Designs of future learning spaces under review

IN A press release of the Department of Education (DepEd) published in www.deped.gov.ph, it is aiming to collaborate with various stakeholders for integrated concepts or designs of future learning spaces as part of its commitment to continuously transform basic education.

Philippine representative and DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan during Unesco’s high-level ministerial online conference recently shared that education in the country had to make a radical shift in education delivery towards remote learning due to the Covid-19.

In his report, Usec. Malaluan noted that Covid-19 has compelled education to innovate and mobilize resources towards transformation, citing the Department’s blended learning initiatives such as the DepEd Commons and DepEd TV.

He added that the biggest impact of Covid-19 is in compelling us to look again at the broader learning ecosystem beyond the confines of physical classrooms [which] has mobilized partners to support learners, teachers, and policymakers with new tools and knowledge.

The Department has embarked on a co-creation process with various stakeholders for an integrated concept or design of future learning spaces through its Education Futures Programme (Educ Futures).

According to Usec. Malaluan, the Programme’s goal is to co-create future learning spaces over the next 30 years to deliver quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating basic education for Filipinos.

Age-appropriate learning spaces, green learning spaces, and new digital technologies for remote learning are among the themes for the consultation.

Moreover, the process also seeks to tackle digital capability centers for basic education, immersive technologies for skill development (VR, AR), and learning spaces for works of the future, among others.

Usec. Malaluan emphasized that education is at a critical conjuncture in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic. We need to catch up with the gaps that the crisis has created, but it should not prevent us from also leaping into the future.

The Unesco virtual meeting titled “One year into Covid: Prioritizing education recovery to avoid a generational catastrophe” was a platform for policy dialogue to examine the most pressing current challenges. It also showed how the Global Education Coalition has mobilized partners to support learners, teachers and policymakers with new tools and knowledge.

This Corner hopes that as we continuously approach the future of education, it is hoped that we will be able to approximately answer the needs of the future generation of learners with or without pandemic.