Learning via The Net

After school, Mike moves his mouse and adjusts his gunsite as a Counterstrike terrorist. Homework for this fifth grader will have to wait of course, as looking up Macedonia for his Social Studies class can’t be that hard. But an Encyclopedia Britannica-filled shelf taller than Mike tells him Macedonia isn’t worth the effort. And Mom will be home from work soon, too tired as usual to help him out. What’s a bored kid to do?

This scenario is common these days: working parents having little time to help their children with schoolwork, and children preferring computer games and Internet surfing to schoolwork.

The arresting visuals, sounds and interactive links that lead to other sites of interest are elements that keep children’s pointing fingers glued to the mouse and their eyes on the computer screen. These same elements behind computer-based fun can also be used to enhance learning.

A pioneering company is tapping the same elements to provide learning modules and ways for busy parents to help their kids, all with the click of a mouse.

"We feel it’s really just evolving. Part of the difficulty we are experiencing is educating the public that there is a potential in terms of learning through the Internet," said Carlos Berba, chairman of Lessons Inc.

Lessons Inc. is a homegrown provider of online education technologies.

The hype about the Internet seems limited to communications, online shopping and gaming.

"Slowly, at least with the news, we get them from the Internet. But in terms of education there are still few. There are some sites for education but they’re all US-based. So for Filipino students and parents, (the Internet) is still irrelevant," Berba said.

Berba began with the premise that the Internet is an effective medium of information.

"We focus on the medium and what we can do to help parents, especially those who are working," he said.

Lessons Inc. maintains lessons.ph, a site that offers assistance to working parents of elementary children.

"What we have online is really a reviewer, instead na yung parents ang gagawa, nandoon na. There’s also that excitement in reviewing and it doesn’t get (the kids) bored," he said.

But there are problems. Access to computers is one. Even with those with access, familiarity and comfort level with computers remain an issue.

Despite these problems, Berba remains optimistic that computer-based learning will gain ground.

"You cannot expect people to abandon their old ways and immediately go to the new overnight. It doesn’t matter whether it’s learning or shopping on the Net, it’s something that you would be comfortable with. It has to evolve, and it starts with feeling, ‘It’s useful for me,’ " he said.

Learning facilitated by multimedia technologies is nothing new as sites with interactive examples, lively animation, video and narrative texts are on the rise, providing students with a self-help resource to complement traditional classroom learning.

Distance education, especially on the tertiary level, has been made more convenient by the Internet which does away with the hassles of commuting to school. Efforts like Berba’s may just make the usual chalk-and-talk classroom learning more interactive.

(Berba will talk more about education technologies at "MindLink III: Industry-Academe Conference on Education Technology" today at the STTC Auditorium of the National Institute of Science and Mathematics Education Development, UP Diliman, Quezon City. Details on the conference are available at up.edu.ph/edutech.)