Pampanga, Davao schools go ‘Websm@rt’

MANILA, Philippines - The rapidly changing landscape of the flow of information, the emergence of digital content, the people’s power and responsibilities in the time of social media — these are just some of the topics discussed during the WebSm@rt learning session conducted by leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart).

School paper advisers and campus journalists from 16 schools in Pampanga gathered at the province’s System Plus College Foundation to participate in the WebSm@rt training. This training series that Smart is conducting in several schools across the country aims to educate and equip school journalists in this fast paced age of Internet-powered new media.

“We must keep up with the times when it comes to sharing and consuming information,” said Ramon Isberto, head of Smart’s Public Affairs. “We initiated this series of trainings for schools because we think academic institutions should benefit most from the free exchange of information enabled by the Internet. We want the schools to learn to adapt and hone their skills, especially when it comes to handling and managing bits and pieces of information on the net.”

Through these trainings, Smart said it is also encouraging schools to supplement their campus journalism programs with online versions of their publications and dabble in digital and social content which is a quick, and cost-efficient way of disseminating information and engaging their readers.

The Websm@rt training includes a basic course of new media plus a workshop about writing and producing online content.

The resource speaker from Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Hector Bryant Macale, also discussed cyber ethics and touched on the country’s cybercrime prevention law.

At the end of the training-workshop the schools managed to create their own websites using the Infinite.ly platform. Infinite.ly, a startup based in the Philippines, is a partner of Smart in the ‘webifying’ of schools nationwide through online site-building and content creation via the Smart Schools Program.

The schools also created a blog site for their campus paper using Journ.ph — a multi-user blog site powered by Smart especially designed for school publications in the Philippines. Currently, more than 300 schools nationwide are using the platform to share their school/community stories in the web.

To know more about Smart Schools Program and Journ.ph, visit www.smartschools.ph or www.journ.ph.