Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Colting: Bridging the Digital Divide By Dr. Rogelio Colting Research for Development Corner
THE world over, figures have it that a great percentage of the world's population have no access to Information and Communication Technology facilities. The disparity is most specially seen in developing countries.
According to the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) in the Philippines, the ratio is one computer is to three hundred students (1:300).
The Benguet State University (BSU) is a partner of CICT in various projects aimed at bridging the digital divide. The projects being implemented are Internet for High Schools called ischools, eskwela and Content development. Flordeliza O. Naje, executive assistant II, is BSU's Counterpart Coordinator in all these projects with CICT.
The ischool project includes six training packages for high school teachers by ICT staff from the University, provision of computer laboratories, with 20 workstations, one server - multi-media projector, printer and free Internet connection for one year.
In relation to this, the University has already conducted trainings on basic ICT concepts, word processing, among others in 12 different recipient public high schools: Calabuanan National High School in Aurora Province; Mataas na Paaralang Juan C. Laya, Ariston Bantog National High School, Rosales National High School and Don Juan Macaraeg National High School in Pangasinan Province; and Lopez National High School and Hondagua National High School in Quezon Province.
In Baguio, we have the Baguio City National High School-Main and its Annex, Roxas High School. For Benguet the schools are: BSU-Buguias Campus, Benguet Provincial High School and the BSU Secondary Laboratory High School-Main Campus.
ICT personnel from the University involved in the training of high school teachers have passed the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) administered by the national Computer Center (NCC). The tests focused on computer operations. They also passed the International Open Source network Certification. Presently, the following ICT personnel who passed the test and are involved in the ischool project are: Julie Ann Dugat, Cesar Degay, Paul Garcia Jr., Onofre Ibanez Jr. and Donnely Von Capuyan.
The eSkwela, on the other hand, is a project that is focused on the development of digitized teaching modules. Also in collaboration with DepEd, the intended users of the modules are out-of-school youth and other high school students.
This project, which is national in scope, is one of the awardees in the UNESCO ICT in Education Innovation Awards, 2007-2008. A Certificate of Commendation for the Non-formal Educator category will be awarded to CICT, including the partner SUCs who are implementing the project: such as Benguet State University, Bukidnon State University, West Visayas State College of Science and Technology and the Cavite State University among others. The awarding ceremonies will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from June 24-26, 2008. Funded by the Japanese Funds-in-Trust, the ceremony will be one of the highlights of UNESCO's special event titled: "Celebrating Innovative ICT in Education Practices: From Idea to Impact."
The content development project, on the other hand, is an innovation in popularizing mature technology and knowledge. These will be packaged in digitized form and will be used by high school and elementary students for technology livelihood education.
At present, the project is working on potato and Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) of the Kalanguyas in Lusod, kabayan, with Professor Jocelyn C. Perez and Grace T. Bengwayan as authors.
This long-standing partnership of BSU with the CICT, I believe is making a difference in bridging the digital divide. We are hopeful that more partnerships on ICT projects will be forged with the CICT and other agencies, particularly on equity and access of ICT resources.
