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We all know that when it comes to educational system, Philippines was late to establish the K-12 curriculum compared to other countries in the globe especially to the first world counties (North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia) which are more advanced when it comes to the use of technology in their educational system. In this paper, we'll tackle about how the Philippines use of technology in K-12 curriculum differs from these first world countries system of education and technological enhancements.
Specifically
in Japan, it is evident that they possess such goal, because they were already
way more advanced in using high-tech materials in school. Though, instruction
in primary schools is through lectures, teachers still use media such as
television and radio. Accordingly, by 1989 about 45% of all public schools had
computers, including schools that used them for administrative purposes. In
fact, in their higher education, the Tsubame 2.0 which is a large scale
supercomputer in Tokyo Tech, was ranked 5th of the world best-performed
computer that is used for simulation related to the complex systems such as the
dynamics of planets or financial systems.
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| Source: https://hayabusa.io/ca/files/topics/12548_ext_24_en_0.jpg?version=1477282273&width=600&height=314 |
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| Tsubame 2.0 Source: https://www.titech.ac.jp/english/research/stories/img/st20131129_tsubame02.jpg |
Personally, I
wasn't able to experience
this K-12 curriculum here in the Philippines, since our batch is still part of
the old curriculum which is the Revised Basic Education Curriculum (RBEC). But,
as to what I've observed
and experienced on the conduct of our Field Study series throughout my college
years, Philippines is still not yet ready with this due to the fact that the
teachers are still adjusting, the society is still not used to it, the students
belong to the track they didn't
want to and that they only settle for it just for the sake of completing high
school and most importantly, the government still lack with providing enough
facilities and educational technology for this new curriculum.
I observed that
public schools are still using the traditional board-and-chalk method for
teaching. Every classrooms doesn't
have televisions or even overhead projectors, that's why Powerpoint Presentations, Focusky and other
digital presentations are not utilized. Their computer laboratory is only
limited to ICT students and not for all grade levels, due to inadequate supply
of computers from the government. And lastly, the school doesn't even have signal for internet
connection that's why
students find it hard to learn more updated and comprehensive information,
hence they are only focusing on manuals and textbooks as their main reference.
Moreover,
based from the videos I've
seen in YouTube, first world countries are very much equipped into using
advanced educational technology with this kind of curriculum, due to the fact
that they are more successful in any aspects of life in general. I've seen that they are already
using google classrooms, smart boards, Ipad for each student that serve as
digital textbook and some audio enhancements.
As a
future teacher in the Philippines, I was challenged and pressured about how I
could handle my students with this kind of curriculum that highly needs enough
support from the government about the technological equipment and facilities
needed. Also, I realized that our country now is actually way behind the trend
of K-12 curriculum compared to the first world countries. I thought that maybe
we could bridge the gap through asking for help from the government for the
supply of the technological necessities needed in teaching K-12 students. I
thought that the government must also realize how far we are from the first
world countries in terms of educational system, that's why they could give us possible solutions for
this matter. Consequently, providing of technological tools especially to
public schools will highly be appreciated.
If I'll be teaching someday, I will
then become part of this curriculum in which I will be the one who will
integrate it into the classroom context. I should be able to learn the needs of
my 21st century learners especially that we are no longer following the
traditional teaching-learning process, but the constructivist and learner
centered approaches already. That's
why we should integrate technology in the classroom for us to cater the needs
of this K-12 learners. Through these materials that were anchored from the development of technology, the students could easily search in the internet for
updated and comprehensive information, they could create digitized projects
whenever they feel like paper-pencil projects are boring, they could get
learning tutorials from different websites and most importantly, they could
experience authentic learning through film showing, audio listening, visual
presentations etc.
Consequently, as
an implementer of these materials, I should be able to learn and practice more
about computers and other digital tools not just for the sake of enhancing the
K-12 curriculum in our country, but for the sake of the future lives of these
K-12 students who aimed to be skilfully globally competitive individuals. Thus,
quality education is indeed in equivalence with international standards.
