Using Videos to Educate Marginally Literate Girls Along the Mekong River

This project used a traditionally entertaining, low-cost technology to support classroom learning. Instructional design was based primarily on VCD technology, which is used to initiate and reinforce learning through music, dialogue, sequences of images, and subtitles. Due to the variety of spoken languages in the region, the multiple sound tracks available were used strategically to offer more than one language choice for both users and peer facilitators. (Multiple sound tracks could be dedicated to training the teacher or facilitator or to provide them with guidance at difficult points in the process.) Communicative power was strengthened by maximising the functional load of the visual and oral media and limiting the role of print to simple and key phrases.

Specifically, the 2 model VCDs each included 6 short modules and made use of the medium's reputation as a mode of entertainment - modules opened with well-known music from local artists. Each 8-minute module contained a mini-drama or interview, a narrated news byte, and a sequence of images that finished with an open-ended trigger question to stimulate reflection and discussion. Content was organised to help migrant girls reflect on the trade-offs between options and hopefully, in turn, make more informed choices. The full set of modules on a given VCD was displayed via a menu of images on an opening screen, giving peer group facilitators or girls privately viewing the VCD the option of following their interests and selecting topics as often and in whatever sequence they desired.

To deliver "edu-tainment" style content, learners used a balanced combination of visual and print symbols to access information in areas of particular interest including 1) the various kinds of immigration status and the differences between them, 2) how to get out from under oppressive employers, 3) what kind of alternative health services are available under the various kinds of legal and illegal immigrant status, and 4) what kinds of genuine employment options are available to immigrant girls who are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers.

EDC partnered with 2 national NGOs to produce these VCDs. The Pattanarak Foundation has worked with girls at risk on the Thai side of the Mekong, while PADETC has worked with girls at risk on the Lao side of the border. Both partners are part of a network of groups and agencies involved in supporting at-risk girls who cross the Mekong. Organisers anticipated that these connections could put the partnering NGOs in a good position to work together to produce the VCDs and reach the girls already involved in their programmes.

Girls, Education/Literacy.

According to organisers, "Young girls around the Mekong region are drawn to cross into Thailand by media images of safe, healthy, and well-dressed youth with money in their pockets, enjoying a comfortable life. But what the young Laotian girls don't see before they cross the Mekong River are the large number of illegal migrants unable to survive on the little money they take home from work. The young girls are often exploited by unscrupulous employers, denied health services, and given little opportunity to further their education."