Studybuddy.ph takes education to the digital age

MANILA, Philippines - Studies have noted how children of grade-school age are quicker than older generations in mastering digital devices and interfaces — such as tablets, mobile phones, and other touchscreen devices — but many parents are also quick to learn that there is a severe lack of useful content available. Moreover, the generational gap also means that parents and their children are finding fewer and fewer means to interact and connect with each other on a meaningful level.

Study Buddy, a free web-based educational system, seeks to provide a solution that will bring parents and kids together in a more productive way. Recently launched and being rolled out to Filipino parents and grade schools, Study Buddy is built on a range of free ready-made reviewers painstakingly built from the ground up and designed around the DepEd’s official curriculum.

Open to all parents and kids, Study Buddy, which includes a website and apps for Android and iOS, lets parents select reviewers — or, if they wish, they can create their own — and assign them to their children on any device. The reviewers are automatically corrected and reports are generated to allow parents to track progress and provide further guidance. Reviewers may also be shared with others, allowing the sharing of resources and generating a rich, vibrant resource library.

Educators and school administrators also stand to gain from the free system. By making the assignment of individual reviewers and even entire sections easy and convenient, Study Buddy aims to help teachers focus on their interaction with students — instead of devoting time and effort toward creating reviewers from scratch, and often on their own free time. There are currently over 3,000 unique reviewers already available, with thousands more in development.

Early in the program’s inception, the system’s founders — who are parents of school-age children themselves — saw the importance of support and acknowledgment from the educational community, having recruited trusted educators to create the reviewers and comprehensively covering the basic subjects of English, Filipino, Math, Science and Araling Panlipunan (Social Sciences).

The response to Study Buddy, this early in its rollout, has been highly encouraging.

“I’m very excited that reviewers can be accessed by just clicking away. The Filipino content is especially very helpful,” says Merle Banna, grade school principal at the Marymount Academy in Parañaque City. “Can’t believe this is free.”

Free content and open access, after all, are defining characteristics of the digital age. Along with the sharp rise in the availability of digital devices in Filipino households across all social strata and ongoing shifts in the educational system, these factors have increasingly spelled out a need for a digital solution.

Free and open to all parents and children, Study Buddy may be found at the Google Play Store <link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jakenpoy.studybuddy&hl=en>  or iOS App Store <link: https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/study-buddy-ph/id1052580413?mt=8> at study buddy ph, or online at studybuddy.ph.