ICTs in Basic Education, 2nd National Congress

FIT-ED organized another national congress for educators. It was held here in Cebu (again) last week, and Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave a speech (which I missed). It helps that her daughter runs FIT-ED. However, politics aside, I was able to establish some useful contacts during the congress. Specifically, I set up a breakfast meeting for the day after the congress between NISMED (the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development, a University of the Philippines research and extension unit, located at the main campus in Diliman) staff and the Dean of UP Cebu College. I expect they will be able to bring to Cebu programs based on Intel's Teach to the Future modules here to Cebu. These modules are 80 hours worth of training on Integrating Technology into Teaching and Learning (computer literacy is a pre-requisite, and is not covered). This has been given at least 8 times in the Philippines, both for INSET (in-service training) trainers and for faculty at Teacher Education Institutes (TEI's, in the DepEd/CHED jargon) for pre-service education. I hope that UP Cebu will be able to integrate the material into their post-graduate Masters of Education program, as well as undertake a program of research and extension activities that involves sevearl departments of the college. Later, I will post a conference report on some of the sessions I attended.