Training for school heads in Cebu

Cebu province has set up a Provincial ICT Council, and established a task force on bridging the digital divide through basic education. The immediate priority is to improve the availability of ICT and the capability of teachers to integrate them into the teaching-learning process. I have been working with the provincial Schools Division Superintendent for Cebu, Recaredo Borgonio, and other staff of the division. We are trying to put together a planning framework for the next seven months, for the following year, and for the next five years. I hope that we can bring in 10,000 OLPC devices in 2008, and perhaps 50,000 in 2009.

One of the first steps is to update the inventory of data on computers in the schools. We have collected some general data, that show that about 80 percent of high schools have some computers, about 20 on the average. We are hoping the the governor will bew funding a major procurement soon, I have heard maybe 1000 units or maybe 7000 units.

Rather than have central office staff visit each school to get more detailed profiles, SDS Borgonia has decided to call a one-day workshop of about 300 school heads, where they can submit the data and get briefed on some of the emerging strategies. They can give inputs to ensure that the plans are responsive to their local conditions. We will meet on the 18th, at Ecotech in Lahug.

I am putting together a couple of presentations for the school heads, on on Management of Educational Technology, where I have been using an Indian book by S.M. Zaidi, Modern Teaching of Educational Technology, which I picked up in Hyderabad last year. I will also talk about Fluency with IT, just an overview contrasting the approach with more traditional computer literacy. Renante Manlunas, who teaches at UP Cebu High School, will also be talking about experiences with incorporating ICT into the curriculum at UP. Renante will be leaving end of this month, on a fellowship in Virginia, so I am trying to tap his expertise while he is still around.