EMBRACING TRANSITIONS: Online Training Sheds Light on Education Shifts

With the sudden shift away from the traditional classroom in all parts of the country, education stakeholders are wondering whether the adoption of distance learning will continue to persist post-pandemic. In response to the significant demand for information regarding this concern, the second season of Diwa iFLEx for Home-Based Education (Diwa iFLEx) was organized. Its third out of five learning sessions was held last March 19, and was attended by more than a thousand educators from North Luzon.

Back in July and August last year, the first run of Diwa iFLEx taught educators how to better use the latest educational resources to implement various home-based lesson delivery models. For this year, it encourages school leaders and subject area coordinators to go beyond what they already know about flexible learning and open their minds to how they can improve the teaching and learning process regardless of the delivery modalities.

Mr. Edizon A. Fermin, Ph.D., Vice President of Academic Affairs of National Teachers College, facilitated the five learning sessions that started from March 5 and will end on April 16. He has written and refereed articles, delivered lectures, and facilitated trainings about e-learning, literacy, teacher education, sociolinguistics, student affairs program development, and curriculum development in the Philippines and abroad.

In his talk, he said that flexible learning should go beyond just the development of learners’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes given the current situation. It should develop reasoning, resilience, and responsibility. And as educators, it is their duty to facilitate this transition to flexible learning and impart the lessons behind it to the youth.

“The truth is, it’s no longer just enough to use knowledge. We must utilize it to become more reasonable individuals, so that in situations that call for adjustment, our resilience may help us cope and overcome. And the more we practice reasoning and resilience for others, then we increase our capacity for responsibility,” Mr. Fermin stated.

Joining him as featured educators are Ms. Florence Sobremonte, basic education vice principal of Saint Louis College, La Union; and Ms. Floriza Nepomuceno, principal of Christian Ecclesiastical School, Bulacan. In a special segment during the learning session, both of them shared how their schools implemented massive efforts made in a short time to respond to the shocks brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in the education sector.

“With the help of Genyo e-Learning (Genyo) and the ENGAGING and interactive tools found in the platform, we were able to deliver lessons despite the restrictions of remote learning. Our established practices of Genyo usage prepared us to adjust and adapt easily to the new normal. Twelve years ago, we believed in Genyo’s tagline ‘Step into the classroom of the future,’ and now, we are reaping the fruits of what we have invested years back,” said Ms. Sobremonte.

“We were convinced that this pandemic will stay for a long time, and we need to pull ourselves together and come up with a big plan and act. One of the things we considered is how we can provide our students with a collaborative e-learning tool that will keep them engaged and proactive. We decided that we will use Genyo to its fullest extent across kindergarten, elementary, junior high school, and senior high school. We are glad that six years ago, we have partnered with Diwa. Our relationship with them gives us the assurance that we are never alone, whatever the situation may be,” attested by Ms. Nepomuceno.

Genyo e-Learning is Diwa 5G Systems. Diwa 5G is an innovative suite of educational resources that help schools create ENGAGING, FLEXIBLE, ACCESSIBLE, ENRICHING, and RELEVANT teaching and learning spaces that place learners at the center of the experience.