I WAS honored and privileged to be invited by DepEd-Bulacan to share a message relative to the conduct of their three-day Capacity Building for Information Officers on Social Media Management and Information Dissemination. Let me share mostly of what I shared to the group in this column:
I ran across this quote online which goes, “In the absence of information, we jump to the worst conclusions.” and I couldn’t agree more. Oftentimes, when we are left clueless and unaware of the important information that we need to make a decision whether it is life-changing or not, the chances of making a sound choice are at the slimmest probability.
In this age where social media has overtaken our lives and the way we relate to other people, information is everything. It is on the tip of our hands. We can send, process, and propagate information regardless of our age, background, educational degree, and so forth. But this is where we, government information officers and communicators should draw the line. Our work as purveyors of credible and accurate information about what we are doing for our learners and schools is our best weapon against unfamiliarity and stale judgment from our stakeholders.
We have been commissioned by the Department of Education to disseminate our accomplishments and even our plans as we ensure that our mandate to deliver quality, accessible and relevant basic education is realized.
Let me sum up my challenge to you as School Information Coordinators with the acronym CLICK.
C stands for communicate. This is our primary task, to inform our stakeholders about what we are doing in our schools to ensure that education continues and that our schools are safe zones for our learners. We need to inform them so that they can fully support our plans and projects that are aimed towards sustained effective learning for our students.
L is for lead. As School Information Coordinators, you have the power to influence and lead your fellow personnel to advocate truth and transparency as public servants. We should serve as role models who exemplify the ideal virtues and work ethics of a DepEd personnel and as a civil servant in general.
I stands for innovate. There are a lot of ways and schemes on how we can fulfill our task as SICs. With technology and creativity, the opportunities and possibilities to innovate is limitless.
C also means collaborate. Being in the information dissemination work means to work with others and to connect with more people. This is one of the most important skills that we must possess as communicators because we cannot convey a message successfully if we do not establish rapport and connection with our audience and stakeholders.
And lastly, K stands for know more. This means that we must not stop learning and acquiring knowledge through training and capacity-building session such as this. The moment we say, we know everything is the moment we die with this laxity and overconfidence. Let us always remember that we can never get tired of learning new things and new skills.