Text2Teach

Elementary school students in the Philippinese will now be texted information via their mobile phones in hopes to enhance the learning experience as reported by the Inquirer.

MANILA, Philippines—While students are banned from using mobile phones during school hours, many public school teachers are using the ubiquitous gadgets in class to serve the “higher purpose” of “bringing to life” math, science and English subjects, according to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus.

Elementary teachers in selected areas are using the mobile phones under the Department of Education’s “Text2Teach” project, which aims to present “interactive, multimedia educational videos” that enhance the learning experience of students inside the classroom, Lapus said.

This article brings up the question; how many kids in grades 5 and 6 have mobile phones? And what about children in poverity stricken places. Could all this effort be better spent in another area of education?

Using a Nokia N95 8GB mobile phone, 387 interactive, educational videos in math, science and English are preloaded into the phones for the teachers to use in class.

A teacher simply plugs the phone into a TV and plays the video lesson for the day in the classroom for the students to enjoy and learn.

According to Lapus, the educational videos created for the project, which would last 3-5 minutes, will “bring science, math and English subjects to life, illustrating key concepts, skills and competencies that students are expected to master.”

These video lesson plans also help make teachers’ lives easier and are compliant with the Basic Education Curriculum, he said.

The education department began the project in 2003 with more than 700,000 public elementary students from 203 schools enjoying Text2Teach technology. It had the cooperation of the Ayala Foundation, Nokia, Globe Telecom and Seameo-Innotech.

The article is pro this program, describing no possible pitfalls or negative views about this program. It’s straightforward, basic reporting with no different angle on a story that could have had much more oppions. The paper describes itself as catering for a youth audience.