Wednesday, May 20, 2009

This is a sample output of student participants. This conceptual mapping outlines the paring down of their topics from general to specific.

Campblog participants think of topic for their blogs

How can something seemed complicated turn out simple? CICT people has the answer.

Students from beneficiary Public High Schools (PHS) who attended the Campblog were instructed to think of a topic and pare them down to the most specific and workable for them.

Toni Torres, iSchools Project Manager, Avelino Mejia Jr. and Jose Feliciano Josef, eSkwela Project Officers, helped out in the distillation of the blog topics. Ranging from Global Warming, Genetics, Mythology to Collloids, the panel of three were able to identify topics that best suit the students and their respective schools and community.

The student created a web mapping of their chosen broad topic and create series of links and connections leading to more detailed topics where students will work around as output for the rest of the camp days.

Not to veer away from the academic and educational orientation of their intended blog contents, the panel reminded the students that it is essential that their blogs have to fit the criteria set by the CICT. That is, it has to be informative, inviting and attractive and based on facts. Torres reminded the students that blogs are powerful platform that empowers people to engage in the exchange of ideas over the world wide web.

Under the heading of Environmental Protection, the recent Oil Spills in Guimaras province got the attention of the panelists as well as the rest audience present. One of the project writer present commented that apart from the informative nature of blogs, these can be a powerful tools to lobby for change. Poised as an advocacy, blogs that has social relevance has so far captured a wider audience compared to others which dwell on a personal level rather than reaching out to far reaching and wider concerns .

For the next six days starting May 21, 2009, the students will be busy loading up contents to their blogs. As a culminating activity, all outputs will be exhibited at Saver’s Mall in Angeles for public viewing on the 28th of May.

CICT briefs students on the blogging requirement for the Camp

“Sharing something one cannot read in books.” This is what Jose Feliciano Josef, Project Officer of the eSkwela, said during a briefing for students before they were to create their own blogs.

Along with Avelino Mejia, also from the eSkwela, both emphasized that the campblog is intended to capture learning content in English, (Technology abd Livelihood Education (TLE), Science and Math which have been missed-out in normal classroom environment. Mejia continued that it is important to contextualize their blogs in a way that lessons learned and their experiences posted thereat will be something that other students can find interesting and easy to relate to.

Josef cited that one can dwell on, say, Global Warming. But it has to be localized in way that it will highlight how these students actuality experience this phenomenon in their immediate environ. They warned however that their topics should be credible, simple and those that needs to be further examined or discussed in class or outside. They also encouraged students to be creative in putting up their blogs. Like any other blogs, students can be inventive in the design of their blogs so that it does not come out attractive only in substance but also in form. That said, pictures, graphics and a good combination of colors may do the trick.

Christian Placido Calma, from the iSchools project, in an interview said that as opposed to teacher participants who are expected to come up with learning modules for their individual blogs, students will be allowed to become a little loose and informal in their blogs. The purpose he said is to let the students bring out their opinions or perceptions about their learning experiences without losing hold of what this Campblog is all about. That is merging all ideas together in the mainstream, the net, and let the public get a share of it-know about it and learn from it.

This affair is attended by teachers and students from beneficiary Public High Schools across the country and sponsored by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), The lead agency for the implementation of the iSchools project.

Carmencita P. Lopez asking Dr. Jose Lloyd D. Espiritu about ICT integration to those with visual and hearing impairment.

Campblog participant brings up ICT integration for the hearing-and visually impaired

Just when we think we got it all covered, a teacher participant brought up how special education can be integrated in the Information and Communications Technology curriculum of Public High Schools in the Philippines.

Carmencita P. Lorenzo of Batac National High School in Ilocos posed this question during one of the morning sessions in Pampanga Agricultural College today. Dr. Jose Lloyd D. Espiritu from Dela Salle University, resource person for the said session, replied that right now, a prototype hardware for the visually impaired called Brail Globe is available already in the United States.

Espiritu explained that the Braille globe is similar to a mouse which has a text to signal capacity with sound registry. Developed by a Korean Group of Microsoft, this technology unfortunately has not yet been made available in the Philippines. But as to those with other impairments, he said that in Dela Salle, ICT curriculum for those with Dyslexia, Autism and with hearing difficulties are already being used.

In an interview, Espiritu opined that the question is worth thinking about especially if there is really a commitment to bridge the digital gap in the archipelago.

As of yet, the iSchools and eSwela projects does not include ICT instruction training to be used for people with learning difficulty in its agenda. Maria Melissa D. Tan, Project Manager for the eSkwela, explained that although recently this has been a topic of conversation among people in the CICT, no funding is available to include this in both projects in the very near future.

Participants boarding their bus that will bring them to Pampanga Agricultural College where the 2nd day of the camp was held.

And the Campblog morning rushes in

All agog and excited, participants from the Campblog here in Mimosa Leisure Estate Clarkfield Pampanga braced for the second of this 10-day affair.

After a 30 minute ride from here to Pampanga Agricultural College (PAC), participants broke out in to two groups. The groups of teachers in a separate session room listened to three invited Resource Speakers. Prof. Katherine K. Estevez from the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) discussed the Use of Learning Objects in Integrating ICT in Education. Dr. Jose Lloyd D. Espiritu from the Dela Salle University once again presented a topic this time on Designing Instruction Online and finally Ms.Jill De Dumo, from UP Diliman, came in and discussed Learning Object Demonstration.

On a separate session area, students got their hands on for online research.

