Participants of the 2018 Summer Institute on Technology in Education (SITE), with Vice Presidents of Diwa Learning Systems Inc, Mr. Armel Espiritu and Ms. Florabel Colupano, and the Director for Innovation Development of Miriam College, Edizon Fermin, PhD, learn how to become advocates and leaders of the use of technology in education.
“The digital age unlocks a lot of opportunities for us,” Dr. Edizon A. Fermin, Director for Innovation Development of Miriam College, told a room full of educators in one of his lectures. A staunch supporter of the advancement of e-learning in the country, Dr. Fermin has helped establish Miriam College as a 21st century innovator by creating programs that encourage technology integration in education.
One of such programs is the Summer Institute on Technology in Education (SITE), a five-day certification training and workshop on education technology, which Miriam College holds in partnership with Bato Balani Foundation Inc (BBFI) and Diwa Learning Systems Inc. (Diwa), and is one of the highlights of Diwa’s 35th year celebration. Around a hundred educators flocked to Miriam College’s Henry Sy, Sr. Innovation Center last May 7 to 11, 2018 to participate in the annual program.
SITE offers three courses: Digital and Mobile Learning, Developing and Adapting Digital and Mobile Applications, and Instructional Design and Supervision of Digital Learning Environment. Apart from showing participants the latest in education technology, each course also introduces new learning theories in a highly interactive and collaborative manner. SITE invites educators to critically examine how teaching has been done in the past, not in an effort to eliminate these conventional methods completely, but to encourage educators to continuously look for ways to improve the way they teach.
This year, SITE incorporated featured technologies from the recently launched Diwa Innovation Lab, a pop-up science exposition mainly targeted towards students. SITE attendees were able to experience using drones, virtual reality, and meteorology tools.
The program also extensively uses Genyo e-Learning, the Philippines’ first and only fully-integrated online learning management system for basic education, to support the discussions on e-learning.
“With the help of SITE, I was empowered to be more adaptable to change,” says computer teacher Jobelle Ann B. Cordero of Pasig Catholic College, who is currently taking her Masters in Education major in e-Learning at Miriam College as a scholar of BBFI and Diwa. “It allowed me to help my institution embrace foreign ideologies that they were afraid to partake.”
Cordero treats her entire Miriam College experience as the highlight of her career so far, and wishes to empower her fellow educators to be advocates of e-learning as well.
“I want it to be a challenge for us participants to help other people reach what we have reached, and perhaps allow them to reach higher with the help of technology.”
SITE has trained around 600 educators since it started in 2013. This summer teacher training manifests how Diwa and BBFI strive to promote innovation and technology as essential driving forces in nation building.
SITE is a milestone activity in the celebration of Diwa’s 35th anniversary.