EdTech Rural Story

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CABANATUAN CITY, NUEVA ECIJA

Real EdTech Stories in the Rural Areas of the Philippines

TEACHER CATH as she looked back on her journey at the start of online classes.

Every week kasi may natututunan akong bago na nakakadagdag sa teaching experience ko, na syempre, kailangan kong i-apply sa susunod na linggo. Ganun ako nag-cope up sa online classes.

Teacher Cathrina Constantino, a 23-year old Public School Teacher from Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, shared how she sees Educational Technology in their area.

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Being a teacher in a rural area, she is much aware that not all of the students and teachers can afford new technologies, such as, smartphones, computers and laptops. In this pandemic, she elaborated on how they are coping up on the current situation.

How do modules work? Click here:

Keeping in mind that their students cannot afford online education, their local institution chose modular set-up. Like other educators, Teacher Cath experienced a hard time in dealing with such modules ⎯⎯⎯ distributing in specific areas, groupings of students in barangay, and preparing a lot of things for the school year.

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In teaching their students, she emphasized the importance of their MediaBureau-Online DepEd TV Channel on Youtube.

Aside from Youtube channel, their area has a DepEd TV station every Wednesday in local television since pre-pandemic. These platforms help both parents and students in modular programs to cope up with their lessons.

As per their situation, the main role of the teachers is to make modules, record outputs and connect to the parents. Teachers in the area were always ready to adjust and be considerate. They change the instruction if needed and accept physical documents if a certain student does not have a camera phone to send it via messenger or email.

Even before, she views EdTech as a helpful tool in learning as it boosts the level of thinking of students when a lesson is integrated with technology. Students are more reflective and critical thinkers. It gives motivation and eagerness to learn. Now, she sees it as a replacement and tool that facilitates students in online learning.

Teacher Cath sees EdTech as a powerful tool, as it leads a big role in these crying times, and it supplement the needs of the learners. Through the innovation of the teachers, Edtech empowers them to create activities and reach out effectively the students.

Cathrina constantino

The new normal education gives us new discoveries every single day. It made us to be more considerate. It stretched our strength beyond and realized that there are always a room for improvement. Edtech played, plays and will always play a big role in education.

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IBAJAY, AKLAN

Real EdTech Stories in the Rural Areas of the Philippines

Real Story of Sir Franklyn Fernando - Public School Teacher, Agdugayan Elementary School, Aklan

Sir Franklyn as he described Educational Technology in the rural area, province of Aklan.

“Nahuhuli kami rito, dahil yung signal namin dito ay mahina.”

Sir Franklyn Fernando is based in Agdugayan, Ibajay, Aklan. He is a public school teacher in their purok. Ever since a kid, he has been aware that their area is far from ruins.

He describes EdTech as a substitute tool in presenting a lesson, such as, powerpoint presentation and projector.

T E A C H I N G J O U R N E Y

As he became a teacher, he was assigned to be the computer teacher. He teaches his students all of the basics, such as making a file folder, copying and pasting and making an email.

Although they are facing a lot of challenges like poverty, lack of school facilities, low signal in the area and digital literacy of the people, the teachers in the area are doing their best to give holistic learnings to the students in coping up with technology.

He pointed out the lack of teachers’ training in teaching and experiencing Educational Technology. The Department of Education in the area has rarely given them free training and workshops. He believes that empowering and teaching teachers are very important for its role and are too vital for his community.

EdTech is a blessing for Sir Franklyn. It helped their students be more engaged in learning. The efficiency of the lessons are making the students competent. Technology in school gives the students motivation to go to school and do certain tasks.

A Public School Teacher from Bongabon, Central School, Nueva Ecija

CONVERSATION WITH TEACHER LAILANIE

E X T R A S

How do you see Edtech in your area?

In our area, edtech would be hard to achieve for our students. Not all have their access to technology. Not all are knowledgeable to utilize technology. We have parents that don’t know how to use a mobile phone and it makes it hard to guide the student in learning.

CONVERSATION WITH TEACHER LAILANIE

E X T R A S

How do your community adapt to technology?

Now that I have students with hearing impairment, modular distance learning won’t fit their learning styles. So I use video lessons for them. I take videos and then edit them. After those, I will send them to their messenger account since it is where they’re comfortable at using.

CONVERSATION WITH TEACHER LAILANIE

E X T R A S

Can you share an experience where you encountered Edtech in your class/institution?

I am applying edtech in my student with mild autism. Since we are encouraged to do online class in our school, the parent agreed to do an online class for her child. Every other day, I am discussing the lesson to her through a live call via zoom. We do reading and counting activities. It is better this way because I can see how she progresses in her tasks.

Thanks for coming!