After the day all wrapped up, the participants were all ferried back in Mimosa where they were all billeted for the entire training days.

In a related note, the camp organizers chose to conduct all hands-on digital inputing by teachers and students in PAC instead, in compliant with the one to one computer participant ratio set by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology which Mimosa has far long ago expressed could not provide.

This activity has been hosted by PAC and another round of this activity is already in their drawing board to be conducted soon.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Secretary Chua reaffirms CICT commitment in bridging digital divide

This he expressed in his keynote address delivered by Commissioner Angelo Timoteo Diaz de Rivera in his behalf before the participants of the iSchools Campblog.

In keeping with President Arroyo’s national ICT agenda, Chua boasts of the 360 Public High Schools nationwide who have been provided computer laboratories. Equipped with workstations, multimedia projector and relevant trainings for their laboratory managers, these laboratories are in full circle save for a few PHS whose internet connectivity are still being worked out.

He congratulated the Human Capital Development Group (HCDG) for a job well done in bringing together in one venue the participants from different PHS across the country in one event which is the Campblog. He said that through this activity, the youth and the students in the process are given the change to participate in the educational process and contribute to the betterment of the society. In a nutshell, he puts in that this is what the iSchools project is all about, crossing boundaries, democratized participation in the learning system and breaking the digital divide in computer technology.

In an interview with Diaz, he said that since the onset of the project, President Arroyo made it clear that this is her priority project and that since then, she was in constant communication with the CICT to know how far has the project been hitting its mark.

The project has covered already implementation years 2006 and 2007. CICT has yet to complete 2008, 2009 and 2010 implementation.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Perez: We will empower you to think out of the box

Rather figurative, Commissioner Consuelo S. Perez of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) hurled these words before the participants of the 1st ever Campblog here in Clarkfield, Pampanga.

Atty. Perez emphasized during this welcome address the importance of breaking away from the traditional confines of the classroom. One, she said, that ICT can provide.

She adds, “We will expose you to and teach you how to swim in the vast pool of free educational tools and resources over the internet.” She continued that CICT will be there to assist all the beneficiary public high schools to discover, explore and experiment how the iSchools project can very well change teaching and learning experience that is more responsive and effective.

The welcome address was also witnessed by CICT commissioner Tim Diaz de Rivera, Pampanga Agricultural College President Dr. Honorio M. Soriano Jr. along with his Vice Presidents and Ms. Toni Torres, Project Manager of the iSchools project.

1st iSchools Camblog officially begins

So what do Einstein, Darwin, Berners Lee and Shakespeare got to do with the Ischools Campblog? Absolutely nothing.

But the organizers decided to use them anyway, if only to kick-off this ten day activity that will run from the 18th to the 28th of May 2009 at the Mimosa Leisure Estate here in Clarkfield, Pampanga.

Participants coming from the beneficiary Public High Schools (PHS), that stormed the venue, were to identify which from the four luminaries they could relate the closest or have the slightest similarity.

Turned out, the activity was to form four groups. As their first activity, participants were then assigned to think of anything that represent themselves. Using paints of varied colors, the participants drew on their complimentary bags. Their outputs were then displayed at the plenary hall for public viewing and, was lauded by no less than the commissioners of CICT herself, Atty. Consuelo S. Perez.

This affair is designed to tie-all the loose ends after the long stretch of trainings that the PHS went through. As an output, all participant teachers and students are to apply all lessons learned and come up, at the end of the training days, digital content that they will use as part of their curricular instruction.

This first ever campblog is hosted by Pampanga Agricultural College and is projected to become an annual activity by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, the lead agency for the iSchools project.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Participant underscores Fee Based Scheme for iSchools project sustainability

A participant from the recently concluded Sustainability Planning Workshop held in Oxford Hotel in Clarkfield Pampanga expressed reservation on the Fee Based option for the sustainability of the ischools project.

During an open forum, Dr. Leonardo Canlas was quoted as saying, “We are in public service and we are not allowed to enter into any business.”

Engr. Teody Sayco, Project Manager from Central Luzon State University and an invited Resource person explained that the Fee Based option was not meant to gain profit. He added that instead, the scheme intends to sustain the project and provide for the maintenance of the computer laboratories through the minimal fees collected for the internet and computer use by the public.

Sayco elaborated that part of the sustainability plan of the project is the Obsolescence and Replacement Plan which assures that the beneficiary Public High Schools (PHS) have a plan on how to replace worn out parts of their computers. This is on top of their need to provide for their internet monthly fees and other overheads.

However, he emphasized that in order for the PHS to use the fee based option and other Financial Sustainability options discussed during the workshop, a second level memorandum of Agreement (MOA) has to be entered into by all stakeholders including the members of the community. The additional MOA was meant to assure that the PHS, the partner State University and Colleges (SUC), the Commission on Information Communications Technology (CICT) and the General Public are agreeable about the terms and conditions stipulated therein.

Rogel Quilala, PM from the Tarlac State University told Canlas and other participants present that apart from the Fee based option, other financial plans are also available. Quilala pointed out that the reason why the seminar workshop was being held was to give the participant PHS an idea how to maintain their computer laboratories and pick one that suits them well.

The workshop was held on April 14-16, 2009 sponsored by Tarlac State University, Tarlac College of Technology, Central Luzon State University, Pampanga Agricultural College, Bataan Plytecnic State University and Bataan State College. The affair was hosted by Pampanga Agricultural College.