak Sakkatatiyakul, with participants knowledgeable and experienced in the field of education and online media production. Dr. Theerawat Rojanapaitoon, an expert on government digital standards, DGA, said that the government website standard version 3.0 is currently ready to provide advice to government agencies whereas cyber threats prevention should be initiated when registering to use websites with Thai codes only. Maintaining the website requires setting complex passwords, changing passwords frequently, reviewing website administrator accounts, updating antivirus applications regularly, installing plug-ins which must be secure from reliable sources, and backing up data regularly. Moreover, to cope with threats, the teachers were requested to always protect their passwords, monitor content to prevent irregularities, and hire a service provider to take care of it. DGA is pleased to provide advice to teachers.
Dr. Parichat Pasatcha, Head of the Office of the Basic Education Commission’s Educational Supervisory Unit, said that even though teachers focus on presenting content via websites, they must also take into account security, starting with both hardware and software devices that must be up-to-date and secure. The teachers must be careful not to click on copyrighted content or spam and warn their students to be careful. They must also be careful about disclosing personal information that may infringe rights. Dr. Parichat also said that the process of creating content requires the use of secure applications or software. In addition, the executives must be involved in setting policies for website usage together and training those involved to be aware of cyber threats. She also asked relevant agencies to provide secure and easy-to-use software so that teachers can focus on creating content.
Mr. Nanthasit Nitmetha, President of the Society for Online News Providers Association, said that he has 30 years of experience working in the media industry. He recommends that teachers should create their own websites, which is safer than relying solely on other online media. He went on saying that students now conduct research on the internet and do homework on computers. Therefore, putting content on a website is like a digital library where students can search for information. He also suggested that teachers provide local content on websites because it is something that people are interested in studying. It should also be knowledgeable content that never expires and should be linked to other websites in a network format, resulting in visitors being connected. As for various online media channels, they should be available as channels to distribute information and links to the websites.
Dr. Pensri Arunwatanamongkol, Executive Director of the Thai Network Information Center Foundation, concluded that she wanted to use the foundation’s strength, verifying the identity of the registrants of Thai-code domain names, to make the use of the Internet more secure. As the statistics show that educational agencies are most frequently attacked online, the foundation therefore aims to have teachers join the project to gain knowledge and, thus, invites them to use the Dot ไทย(.ไทย) web, using a local Thai language.
The project chose to use the free Google Sites platform, which is easy to use, safe, suitable for teachers, and saves time in managing and focusing on content creation. However, it is important to create a network of teachers with quality prototype websites by selecting them from the contest. This network of teachers will continuously help with content and solve problems in website creation.
The Thai Network Information Center Foundation continues the ‘เว็บครู.ไทย’ project with the goal of expanding the network of teachers to cover all learning subjects, providing opportunities for teachers nationwide to create their own websites as a digital learning resource that helps students and interested persons to access educational information easily and continuously. In addition, to support teachers in participating in this project, the foundation has issued a special policy to reduce the annual fee for using a domain name to only Baht 200 per year for teachers nationwide, which is now accepting applications.
For more information, please visit the website www.เว็บครู.ไทย. Furthermore, the foundation has organized a scholarship project for small schools to create a website, www.เว็บศึกษา.ไทย, to expand the opportunity to access digital learning resources.
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