Marlin Lao Tambowon
Indonesia
CAREER Enrolled in September 2008; Completed master’s degree in March 2011
After I completed my undergraduate studies, I wanted to attend an international institution that focused on education. I chose KMD for my Master’s because I was interested in education that makes use of multimedia and information and communications technology (ICT).
In the “Global Education Project” under Professor Keiko Okawa, we worked in collaboration with School of Internet Asia (SOI Asia) to research remote education and e-learning over satellite-based Internet. I learned with whom to collaborate on a global scale to provide support to people in remote locations. I built on that to create a project to use story formats to teach Portuguese to elementary school children in East Timor. We opened a portal site to create a structure for cooperation with Portuguese speakers located around the world.
The best thing about KMD is the experience of Real Projects.
Rather than just books and computers, you get out into the real world for your research and you create concrete products and services. The fact that it is real makes it that much more exciting.
I am currently a junior project assistant in the “Engineering, Science Technology and Informatics Unit” (EST). I work in cooperation with universities in the Asia-Pacific region to create e-learning and remote education services at the higher education level. In the future, I want to continue to be involved with international organizations creating educational opportunities for developing countries. I hope to contribute to the reform of the educational system in Indonesia, my home country.
(This article was written in March 2012.)