CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—“I had to pinch myself to make sure that this is not a dream, that this is for real,” Mayor Oscar S. Moreno said last week when Ayala Foundation, Inc. marked its 53rd anniversary with a big bash in this thriving capital of Northern Mindanao.
The celebrations began with the launch of an art exhibit at Centrio, the Ayala mall here. “Botong Francisco: A Nation Imagined,” a traveling exhibition featuring reproductions of the works of National Artist Francisco “Botong” Francisco, will run at Centrio until April 25. Presented by the Ayala Museum in partnership with Ayala Land, Inc., this exhibit hopes to show the breadth and depth of Botong’s artistry and imagination.
The following day was the community launch of an international mobile phone-based learning intervention program spearheaded in the Philippines by Ayala Foundation, Inc.
Standing beside Mayor Moreno and the city’s school board, Ayala Foundation president Maria Lourdes Heras-de Leon led in the distribution of comprehensive mobile learning packages to 39 public elementary schools in the city. With the earlier distribution last February to the first batch of 31 schools in the city, “practically all the 70 public elementary schools in Cagayan de Oro are now connected to this program. This is 100-percent connectivity of Cagayan de Oro to the program,” she said.
Text2Teach
Called Text2Teach, the program allows teachers to use mobile phones in downloading over 300 educational video materials on Math, Science, English and Values Education for the grade 5 and 6 levels. The package given to each school consisted of a Nokia mobile phone, a Globe Telecom BridgeCom prepaid SIM card, and a 32-inch LED Toshiba television.
“Through our advocacy in education, we at Ayala Foundation try to use technological advancements in updating the education of our schoolchildren in the public school system,” De Leon said.
Jaypee F. Gulay, Ayala Foundation project officer, said, “As of February, there are 165 schools in Mindanao connected to Text2Teach. By the end of 2014, Text2Teach hopes to have connected 335 schools in Mindanao.”
Nationwide, there are 959 public elementary schools connected to Text2Teach.
Text2Teach is the Philippine branding of the global Bridge IT program conceptualized in 2002 by Nokia, Pearson, United Nations Development Program and International Youth Foundation. It is implemented in the Philippines by an alliance composed of Nokia, Globe Telecom, Department of Education, Pearson Foundation and Ayala Foundation.
Electronic instruction
Text2Teach makes use of a full cellular platform using a 3G-enabled device such as the Nokia mobile phone equipped with an application called the Nokia Education Delivery (NED). NED allows teachers to download and choose educational videos on certain subjects specifically developed for the project, providing a highly effective visual aid for teachers and creating an interactive, student-focused learning environment in the classroom. New videos, funded by Pearson Foundation, were produced for the Text2Teach project, which is now on its fourth phase.
Students watch the videos using television sets, which are part of the Text2Teach package. The lesson plans were created to meet local education guidelines and standards, and are fully integrated with the DepEd basic education curriculum.
Archimedes G. Velasco, Ayala Foundation senior manager for Mindanao, said Text2Teach mobile phones are also configured with another Nokia technology called Nokia Data Gathering (NDG). NDG enables Ayala Foundation to design, send, receive and analyze surveys sent to the Text2Teach recipient schools’ mobile phones, to be used to gather data on the usage and effects of Text2Teach.
“This is useful for monitoring and evaluation purposes,” he said.
Globe Telecom provides free P300 monthly load allowance for one year to be used for helpdesk and technical support concerns, and to download new videos on Math, Science, English and Values Education using their network.
De Leon noted, “There are today 11 countries all over the world that actually have a Text2Teach program under a mother program called Bridge IT. And the Philippines is considered a model country by United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (Unesco) for having best practices in the use of mobile technology in education. So if we can mainstream this and make it happen to all of our public elementary school, that would be a dream come true.”
That same day, Ayala Foundation also convened stakeholders from various sectors in Cagayan de Oro to identify and develop sustainable livelihood projects for families in five barangay. The initial workshop and forum was expected to result in “a better perspective and understanding on how to make sustainable livelihood a reality,” said De Leon.
For Youth Leadership, Ayala Foundation reached out to the youth of 10 barangay in Cagayan de Oro through Leadership Communities (LeadCom), which seeks to empower community-based youth to identify the problems of their respective areas and formulate solutions in the form of imaginative and sustainable projects.
Pay forward
One unique feature of LeadCom Cagayan de Oro is the active participation of Ayala Young Leaders Congress (AYLC) alumni, who will help facilitate workshops and mentoring sessions—a way for program beneficiaries to “pay forward” the lessons they learned through AYLC. LeadCom Cagayan de Oro is supported by a grant from Mitsubishi Corporation.
Ayala Foundation introduced its Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education (Centex), which hopes to provide high-quality education for bright children from poor families. CENTEX will hold a teacher-training program in Cagayan de Oro on May 2014.
“The training program aims to improve the capacities of public school teachers and principals through a series of training and yearround mentoring sessions, with focus on pedagogy, teaching methodology, and values integration,” said Mariecar P. Fernando, Centex manager.
Ayala Foundation’s 53rd anniversary celebrations in Cagayan de Oro encompassed the foundation’s four program pillars—Education, Youth Leadership, Sustainable Livelihood, Arts and Culture.
“This is the first time that all four advocacies were launched in one city,” De Leon pointed out. “Cagayan de Oro is close to our hearts because the foundation’s first major project was a partnership with Xavier University—the Sumilao Cattle Research project in 1964. This full display of Ayala Foundation’s engagements are a vote of confidence in Cagayan de Oro under Mayor Oscar Moreno.”