"Global Filipino Teachers" launched

CEBU, Philippines - Seeking to provide more of what they are required, Globe Telecom Inc. once more reached out to public schools in Central Visayas to further students’ knowledge in information and communication technologies by piloting and launching its ICT training program for teachers.

The program is dubbed the “Global Filipino Teachers,” a company initiative under the Globe Bridging Communities which is Globe Telecom’s corporate social responsibility program.

The Global Filipino Teachers project was formally launched yesterday with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between Globe and the Department of Education-7 headed by regional director Recaredo Borgonia.

Jeffrey Tarayao, head of the Globe Telecom Community Relations Department, said that the program involves giving ICT training to teachers from schools connected to the Internet through Globe’s Internet in Schools Program. ISP is a major education program wherein schools are given free Internet access for one year via Globe Broadband.

This pilot program will be initially launched in the provinces of Cebu, Bohol and Oriental Negros which region has the biggest concentration of IUSP-connected schools in the country.

Globe has chosen 100 teachers to participate a six-day live-in intensive ICT training that shall give them the necessary skills to apply ICT in classroom instructions in their respective subject areas in Math, Science, English and Heyograpiya, Kasaysayan at Sibika or HeKaSi.

In partnership with the Coalition for Better Education which will provide the content of the training for the teachers, Luchi Flores, CBE executive director, said participants will be taught with things incorporated in four modules.

The first one is the ICT applications for projects where teachers will be taught how to efficiently use and navigate through the Internet while enhancing their comprehension skills.

The second module is the authentic assessment which will teach them of better grading system that is performance based using all the available ICT tools.

The third module focuses with online collaboration which will encourage teachers on how to open their class to the whole world using the modern age communications.

The last module, which output will be the basis for teachers’ evaluation, is the project-based learning method approach where teachers will be required to create projects where they could apply all they have learned.

“Gone are the days for chalk talk. It’s time for teachers to equip themselves with the 24th century tools,” Flores said.

The training will focus more on content because teacher participants are required to have their basic ICT skills before they could have the privilege to join.

After the training, teachers will be given three types of certificates: the certificate of attendance, certificate of completion and the certificate of proficiency which will be useful to teachers if they will apply for ranking or if they pursue post-studies because the course will have its equivalent credits for ICT they can use.

The training for the first batch of 25 teachers out of the 100 target will start on October 19 at the Cebu Normal University Center for Teacher’s Excellence.

Globe has been connecting public schools to the Internet for seven years already where around 950 public high schools have benefited from the program. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)