Coverage
Education 101
August 08, 2008
People's Journal/Journal Online
WITH technology, the possibilities are endless.
Technology has enhanced the way we live and work.
Desktops, notebooks, mobile phones, USB flash disks and other techie gizmos are now considered necessities. Throw in, too, MP3 players and gaming consoles that are trendy with teeners and yuppies.
Gone are the days when the only teaching aids available to instructors (mostly in private schools) were flash cards, cassette recorders, and players, and whiteboards.
Both teaching and learning rely on information-communication technology through state-of-the-art tools such as audio and video instructional materials, PCs, projectors, plasma screens, DVD players, surround-sound speakers, and Internet access, all of which help make education fast-paced, interesting, even entertaining.
However, with the rather prohibitive cost of all these modern equipment and accessories, vocational and technical public schools are unable to keep pace with learning institutions that have better financial resources.
That is, until last year when the Department of Education instigated an ICT training and certification program called Certiport Internet and Computing Core Certification.
This was done in cooperation with Certiport, the world’s top performance-based certification program provider. At par with the UNESCO’s Competency Standards for Teachers and the National ICT Standards for Teachers, the Certiport IC³ produced a total of 300 graduates for its first batch.
To date, over 480,000 teachers have successfully undergone a similar process under Intel, Microsoft, USAID, and DepEd’s own Information Communication Technology for Education.
Due to the outstanding results of this program that he initiated, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus was recently awarded in Hawaii, the Certiport Champions of Digital Literacy Hall of Fame.
The DepEd chief represented the Asian continent and was the first Filipino to be given such recognition.
Lapus may not have been given any recognition or award by any local body, but the positive results of his move to bring digital-literacy training to our educational system will be a silent accolade to his constant efforts to upgrade the skills of our teachers.
Better mentors = better students. That’s Education 101.