Teaching through digital technology
There was an education forum — organized, hosted, and moderated by Kaya Foundation’s resident entrepreneur Paolo Vera and aptly represented by its founding managing general partner, Paolo Campos, in collaboration with the Department of Education (DepEd) — entitled “Digital Horizons: The Future of Philippine Education.”
I was intrigued by a graph showing the phenomenal growth of variable quantities in computer technology that has slammed into the field of education.
Staring at the screen, I asked, “Just where exactly or in what period could I connect or relate to?”
The chart confirmed that I belong to the post-war period of the 1940s through to the 1960s, marked by the Vietnam War, antiwar protests, political assassinations and the generation gap. This was the era of the portable, transistor radio. I remember the smallest transistor radio, the size of a matchbox, made in Japan, that cost the whopping sum of US$20 or P40 (currency exchange was at (US$1 = P2).
The graph continued to surge with the invention of personal computers (PCs), followed by the Internet, the smartphone and the Cloud. The latter boasts securing and storing photos, files, passwords, and other data and keep it up-to-date across all other devices — automatically in the Cloud — as opposed to the old “heavily laden” filing cabinets and tear-up notebooks.
Now, the latest catchphrase is Artificial Intelligence or AI, defined as the simulation of human intelligence processed by machines through the computer. It can carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically via computer programming complete with hardware, the operating system and its peripheral equipment. Think sci-fi because it includes robots resembling human beings, able to replicate human movements and functions automatically — like a “person” that behaves in a mechanical and unemotional manner.
Call this era, therefore, the “AI boom” although it is officially described as the Contemporary Era and the Information Age.
Technology continues to evolve. Oh! You can’t say anymore that you’re stuck with a problem because with the latest in neural technology, there is a solution to be found. There’s no more excuse to turn in a zero paper.
Paolo gathered a powerhouse of nation-changing technology reformists in education who could be tapped by DepEd to raise and educate high-quality students, both products of private schools and public, and become the unprecedented creator, builder, inventor and stylist of our nation towards the next generation — the Generation Beta or those who will be born from 2025 to 2039.
We must include in this equation teachers and educators who will help these students to create, interpret and access new information and drive students with better knowledge, competence and virtue:
Rangga Husnaprawira flew in from Indonesia. He shared the program they developed for local guru (teachers) in which AI was introduced to them.
It was the first time that the Indonesian government invested in teacher transformation utilizing several mindsets like the lighthouse teaching program, from prescriptive apps to embrace collaborative programs, one-stop teaching competencies using the best available learning material, government downloadable apps that got a smashing, almost perfect, rating review, and the continuous training of teachers believing that even as teachers, there’s still room for new knowledge and more learning.
What they’ve applied in Indonesia has now been adopted in South America so Rangga now lives in Lima Peru as the expert in residence of Innova Schools, one of Latin America’s biggest private school networks providing affordable, scalable and high-quality K12 education for the emerging middle class.
Rangga leads teacher strategy and innovation for the Innova schools across Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador.
Peter Maquera, CEO of Microsoft Philippines, delivered an effortless spiel in promoting AI, “Problems you couldn’t solve before or those that seemed insurmountable, you could apply AI to it.”
Peter is responsible for accelerating the Cloud and digital transportation of every business in the country, helping the community build resilience through digital skills and empowering digital first companies and startups with the tools to scale their innovation. He builds and transforms companies from early-stage development to market leadership across various industries including business process, outsourcing and telecommunications.
Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng is the general manager of Gokongwei Brothers Foundation that focused on media, innovation, venture building/investing and education through digital educational platform focusing on teacher training.
“Teachers have no time, no rest, both in school and at home,” she remarked. Lisa continues to promote e-commerce and digital media, and was into online streaming to help the future generation by providing the tools they need to thrive.
Arianne “Ari” Kader-Cu of U-Go helps ambitious and promising young women in low-income countries enrolled in public universities to pursue higher education by providing grants funded by individuals and corporations in Asia like in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal and Tanzania.
Ayala Foundation is the implementing arm of U Go in the Philippines. Ari believes in using technology to help future generations with emphasis on women empowerment, and self-directed learning for teachers. “Use creative vision boards or cutouts to help them visualize,” said Arianne.
Geraldine Sunshine Acuña is president and CEO of Khan Academy Philippines, primarily a website or an Internet domain of useful material for learning, organized by grade level, making it an easy way to advance and make progress.
Khan offers free online courses to help students learn from anywhere. As a teacher reference tool, it has a network of information that is safe, full based and able to communicate and teach all subjects in major local languages and dialects. They are in the process of opening pilot schools across the Philippines.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara welcomed this opportunity to meet educators in the digital platform. He realized the tremendous impact to bridge the gap in the educational system and the need to tap into the digital device for pilot programs to help teach and train better teachers, and faster, savvy learners.
“We need your vision. Can we help millions of DepEd employees and 20+million students?”
The audience has been rocked by the further revelation that some 18,000 schools today still have no access to the Internet.
Paolo opened the floor for a candid interchange between the resource persons and the audience, creating a candid exchange of what ifs, where are we/where tos with some rhetorics on the side. It fostered a healthy environment to engage, agree and/or persuade each other to do more.
“We achieved valuable insights into how EdTech can bridge gaps, enhance learning, and create more inclusive education systems. With actionable strategies shared by experts and leaders, we have set the stage for collaborative efforts moving forward,” as summed up by this panel of educators.
The next steps will involve translating these discussions into concrete initiatives — working with both public and private sectors to implement EdTech solutions, improve digital access, and equip educators and students with the tools necessary to thrive in an increasingly digital world.
We have the technology now to build computers and machines that can reason, learn and act in such a way that would normally require human intelligence or that involves data whose scale exceeds what humans can analyze.
Magic happens when everybody using it experiences a cultural transformation. AI must be kept safe, secure, private, of your choice and must be trustworthy.
Be mindful, however, not to become audacious, lazy and complacent. Human thinking is still superior to computer-generated intelligence.
