Windows of Wonder Institute WOWi wrote -

WOWi is launching its first international project in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This will bring together state-side audiences with students of the Ponheary Ly Foundation's Tchey school for the benefit of these students and others.

Ponheary Ly, for whom the foundation is named, was one of CNN's 2010 Heroes.  Having survived the Khmer Rouge, she has since devoted her life to educating Cambodian youths, believing that, to quote Simon Bolivar, "Nations will march towards their greatness in the direction given by its education."  WOWi will assist Ponheary Ly in realizing her vision by providing students with hands-on training in digital media -- the lingua franca of the 21st century.

The Tchey school has a new computer lab and students eager to learn.  A WOWi team, skilled in digital media creation and management, will go to Siem Reap for two weeks in November to begin training these students.  Graduate students from the University of Texas School of Information will be involved.

During the team's two week stay, students will be exposed to different types of digital media creation.  One type involves making high definition digital recordings, some in 3-D, of selected architectural monuments in the Angkor Wat temple area.  This is both a form of cultural preservation and a means to celebrate that culture in large-scale, interactive displays elsewhere in the world.

Another type involves the spontaneous use of social media to capture a complementary form of cultural record, one focused upon daily life as seen and experienced through the eyes of Cambodian youth.  During WOWi's two week stay, this spontaneously produced content will be made available daily to a world-wide audience over the Internet.  It will also be made available in special format at selected view sites in Austin, TX.  These sites will include retirement communities.

                          Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. 

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

The two weeks in November will mark the start of a program that, while ongoing for a number of years, will eventually produce a self-sustaining, sophiticated digital media training school.  

The Project Calendar

February 2012: The WOWi team installs a basic digital media studio in the Tchey school and trains students in its use.  Student-produced contentis shared world-wide during the two week training period over the Internet, including retirement communities and other underserved audiences.

February - June 2012: WOWi team continues to train and mentor Tchey school students in regular sessions over the Internet.

March - April 2012: For about a month, the content collected in December or January is displayed in "ensemble" mixes that combine cultural monuments with spontaneous views contemporary life.  These mixes are displayed publicly on large, multi-screen, interactive displays. Smaller displays are made available to retirement communities and other underserved audiences.

June - July 2012: WOWi team returns to the Tchey school for an expanded program of digital media education.