With the financial and technical supports by DW Akademie, the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) has been implementing the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) project since 2019. The main objective of the MIL project is to strengthen media knowledge and skills for the Cambodian youths, especially university students to use social media safely and responsibly. CCIM has worked in collaboration with the University of Puthisastra (UP) and the Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC) to establish the media clubs, officially known as Media 101 Clubs, where at least 65 students (60% of whom are female) from the two universities have received a series of trainings on MIL since early 2019.
While the trainings at the Media 101 Clubs have taken place smoothly since the beginning of the project, the outbreak of the Covid-19 in Cambodia in early February 2020 turned the clubs upside down. By mid-March 2020, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) ordered the closures of all schools nationwide. All learning activities were put off until further notifications by the Ministry. For those wishing to continue, all training and learning activities must be converted into online-based. The Media 101 Clubs reached the crossroad. Fortunately, thanks to solid commitment of stakeholders of the clubs and technologies, the clubs managed to prevail during the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Technically speaking, switching from offline to online training is challenging. Needless to mention, switching the entire face-to-face training program into the online-based program within a short period of time is even more difficult, given the fact that online training methodologies are pretty new to everyone, while online training technologies are relatively complicated. Running a function of “breakout rooms” for students to have a separate discussion during the online training on Zoom, for instance, is something many students and trainers did not know before. “The function of “breakout room” on Zoom,” according to Ms. Kruy Kimna, a sophomore majoring in International Relations at PUC, “is a new and interesting technology that I have never known before”. Besides difficulties in utilizing the technical functions of Zoom, visualizing the training materials and explaining the instructions in the absence of face-to-face interaction are far from easy.
In addition to technologies, it was extremely important to revise the entire training methodologies, curriculum and materials to make sure that the trainings still follow the “participatory approaches” in which students are strongly motivated to join the debates or discussion to express their opinions and practice producing several forms of media products, such as photography, video and tips to use social media safely and responsibly. As venerable monk Han Noy, a junior majoring in International Relations at PUC, pointed out “Although we do not meet face-to-face, I do not feel much different between offline and online training because we really enjoy learning and having fun during the training”. Besides active engagements with the discussions, students also enjoy playing games as part of the learning activities and exercises. Kimna in particular likes playing quiz games on Slido, an easy Q & A and polling platform suitable for online training and meeting.
Even though the clubs managed to transform themselves into online clubs by taking advantages of technologies, the training could not have been possible without the solid commitment of some key stakeholders, including training experts from DW Akademie, CCIM’s MIL trainers and students from the two universities. The Media 101 Clubs trained university students on various media topics, which are important not only for their academic purposes, but also for their personal and future career paths. Venerable monk Phengly Sopha, a sophomore majoring in International Relations at PUC portrayed, “Personally, I like the concepts of MIL and how to apply the MIL technical skills to analyze news and information”. “The media skills we learn at the club,” according to Ms. Try Vuochleng, a junior majoring in International Relations at PUC “are critically important for me, my family and my community as the digital risks will affect not only me, but all people around me.”
Currently, CCIM is regularly running two online trainings, the PUC Media 101 Club and the UP Media 101 Club on every Saturday from 2 pm to 3:30 pm through Zoom. With students’ solid commitment to learning and the great advantages of technologies, it has been clear that the Covid-19 pandemic could interrupt, but cannot stop the Media 101 Clubs from achieving its objective to strengthen media skills and knowledge for the Cambodian youths to use social media safely and responsibly.
