Online presence for our public schools
SMART helps public schools build websites

Going to Paaralang Sekondarya ng Heneral Nakar in General Nakar, Quezon is not easy. To get there, one has to travel three to four hours, through zigzag roads that go deeper into the countryside.

The school is located in the same municipality that was hard hit by successive typhoons in 2004, resulting in massive landslides.

Much has progressed since the tragedy and residents like Marilyn Vargas, a Math teacher at the local high school, are happy to share the good news about their school and community to their kababayans all over the country and the world.

One way for schools like Paaralang Sekondarya ng Heneral Nakar to attract more attention to their communities and draw support for school projects is to have their own school website.

Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) is helping partner public schools create their own websites. Through the Smart Schools Program (SSP), its flagship community service in education, Vargas and some 82 teachers and students from 21 partner high schools in Luzon participated in a website content and development training last May 11 to 15. A similar training session was also given to trainees from 19 schools in the Visayas and Mindanao last May 25 to 29.

“We now have a window and gateway to the world. Through our website, people in other places will know the history of our town and of General Nakar,” said Vargas.

“We will invite our graduates to come home and view the changes in their school," she added. "We started out with just four teachers. Now, there are 20. We have 800 students and two extension campuses.”

The training program is part of SMART's “Doon Po Sa Amin” (DPSA) project, which encourages teachers and students to use computer and Internet technologies to generate web-based information and educational materials about their respective communities. SMART has partnered with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) for the implementation of the Smart Schools Program and DPSA project.

The training was divided into two parallel tracks. Participants for the web content track were taught how to use the Internet for research and how to generate web content, such as news and feature articles, photos and videos. Those that attended the web technology track learned how to build a website.

Instructors from NetLearn Ventures, Inc. provided 40 hours of training to the 82 teachers and students from Luzon and 72 participants from Visayas and Mindanao.

Each SSP partner school is given free 50Mb space in a hosting server and a subdomain name under the Smart Schools Program website (www.smartschools.ph).

SSP, which has already provided Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training to over 10,000 teachers in various provincial and city schools, was able to train students alongside their faculty advisers for the first time. The younger trainees are expected to help bring more energy and creativity to the school websites while their teachers provide guidance and ensure project continuity. Upon returning to their respective schools, they are all expected to share the skills they learned with their peers.

“After five days, I learned so much about how to create a website and how to edit and upload photos,” shared Salvador Fajardo who studies in Florentino Torres High School.

Maria Azariah Zosa, a fourth-year student at Marinduque High School, said she is proud of the website that she helped create. “I thank SMART and PBSP (Philippine Business for Social Progress) for giving this training. It gave me the chance to learn about computers, a subject I’m very interested in," she said.

“I had fears and apprehensions, but I was also so excited about the training,” shared Lumen Alindogan who teaches in Gallanosa National High School (NHS). "Everything was free, including transportation, food, and hotel accommodations. The trainers were so knowledgeable and very patient. We learned different techniques that we could share with our co-teachers and students.”

Aside from designing and publishing their school websites, the participants were also able to propose topics for their entries in the 2nd DPSA Learning Challenge.

Catherine Eleguido, principal of the Philippine Christian Foundation (PCF) Community School, said they plan to feature their elementary school’s successful ballet group and the PCF United soccer team. Their students are the children of workers at the Payatas landfill. Eleguido said they want to showcase the students' adaptability and talent in arts, culture and sports.

Outstanding works will get due recognition at the 2nd DPSA Learning Challenge. The annual competition, which was launched last year to further encourage schools to contribute online content, drew 130 DPSA online focus studies from 40 partner public high schools. The big prize at the first DPSA Learning Challenge was bagged by Naga City Science High School for their web-based focus study on the Peñafrancia Festival.

But for Vargas and the rest of the participants who collaborated and built their school websites, the big winners here already are their schools and communities.

(Published 22 June 2009, Smart Communications, Inc.)