Ronald Cuevas: The teacher who connects schools to the world

IN HIS 14 years in the teaching profession, Ronald Cuevas said he had heard enough of the clamor of his colleagues and students about teaching-learning innovations.

This situation made him decide to offer his computer skills so they can cope up with the demands in today’s digital world.

“I pity those schools who are still using the conventional way of preparing documents, data mining, and data analyzing. How I wish I could stop what they are doing now. I would encourage them to embrace technology and automate all the routinary reports,” said Cuevas, the 37-year-old Eastern Visayas regional outstanding teacher in Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) at Hingatungan National High School in Silago, Southern Leyte.

A daring innovator and a changemaker, Cuevas shared his technological innovations free of charge to his school and community to save his co-teachers from accomplishing their tasks using the traditional way.

“I cannot blame the Department of Education (DepEd) for its paperwork-related issues and concerns. DepEd needs data coming from the ground and it is vital in formulating programs and projects to attain the ‘dream of quality and excellence in education.’ My only concern is that schools must be willing to adopt the ‘change’ in order to cope up [with] demands coming from the higher office, students and other stakeholders,” Cuevas told SunStar Philippines in an online interview.

With his Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and innate generosity, Cuevas initiated at least four innovations in teaching-learning process in their school.

These innovations also earned him the 2015 Division of Southern Leyte Outstanding Grade 10 Teacher award. In 2016, Cuevas also qualified in the Provincial/Regional Finalist Search for the prestigious Metrobank Outstanding Teacher Awards.

E-innovations

With the support of his school administrator Doraliza Alfaro and his 26 co-teachers, Cuevas introduced "HNHS e-Tabo," an online platform to market students' products and services in the school.

The website functions like other online companies such as Lazada and Zalora where shoppers can buy products online and have them delivered upon payment through money-forwarding companies.

Another is the “Student Tracking System,” an online platform to track the performance of the students.

While saying that this is not something new, Cuevas said the “Student Tracking System” made a big difference to the school performance of their 585 students because parents can easily monitor their students’ school attendance and activities using the web portal.

Teachers can also check students’ performance through their mobile phones using a unique security system.

His “HNHS eKiosk version” is also a work of a genius. An ergonomic structure with a computer system inside, it contains school data banking system using .php programming language that can be accessed by stakeholders and students.

“The teachers benefited from this for we are practicing the paperless type of reporting. The system can archive, monitor, filter, and index the necessary data. Thus, the teachers will be saved from repetitive urgent reports and documents. Students and other stakeholders can benefit also from the eKiosk. They can track their own performance,” Cuevas said.

The “eCAIMs” is used to re-engineer the computer-aided instructional materials from lecture demo-type to interactive type.

The machines also used “facial recognition” system, which makes it distinct among the many ICT-based innovations in Southern Leyte division and the region.

The innovations in their school also prompted stakeholders to donate more ICT equipment like tablets, computers, LED TV screen, printer, and WiFi for the better learning of the students, while their parents-teachers organization continues to give financial assistance for the physical improvement of their "Oplan Damgu (or Dream)" building.

Aside from creating a website for their school, Cuevas also designed the websites for their chapel and other community-based organizations.

In between his school assignments, Cuevas spends his extra time teaching other schools in Silago to build their own websites.

His dream is for all schools in his town to have a “dynamic website.”

“If your school doesn’t have a website, you are losing out on great opportunities for your school business -- programs and projects per school-based management level. A website itself can be used to accomplish many different strategies to help your school grow and pursue educational improvement and development tapping all stakeholders -- internal and external,” Cuevas said.

Asked if he is going to resign from his teaching job and join the lucrative ICT industry, Cuevas said he has no plan of doing it.

“In 2017, I was tempted to resign from DepEd. Somebody called my attention to apply for being a programmer of a certain car rental company but I declined the offer because of my family and the place where I live in,” Cuevas said.

“I said to myself, ‘My wife is also a teacher and I have two kids. Am I not contented with my compensation?’ So I tried to weigh the pros and cons and I decided to decline the offer. I love my family and the place where I belong. Thus, if there are opportunities relative to my skills -- an offer that will keep me away from my family and my place, I will reject the offer,” he added.

AI for teaching

To compensate for his ICT skills, Cuevas ventured into online tutorial business for a minimal fee.

“I would rather concentrate on blogging under Google company's AdSense. I have been doing this for 12 months,” Cuevas said.

But he is not stopping there.

After launching Temis (Teacher's Educational Management Information System) in the school, Cuevas said he is “serious” in launching an AI (Artificial Intelligence) project to be used in teaching.

“I'm sure, this will be the first AI in DepEd at my own cost without expecting in return. The goal is to help the teachers improve the pedagogy using this innovation,” Cuevas said. (SunStar Philippines)