Text2Teach turns 10 with dream to mainstream

MANILA, Philippines - Newfangled devices featuring the latest technology slowly help evolve our daily lifestyle, mobility, and the way we deal with the world around us. Most notably, they can also lend themselves to the cause of education.

That’s certainly the idea espoused by institutional partners Nokia, Pearson, the International Youth Foundation, and the United Nations Development Program in jointly establishing the global program dubbed “BridgeIT.”

Locally renamed Text2Teach, it augments the formal teaching of Math, Science, English, and Values Education for Grades 5 and 6 students through the newest satellite, television, and mobile communication technologies used in delivering educational video materials.

“The mobile platform offers great opportunities. All of us have a mobile phone,” underscores Sanna Eskelinen a member of Microsoft’s social investment office. “You should look at your mobile phone and think ‘Wow, this is a great educational tool’ — which it is if you just turn it into one.”

Text2Teach also integrates teacher training in the device-provided modules. Telco giant Globe Telecom provides the infrastructure for the program, while Ayala Foundation has, since 2008, acted as “project lead and is tasked to oversee project resources, selection, coordination and validation of schools, technical support, teacher training, and program monitoring and evaluation.”

Since its pilot testing phase in 2013, Text2Teach had reached 1,103 public elementary schools around the country as of May this year — touching the lives of more than 300,000 students and almost 4,000 teachers.

Evaluation of program effectiveness has shown positive results across key areas. First, there has been an uptick in student performance in the National Achievement Test (NAT) and in classrooms. Dropout rates have plummeted while average grades have risen — consequences of students’ more favorable attitude toward learning. Teachers themselves have displayed more competence in the classroom, and are no longer technology-averse. Ultimately, Text2Teach has, in a way, positively rewired people’s impressions about technology and its role in education.

Joy Navera, Department of Education’s ICT coordinator in Ligao City, volunteers that since the city implemented Text2Teach in 2010, it has “really brought life to learning in schools.” She continues: “Among the qualities that stand out are personal commitment, collaboration, and strong partnerships.”

Navera observes that the program keeps “children in school and makes them perform,” while “pupil-to-pupil and teacher-to-teacher interaction increased.” The immense benefits have encouraged the community to apply Text2Teach in 100 schools of the city.

As it reaches its 10th year, Text2Teach enters the fourth phase of its implementation — expected to take until 2016 to reach fruition.

This new chapter in the Text2Teach tale is its mainstreaming. Recently, representatives of the Ayala Foundation, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), DepEd, Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), Microsoft, and Globe Telecom inked a commitment to implement the program in all 38,000 public schools in the country.

More than 300 educational video materials are sent and administered using Lumia mobile devices installed with the Microsoft Education Delivery (MED) software application. In a release, Ayala Foundation reports that the devices come with a Globe prepaid SIM card and a 32-inch Toshiba LED TV on which the videos are shown.

Eskelinen marvels at how far the program has come. “You can imagine how mobile phones looked like 10 years ago, and how they look today. We have also renewed, improved, and evolved the technology used in the program,” she says, and recalls how Text2Teach used classic Nokia 3310 units in the past. Teachers would key in the program they needed and it would be fed via satellite discs. It was a complicated system, continues the Microsoft official, and teachers had to be well versed in the operating system and the text codes.

To realize the goal of mainstreaming the program, Text2Teach officials will “work closely with ULAP and the DILG in advocating and sharing the program with local government units,” says a release. Helping stakeholders understand its wisdom and benefits is key, so ULAP will hold advocacy workshops.

Ayala Foundation, on the other hand, is in charge of capability-building training sessions for all 203 local DepEd divisions which, in turn, will cascade this to teachers in their jurisdictions. Text2Teach will make all materials and content available for teachers through DepEd’s Learning Resource Management and Development System portal. Videos, teaching guides, and other Text2Teach materials will be made available online as supplemental guides for teachers.

Far from the days of the humble 3310, Text2Teach will feature new Lumia devices running on Windows OS8.1 (Microsoft acquired Nokia’s handset business last year). “The MED application where the Text2Teach videos are sent and stored will be updated with a new, user-friendly interface. Additional features also include the ability to comment and ask questions about the media files. Text2Teach will also make use of the mirroring function of the Lumia devices, with the help of a dongle connected to the television,” continues a release. This means “teachers no longer need to hook up the phone to the 32-inch LED Toshiba television through a cable connector. Through its mirroring function, teachers can wirelessly connect their phones to the television and play the Text2Teach videos.”

Ayala Foundation education lead JR Demecais admits that despite all the institutional help the program is getting, Text2Teach cannot reach all 38,000 public schools without getting other stakeholders on board. “You have to look at the whole structure of the national government and the private organizations that can really help in the mainstreaming of Text2Teach,” he tells The STAR.

Indeed, communities are stepping up once they see the merits of having the program into their schools. Navera puts it correctly: “There should be community ownership… We consider it our personal commitment to do more.”