LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet Division – A 3-day training-workshop on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was given to 37 Alternative Learning System (ALS) implementers on September 5-7 at the Adivay Hall, Schools Division Office (SDO) to provide them with knowledge and skills that will facilitate the teaching-learning process on Digital Literacy, and added component of the ALS curriculum aligning it with the K-to-12 basic education program.
The training is a collaborative work of Benguet Schools ALS supervisor Tito Bestre and ALS specialists Rose Anapen and Rodrigues Belino whose sweltering passion for equipping teachers with contemporary strategic technological methods in consonance to the ALS-K to 12 curriculum spurred the fruition of their plan with maximum support from the chief of the Curriculum Instruction and Development (CID) Rizalyn Guznian and the Schools Division Superintendent Marie Carolyn Verano. “The ALS implementers who belong to the group of digital migrants have to be upgraded on ICT matters to go well together with the learning styles of the 21st century generation of learners who are categorized as digital natives,” Belino said.
The equally competent trainers Eric Wanson, Information Technology Officer, and Giovanni Cadungog, Computer Management Technician of the SDO, ignited high levels of enthusiasm among the participants making them receptive throughout the duration of the training. One of the participants expressed that while the ALS implementers are provided with a laptop, the absence of computer units in the learning centers is a hindering factor in achieving an experiential learning environment on digital literacy.
Along with the said strand is the probability that ICT-related questions be merged in the Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) test that an ALS learner has to pass before being considered a completer with a corresponding certificate duly signed by the Secretary of the education department. Bestre encouraged the teachers not to wait for the release of the modules on digital literacy strand but to be ingenious so it will already be taught as soon as possible.
Lucio Alawas, chief of the Schools Governance and Operations Division, exhorted the trainees during the closing program to keep advancing themselves in order not to left behind in the face of the escalating demands of technology in the delivery of quality ALS-K to 12 basic education curriculum.
By Ursula Dalay-on and Michael Tamiray