Tech-up

Check out our article in the Patana Newsletter, on page 5! Also, thank you to everyone who attended our meeting this week, we look forward to another successful year!

Patana News Volume 19 issue 4 A weekly round up of news from Bangkok Patana School.

In case you weren't able to see it in the assembly today, be sure to check out our accomplishments over summer in this video, filmed and edited by Matt Nunbhakdi! ? more like

Google Chromebooks at Klongbanrankad School - Tech Up Google Chromebooks sponsored by GoPomelo: http://www.gopomelo.com/ Music Used: White by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com/

Last visit to the Klong Banragard School for the summer!

A visit to the Klong Banragard School last Thursday!

A reflection of our activity over the past academic year. This project is a culmination of lots of hard work, dedication and effort, and it will be sad to see our recent graduating class leave. In particular, Sanidhya, Paras and Sebastian, thank you for your service towards this cause. You guys were instrumental in our success this year, and we wish you the best at uni. We look forward to an even more fruitful year next year!

TechUp Reflection Video 15-16 A reflection of TechUp's progress in the 15-16 Academic Year. Hope you enjoy :)

On September 8th 2015, TechUp held its first meeting of the new academic year; it's purpose to help empower disadvantaged students with technology to aid and support their learning. A few of the senior members went on our first trip to the school we supported. We still remember having to wade through murky water during the then-flooded Bang Bo District to be able to get to the Klong Banragard School, in order to evaluate the technological needs of the teachers and students alike.

Over the months that followed, TechUp obtained a sponsorship from GoPomelo, a Google Agent in Thailand, that granted ten, new, educationally developed Chromebooks. The value of this donation is estimated to be around 90,000THB. We received these during the Songkran break in April, and have since visited the school, giving them two of the Chromebooks for familiarisation, as well as obtaining the necessarily information in order to set up a Google Apps for Education platform, one of our main priorities as of now.

TechUp has also maintained a strong presence within school, hosting Patana's inaugural e-sports event, a Minecraft Skywars Competition, which helped to raise awareness and donations for our cause. We participated in all events afforded to us within our CAS Project constraints, namely CAS Project Day, but also continued to take initiative where we could, setting up a Tech Donation Box at the front of school, which has received an incredible response. We plan to re-purpose, evaluate, and/or safely dispose of these electronics with cooperation from Thai Ecotrade, a certified Green Recycling Platform. This is evidence that we have extended our cause towards recognising the ecological and environmental impacts technology can have on the environment, and we look forward to pursuing this with great effort and scrutiny.

On May 25th, 2016, TechUp put forward its CAT Proposal Presentation, with the hope of being afforded the opportunity to raise awareness and donations for its cause on a wider, more recognised platform within Patana. The opportunities given to CAT Clubs in Patana far surpass those afforded to CAS Projects, and our passion for our cause is what drove us to put forward a CAT Proposal.

Today, we received the disappointing news that we would not be a CAT Club for the following academic year. This is in itself a tough pill to swallow, but with proper constructive feedback, we could digest it. However, we feel the reasons that were given to us as to why we were not given this status were unconvincing and paradoxical in nature.

In the feedback meeting, we were told that CAT Club status imposes a certain restriction on the trips we plan to have to the school. Whilst we are aware of the risk assessment procedures that have to take place before an official CAT Club trip can run, Patana have worked with the Klong Banragard School in the past (in fact, it was recommended to us to support by Patana), which, if anything, should make organising trips easier. However, the fact is that seniors are still allowed to go on trips to supported organisations (called CAS Trips - which extend to both CAT Clubs and CAS Projects), without the need for supervision or risk assessment. Ironically, this was also made clear to us by Patana...

We were told that "we can do more if we remain a CAS Project". Having been a CAS Project for not one, but two years, if this status is the most Patana has to offer in terms of autonomy for its CAT/CAS teams, then we feel entitled to be disappointed with Patana's service initiative. Yet somehow, 1 bake sale, 2 campaign days, 1 major fundraising event and 1 stall at Fun Day seem to be able to 'do more' than 1 CAS Project Day -- not to mention CAS Projects can only fundraise on that one day. We want an exact reasoning as to why Patana feels this way.

Lastly, we were told to 'run more trips with younger years'. I'm not going to waste my time explaining why that makes no sense.

TechUp would like to make it clear that it expresses full support and respect to all CAT Clubs and the causes they support for the upcoming academic year. We would also like to extend our wholehearted thanks to every single person that has helped support our endeavour over the course of this academic year.

However, we would like to express our disappointment at our CAT System, for not imposing clear guidelines as to what constitutes a prospective applicant, as well as for giving superficial reasons as to why we were denied a position. We feel we have acted to the best of our abilities to support our cause within the restrictions of a CAS Project, and to see all the hard work dismissed in such manner is not a good feeling. We plan to escalate and clarify this matter with Patana over the upcoming weeks. Let us hope we can finally

Ten Chromebooks have been collected from our generous sponsors at GoPomelo!! We owe a huge thank you to our sponsors, as well as everyone that has contributed to TechUp! We believe this is a fitting testament to all the hard work and dedication that has been put into this project, and we look forward to implementing these at the Klongbanrakard School!

Expect to be hearing from us again shortly!

Some photos from the Minecraft Skywars Event held last month

Minecraft is fun! Find all details concerning the event on this brilliant poster courtesy of Tony!

Awesome turnout at the meeting this Wednesday, finishing touches for the MINECRAFT SKYWARS fundraiser!