Philippines

Infotech Training in Remote Places
The Infotech project is a component of the Programme "Creating Child Friendly Learning Conditions for Education for All" in the UNICEF/ Philippines Fifth Country Programme for Children. Infotech was piloted in 6 schools and 2 division offices in the two contiguous provinces of Antique and Guimaras in the West Visayas. The aim of the Infotech project is to provide teachers and students from far flung areas of the country with the knowledge, skills, facilities, and the materials to use information technology and with access to information from the Internet.

Training in Desktop Publishing had been useful for teachers and helped them to understand many of the terms associated with computer use. However, at the end of the pilot phase, teachers had not progressed from using the computer as a word processor, and were still using the computer more for school administration purposes, making reports and submissions, developing student tests, rather than for facilitating learning.

It was found that training for computer use by teachers should focus on facilitating children’s learning, not on teaching particular software in isolation. Also, Internet downloading and searching for websites was under-utilized, so more work on the use of Internet for learning should be included in future training. There were also some gender issues related to male-only technical support, which left some of the female teachers feeling that mastering computers was beyond their abilities. Another challenge for the future is for lessons not to degenerate into simple drill and practice lessons, but rather, that teachers learn how to make lessons more interactive.

Coca-Cola CLC and Training Programme
As part of Coca-Cola’s e-learning initiative rolling out in countries all over the Asia-Pacific region, the company has partnered with the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development (FIT-ED) to establish 15 state-of-the-art, Internet-connected computer centres in remote public schools across the Philippines. Entitled “ed.venture”, this community programme initiative has benefited over 15,000 Filipino schoolchildren in its first phase, while centres are also open for community use. Meanwhile, a comprehensive teacher-training component of the programme has trained over 630 public high school teachers and administrators.

Intel Teach to the Future Training Programme
Since its launch in 2001, the Intel Teach to the Future programme has successfully trained over 35,000 public and private school teachers in the Philippines to effectively use technology in the classroom to facilitate student learning. The Philippines programme provides a model for ICT integration, since it involves alignment of the programme to the national curriculum, management of a technology-based learning environment, capability building of teachers, and enhancement of students' learning skills. The programme is implemented by Intel Philippines with the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the University of the Philippines National Institute for Science and Math Education Development (UP NISMED).

Continuing Studies via Television (CONSTEL) Training
Distance training through Continuing Studies via Television (CONSTEL) is available for teachers who are unable to partake in face-to-face training in English and Science. The project has three components: development of instructional materials for teachers; production and distribution; and teacher training. The materials that have been produced and distributed to more than 2,000 schools nationwide include videotapes for English and Science teaching. Fifty-eight teachers of English and 91 teachers of Physics have been trained in the use of the materials. Videotapes in Mathematics will be produced and distributed by the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE).