Sunteți pe pagina 1din 4

CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICAL SCHOOL:

GEARING TOWARDS MOBILE LEARNING

1) Context/s of the mobile learning initiative chosen

According to its website, Christian Ecclesiastical School (CES) is a private, non-


sectarian school in Barangay Gaya-gaya, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. It
was founded in December 1988 by the Christian sect Iglesia ng Diyos kay Kristo
Hesus, Haligi at Suhay ng Katotohanan, which has its roots in the city.

The school has an approximate population of 1500 students, coming from Barangay
Gaya-gaya and other nearby barangays. In the year 2013, CES became a pioneer in
technology-assisted learning in the city by implementing its Modernized E-learning
Education (CES website accessed May 24, 2017). In an interview with Diwa
Learning Systems (the LMS provider of CES) the school principal, Ms. Floriza
Nepomuceno, shared that she pushed for the modernization of classroom instruction
because she wants to offer the best education to her students, who come mostly
from low-income families. To manage tuition adjustment, the school opted to offer
digital learning materials instead of printed ones. (www.diwadirectline.blogspot.com,
accessed May 25, 2017)

Initially, the school began using Android tablets and the Google Chromebook as its
primary reading tool, in lieu of printed books. The cost of the tablet and Chromebook
was integrated in the tuition. In the following years, the devices were also used for
doing assignments and taking examinations at home, online and offline interactive
activities, etc. which students are expected to answer and fulfill.

CES Modernized E-learning Education qualifies as a mobile learning initiative


because as defined by Ally (2005, cited in Thus, et. al), mobile learning is the
delivery of electronic learning materials on mobile computing devices to allow access
from anywhere and any time. Although CESs program can be classified as blended
learning (i.e. the bulk of class discussion and instruction still happens in the
classroom), learning is mediated by mobile devices, thus giving students the
freedom to study anywhere and any time.

2) Challenge/s or issue/s that it seeks to address

According to Ms. Helen de Luna, Grade 9 adviser / faculty member of CES, it was
explained to them during their annual in-service training that part of the school
principals vision (i.e. providing the best education to students) is to make its learners
ready for 21st century learning by making them technologically proficient. Another
reason is to mitigate tuition / learning costs by providing students digital learning
resources which in the long run, will be less expensive than printed books.
3) Teaching and learning activity/ies involved

Ms. de Luna shared that these are some activities involving the use of tablets and
Chromebooks:
a. Creating blogs for sharing ideas instead of the usual essay writing
b. Film viewing / film review / analysis offline (done outside the school, i.e.
home)
c. Taking quizzes and examinations (may be done both at school and outside of
the school, depending on the teachers instructions)
d. Uploading assignments (outside the school) and
e. downloading course materials (may be done both at school and outside of the
school, depending on the teachers instructions)

4) Mobile technology used

As mentioned earlier in this paper, learning is mediated by Android tablets and


Google Chromebooks for the delivery and implementation of their courses and its
contents. Students are expected comply with the different course requirements with
the use of their mobile devices.

5) Participants

Students from Grade 1 to Senior High School use tablets and Chromebooks,
although according to Ms. de Luna, students in the lower grades (grades 1-4) have
limited access with their devices. This includes restricting child-sensitive materials
which is done by the schools Information Technology (IT) Office.

6) Resources required/needed

Aside from the tablets and Chromebooks, the school has a Learning Management
System (LMS) which is also used in the enrolment transactions. Along with this is the
school-wide internet connection to facilitate the learning of the students. The faculty
and staff were also trained in the handling of the LMS, and with the use of
instructional materials.

7) Achievements of the mobile learning initiative

Starting 2014, CES made its achievement / placement test for students fully online.
This test will determine if students will move to the next level. The teachers need not
prepare test papers because they can immediately encode questions in the LMS. In
addition, students do not have to wait too long for the exam results because it is
released minutes after the examination.

From Ms. de Lunas perspective, she shared that based on her observation, students
become more disciplined because they are left on their own to study the course
materials. In addition, discipline in studying is being reinforced because students
have to submit requirements on time, as the LMS automatically records their time of
submission.
8) What has worked well

The use of tablets and Chromebooks were received positively by the school
community and stakeholders, according to Ms. de Luna. Most students became
more independent, and those who manifest introvert behavior or those who are not
academic performers improved their performance (based on the data presented to
them by their Guidance and Testing office during the 2016-2017 in-service training,
but data was not made available as of this writing).

9) What could have been done differently

These are the challenges cited by Ms. de Luna in my interview with her:

a. Internet connection at home: There are a number of students who do not have
internet connection at home.
b. Academic delinquency: In connection with the above, some students are not
downloading content offline even if there is an internet connection at school.
On the other hand, there are also students who are still not adept in learning
all by themselves, partly because of too much information presented in the
course materials. Both these factors result to poor academic performance
c. Poor internet connection: Although there is internet at school, the connection
is not consistent. Ms. de Luna described it as poor connection. In turn, this
results to problems with connecting to the course sites as well as with
accessing the LMS

10) Recommendations

Here are the recommendations to the challenges shared by Ms. de Luna:

a. Have a checklist of students who do not have internet connection at home.


The school should consider the situational and learner environment context of
its students.
The checklist may also include each learners personal status. It includes the
preferences, demographic information, and learner history as well as
cognitive memory, prior knowledge, emotions, and possible motivations of
learners (Stanton and Ophoff, 2013). This will make learning personal and
within their context.
b. Monitor the students by checking also if they have downloaded the course
materials. This includes everybody, both with internet connection or none.
c. Stanton and Ophoff (2013) state that attention span or the ability to take in
large amounts of information at a time is a problem in learning, even in
traditional, face-to-face classroom setup. The school may have to re-assess
how it delivers the content of the courses in order to improve the learners
capacity to study.
d. The school must check if its internet service provider is still providing them
quality service. Also, the IT Office should do preventive maintenance once in
a while (once a month for example). The e-learning and m-learning program
of the school would be put to waste if there is no stable internet connection.
References

Thus, H., Chatti, M.A., Yalcin, E., Pallasch, C., Mageramov, T., & Shroeder, U.
(2012). Mobile learning in context. International Journal of Technology
Enhanced Learning, 4 (5-6), 332-334. Retrieve from
http://thues.com/upload/pdf/2012/MLC_IJTEL_final.pdf

Stanton, G. & Ophoff, J. (2013). Towards a method for mobile learning design.
Issues in informing science and informing technology. Retrieved from
http://iisit.org/Vol10/IISITv10p50-523Stanton0091.pdf

Websites:

Christian Ecclesiastical School website, www.ces.edu.ph. Retrieved May 24,


2017

Author unknown (2016). Educator from Bulacan Uses Technology to Measure


Students Proficiency. Retrieved from www.diwadirectline.blogspot.com/2017/
07/educator-from-bulacan-uses-technology.html?m=1

Additional Resource:

Interview with Ms. Helen de Luna, faculty member, Christian Ecclesiastical


School, conducted on May 24, 2017

S-ar putea să vă placă și