Camp Blog to Usher in Potential of Digital Learning in Public High School Education

Fifty-four of the most promising public high school students and teachers nationwide will converge at the Pampanga Agricultural College, Magalang, Pampanga for the first Camp Blog conference from May 18-28, 2009.The 10-day affair, which was organized by the iSchools Project, will equip a new generation of students and teachers with an appreciation of the benefits of digital learning.

Camp Blog will initiate hostilities with technical sessions which will frame high school education in light of advancements in 21st century digital learning. Discussions in this area will be led by Professors Bingo Espinosa and Katherine Esteves of the UP Open University and by Dr. Lloyd Espiritu of De La Salle University.

Professors Sol Hidalgo and Bambi Torrecampo will share their expertise in ICT-enabled teaching of Science and English subjects.

Camp Blog will then transition into equipping participants with the necessary skills to best position their content for online consumption. Skills such as online research and ethics, writing for the new media, online photo journalism and blogging will be taught by veteran media practitioners such as Katrina Stuart-Santiago, Joe Torres and Jimmy Domingo.

The event is envisioned as an annual reinforcement activity to the iSchools Project by “remaining consistent with the Project’s credo of bridging the digital divide,” states Antonette Torres, Project Manager of the iSchools Project.

Torres asserts that Camp Blog will achieve this through “the convergence of the best of traditional learning content requirements encountered in public high school education with the promise that digital learning modes afford.”

Camp Blog will be open to all students and teachers of public high schools who were previous recipients of the iSchools Project.

The iSchools Project is a flagship initiative of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology – Human Capital Development Group (CICT-HCDG). The project aims to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education, by providing training modules and increasing ICT access in the public high school sector. To date, the iSchools Project has endowed 360 computer laboratories across the Philippines.