EDUCATION experts have introduced a new concept of learning aimed to address the decline in the quality of basic education in the country, the e-learning integrating information and communications technology in education.
The Bato Balani Foundation said the government should utilize available technological breakthroughs by public-private partnerships to address the decline in the quality of basic education in the country.
“We would like to update our policymakers with the milestones achieved by the private sector in the arena of information and communications technology [ICT] in education,” Ching Jorge of the Bato Balani Foundation said in a technology forum it spearheaded at Makati City recently.
During the forum, Ninia Calaca, director of the Education Technology Center at the University of Santo Tomas, showed a survey where 92 percent of the total number of respondents each owns a computer device; 85 out of the 92 percent have access to the Internet.
Students spend an average 4.6 hours daily using the Internet for social and educational purposes. With these findings, Calaca said interactive learning should be integrated in studies to further educate them with the advantages and proper use of information literacy.
“Nowadays, we cannot expect our students to just learn the 3Rs. Technology should therefore be in education,” Calaca said, referring to the foundations of a basic skills-orientated education program: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.
Similar results were also echoed in a perception survey this year conducted by the University of the Philippines and the Diwa Learning System, an educational publishing company that produces materials using digital resources.
Improved knowledge in the cognitive skills of students using an interactive online material tipped 6.11 rate in a 1-to-7 scale grade; 6.12 for positive attitude on learning; and a 6.05 rate on computer-literacy skills among listed categories.
One product highlighted in the forum was Genyo, the first curriculum-based interactive multi-media course covering five major subjects in the basic education curriculum: English, math, science, Filipino, and Araling Panlipunan or Hekasi.
In 2008 the program was launched in 42 schools nationwide—26 in the public and another 16 for the private— and has trained about 5,020 licensed teachers who will serve as learning integration specialists facilitating its use in classes.
“Back then, convincing schools to include ICT in their curriculum was an uphill battle for us because of the lack of infrastructure, Internet access and a general fear among teachers and school administrators to use technology in classrooms,” Jose Maria Policarpio of Diwa said.
“Now the government need not look far to realize that technologies in this sphere are already available. They can partner with the private sector to help implement these technologies more effectively with a wider scope,” he said.
Besides Genyo, Diwa also provides ICT resources through www.diwalearningtown.com where teachers, students and parents can acquire reading materials, activities and references free of charge.
(Claudeth Mocon)
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