Innovative ideas can help develop a country. So in order to encourage people to think outside the box, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) named "100 Faces Of Thailand's Innovation Inspirers 2". These 100 people are recognised for inspirational ideas, works and achievements in six categories -- artists, designers, social movers, technology entrepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs and knowledge providers. The long list includes public figures and specialists from different fields.
Since a growth mindset helps people improve, Life spoke to two people from "100 Faces Of Thailand's Innovation Inspirers 2" who believe in lifelong learning. While Danthai Sukkumnoed is a board game designer, Virot Chiraphadhanakul is the co-founder of Skooldio, which aims to develop 21st century skills for people. They both felt honoured to be included in "100 Faces Of Thailand's Innovation Inspirers 2". While Danthai did not expect to be recognised, Virot hopes this project will inspire other people.
"I hope '100 Faces Of Thailand's Innovation Inspirers 2' will inspire people who have ideas and want to start doing something in Thailand to act. The education industry is not attractive because it does not pay much, but Skooldio is an example of achievement," said Virot.
Danthai Sukkumnoed Board Game Designer
At the age of 10, Danthai was a member of his school's board game club where he had the opportunity to design one for the first time. His father, Decharut Sukkumnoed, an independent economist, Danthai and other board game enthusiasts established the group Deschooling Game, which aims to create learning and bring board games to schools, private organisations and state agencies.
Five hundred sets of Yellow Cards, one of the games designed by Deschooling Game, were manufactured and have been used in classrooms at many universities. Yellow Cards was inspired by an event in 2015 when Thailand was issued a "yellow card" warning by the European Commission due to overfishing.
Danthai, 17, has currently designed more than 30 board games and is a trainer for people who want to design their own.
What attracted you to board games?
Board games emphasise the interaction between players. It is fun to interact with friends, teachers and other people. Moreover, board games that I play require planning and strategy rather than counting on luck or rolling the dice.
Why do you say board games are educational games?
Board games are fun and informative. They simulate experiences. For example, players learn about the work of a fisherman through Yellow Cards. Board games can simulate several kinds of real-life experiences and people can learn from them at a low cost. Instead of going out and fishing in the real world to learn about the overfishing problem, people can simply learn from the board game.
Has a fisherman ever played Yellow Cards?
Yes. We let many people try to play the game. In it, there are large boats with nets and small boats with fishing equipment but only large boats can catch fish. After real fishermen and other people involved in the industry played the game, they said it did a good job of simulating reality.
What kind of content does Deschooling Game usually create?
Most of our board games involve social issues. Mekong -- Mist On The River is about how dams on the Mekong River affects locals and the options they have in solving the problems. Meanwhile, Getting Rid Of Poor People was launched in 2018 and is a game where politicians play the roles of poor people trying to escape poverty.
What qualifications do board game designers need to have?
Designers should have experience playing games so that they can come up with new ideas and adapt their experience and integrate them into new games.
Do you have any kind of board game in mind that you would like to create?
I am thinking about a philosophy board game. Players will use conversations to run the game and rules must not be strict. I also want to create a maths board game with possible alternatives. There should not be only one right way.
Virot Chiraphadhanakul Tech Entrepreneur
Virot earned his PhD in operations research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a data scientist at Facebook from 2013 to 2016. However, Virot decided to return to Thailand after a lecture about his experience as a data scientist attracted 300 to 400 audience members. He realised that many Thais are interested in the field, but there is no specialist to provide knowledge. He became the co-founder and managing director of Skooldio which provides online classrooms that emphasise technology and digital skills to both large organisations and individuals.
What is it about your teaching technique that draws people's interest?
Since people question the purpose of studying this or that subject, I must provide motivation. People who study data science or data analytics must understand how important data is. On Facebook's newsfeed, you see what you see because Facebook collects your data and knows what you are interested in. I have to understand participants and bring up cases that the participants can relate to.
Can you tell us more about the application Learn Anywhere?
Learn Anywhere was launched in 2019 and allows students in 76 provinces to learn on their device anywhere and anytime. During Covid-19, tutoring schools were shut, but students could learn from this platform. So Learn Anywhere has grown very fast. The app won first prize for Social and Environmental Contribution at the National Innovation Awards last year.
Are current participants at Skooldio different from in the past?
We have more participants today. Skooldio has arranged training programmes for many large corporations due to digital disruption. Since many businesses need tech-savvy employees, many individuals want to take our courses, so that they can become more knowledgeable in the field of technology and increase their chances of employment.
Which course is the most popular?
Any course that involves digital literacy because organisations are trying to build knowledge about digital literacy for their employees. If employees have basic knowledge in several aspects, they will understand their organisations' transformation goals.
Is it necessary for a user to keep up with the latest technology?
Technology changes quickly, but knowledge does not often change. People just need to be updated. When a business has more data, it requires data analytics to analyse data and information. Analysis does not need the latest technology, but we need to train a person to think, question and analyse problems. For example, architects can analyse data to see the trends and prices of interior design. They can use data to purchase the right furniture.
Why is problem-solving important and what skill do Thai employees lack for future job opportunities?
If you have a job in which you do not have to think and analyse, your job can be replaced by a computer. That's why problem solving is important. Many Thais lack active learning skills. Thais do not realise how important new skills are. In developed countries, people have a growth mindset, so they keep learning and keep themselves updated, but Thai people are laid back.
Should we be aware of data privacy since our data is collected by many companies?
I think we do not need to be careful of large corporations such as Facebook or Google because they do not use our data to attack us. However, we should be careful about security more than privacy. For example, we sometimes receive messages with links that try to convince us to fill out some forms. Also, be careful with applications that require us to upload our photos because we do not know what they will do with them.
What is the best thing about being a co-founder of Skooldio?
I feel terrific to be a part of Skooldio and driving the country's economy with technology. Many businesses need to upgrade themselves and we often see business ideas designed and analysed in our class which later become a product, so what we did had an impact on the business and economy of the country.
The "100 Faces Of Thailand's Innovation Inspirers 2" exhibit can be viewed online at nia100faces.com until Dec 31. The e-book is available to download from the same website.
