Marcial O. Rañola Memorial School
Guinobatan, Albay
Philippines
Vision
Marcial O. Rañola Memorial School envisions every learner to be functionally literate, equipped with life skills appreciative of the Sports and imbued with desirable values of a person who is Maka-DIYOS (GODLY), Makabayan (PATRIOTIC), Maka-TAO (MINDFULL OF HUMANITY) at Makakalikasan (RESPECTFUL OF NATURE).
MISSION
To provide quality Basic Education that is equitably accessible to all and to lay the foundation of lifelong learning and service for the common good.
ICT Literacy Program
This project aims to create a community of computer literate individuals in order to enhance learning and empower them for global competitiveness.
Description:
This project aims at creating a computer area in the ICT lab that will be available for the teachers during the day, students who are conducting research during free periods, and to out of school youth during scheduled lab times in the evenings.
These computers will allow teachers to implement their knowledge and skills in incorporating technology in the classroom, finding resources available through the internet, completing grades electronically, and completing other required duties. Trainings will be held for the teachers during school breaks.
Computer skills will empower the graduates and out of school youth for global competitiveness. Trainings will be held for the youth in the evenings and weekends.
Background:
Marcial O. Rañola Memorial School (MORMS) is a public secondary school under the Philippine Department of Education. Conveniently located along the National Highway in Albay Province, it is approximately 20 kilometers away from Legazpi City, the province capital. Its current student enrollment is 4000 as of school year 2007 – 2008 but only the Engineering and Science Education Program (ESEP) of around 300 (six sections) and the Special Program for Arts and Sports (SPS/ SPS) of around 270 students (five sections) received computer instruction as their specialization in Technology and Livelihood education (TLE). Next school year, computer classes will be opened to the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) students and out of school youths during the evenings.
Computer Equipment:
Most of the computers were donated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Japanese Government’s Official Development Assistance Program and several were donated by the Alumni batch 56. Thus, MORMS computer laboratory room currently holds a total of twenty two (22) units; ten (10) were donated by the DTI (Phase III) which is still under warranty, four (4) were donated by Alumni batch 56, one (1) by Gil@s Foundation and the remaining seven (7) were donated by DTI (Phase. I). Only half of the computers are running XP and the other half is Linux. The school subscribes for a DSL internet connection with a speed of 1Mbps. Students who are taking computer class learn a variety of skills including how to use the internet to research for information, Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher, along with basic photo and video editing and uploading edited videos to Youtube. Currently all students who are taking computer class do not pay anything due to the fact that maintenance of the computer units and payment for the DSL connection is taken from the school funding.
In order to improve the MORMS community’s computer literacy, computer inservice trainings have been held for teachers in which they were familiarized with the basics of a computer, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and the internet. In addition to these topics, students taking computer classes through the TLE department have also become familiar with photo and video editing. Through a joint effort, so far a total of around five hundred and seventy (570) students, nine (9) teachers (in-service training last November of 2007) and sixty (60) teachers by May of 2008 will have been taught. Plans are already made to hold more computer sessions for the students, faculty and out of school youths.
Limitations
Although MORMS has twenty two units, it is not enough to cater to the needs of the teachers and the students. During the school day, it is vital to use all available units for the computer classes which leaves limited time for student research and teacher use. The expense of internet cafes to encode data or to research for a project becomes a burden for many students. While teachers have no way of practicing and improving on their skills that they acquired during the computer workshops due to the fact that there are no available computers. Given the fact that the average class size is fifty five students, the twenty two available computer units are also not enough to meet the needs of the students in the computer classes. More computer units will make it easier for the computer teacher to facilitate student learning and for the students to accomplish the activities with in the hour class session.
The shortage of computers affects more than just the MORMS students and staff. MORMS hosts many Department of Education (DepEd) division-level workshops to enhance elementary and secondary teachers’ skills. Last year MORMS hosted a Workshop in Computer Literacy for Elementary School Heads. There were approximately fifty five school heads who attended the said workshop. This April 2008, the Division held BMET (Bicol Mobile Educational Training) at MORMS. It was conducted by several US Peace Corp Volunteers and included a computer session about integrating computers in education.
Goals and Objectives
The primary goal of this project is to have additional computer units to facilitate learning and easy access of information to more teachers, students and out of school youths.
