In line with its commitment to creating a positive impact on education, Google shared key updates and programs to support inclusive distance learning in the Philippines and help teachers and students.
Google.org launched The Distance Learning Fund–a global initiative to help several countries design a transition plan for remote learning. For the Philippines, Google.org made a USD250,000 grant which grantees INCO and AIJC will use to design a capacity building program that will enable educators to deliver distance learning thru online and distribution of printed modules supported by SMS and regular consultations.
For the pilot, AIJC plans to train at least 250 public high school teachers, after the training, the same high school teachers will receive coaching sessions with distance learning experts. The training program is also being provided to 30 head teachers and education supervisors, focused on the following lessons: Monitoring and Evaluation of Teachers in a Distance Learning Setting; Evaluation and Selection of Digital Teaching-Learning; Materials Produced and Curated/Accessed Online by Teachers; and Individual and Peer Group Coaching of Teachers in a Distance Learning Setting.
Google Philippines and DepEd are working closely together to help at least 22 million students enrolled in public schools to make the transition to distance learning using G Suite for Education.
G Suite for Education is a set of free productivity tools built for teaching and learning which includes Hangouts (for video and voice conferencing), Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, and Google Classroom.
Together with the National Educators Academy of the Philippines, Google and DepEd will be training regional IT officers to become Google Certified Trainers and Admins to manage and distribute the accounts to the students. Plus, Google is initially providing 5,000 units of vouchers of Google Education Certification for teachers for free.
Google has launched resources that can help educators, students, and families. One is the Teach from Anywhere, a website available in English and Tagalog that features tips, materials and other useful resources for distance learning. The site also hosts tips for parents on keeping their children safe online.
As access to learning tools is key in online learning, Google collaborated with the country’s telcos Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, Inc. to introduce prepaid mobile data packs to make some of the learning tools like G Suite for Education, YouTube, and Search much more accessible to students.
As a response to further develop the YouTube learning ecosystem in the country, Google presented the EduCreator Camp. It is a week-long virtual training camp aimed at accelerating the growth of learning content on YouTube and empower creators with more resources, mentorship, and a chance to network with other creators across the country for learning and community building. They will also receive production techniques and best practices from leading YouTube creators such as Team Lyqa and Numberbender and industry experts that will help them to develop high quality content on a wide variety of topics. More details such as the mechanics and eligibility will be announced soon as the program rolls out this year.
