Experiences in Technology Integration

Experiences in Technology Integration
Basic Education in the Philippines faces a lot of challenges. The changes in the
curriculum, limited IT resources and spiraling changes and improvement becomes
overwhelming for administrators and teachers. Today’s education also presents new
pedagogies. The resurgence of the constructivist model has brought about
cooperative and collaborative learning, multiple intelligence, discovery learning, and
project-based learning, to name a few. Some educators have taken a more creative
approach by allowing technology to play a role in the teaching and learning process.
The paper will present several experiences and possible approaches in integrating
technology and the lessons learnt. The first presentation is on laboratory automation
at Don Bosco College Canlubang. The college, through the help of David Vernier
and his company, made use of sensors, attached to a computer, to simulate science
laboratory measuring devices. The high school department upon using the devices
has observed that time was gained for analyzing experiment results, which were
recorded in the computer, and students found the discrete sensors more engaging to
work with. The next is an experiment done with some students of Tondo High School
at Manila. The experiment modeled collaborative learning through correspondence
and group work. Participated by several schools around the world, with the initial
objective of learning English as a second language, the group engaged itself in the
research for cultural approaches to dealing with SARS. Third, is the effort of
Genetics Computer Institute to assist schools in doing IT-integration. The work
focuses on building lesson plans for core learning subjects that makes use of
technology in the process. The model presents using the computer laboratory as a
venue to extend the study of Math, Science, English or History.
School administrator, teachers, parents and students need to get their act together in
order to build a learning society that collaborates with each other given the limited
resources at its disposal. The paper will conclude with possible directions and
researches that can jumpstart the basic education industry to a sustainable ICT
integrated model.