A program developed in 2003 is now helping children in the Philippines learn educational material through online videos. The videos provide an appealing introduction to the material they will be learning that day to make the students interested in the subject. Nokia, the International Youth Foundation, Pearson, and the United Nations Development program developed the program.
download educational video
The head of the Nokia Europe Community Involvement Patrick Gonzales explains the program as “an evolution of what we have in the past. What we have now is the ability to download these videos, at very high speeds using the cellular network. The beauty of this is you can take the program, and take it to those areas that are very, very rural and don’t have access to the Internet. It is much easier with a cellular tower and with that speed and you can serve the entire community with this content to help the teachers.”
Teachers can download and choose educational videos on Math, Science, and English that are specially created for this program through the mobile application Nokia Education Delivery (NED) installed in special Nokia phones.
“One of the differences of Text2Teach is that learning has become more mobile. For example I’m a teacher, I can download the materials today, I will teach it tomorrow, I can study the materials tonight, at home or wherever I am because it’s in the mobile phone. It could be the advent of one day, students having their own mobile phones, downloading educational video materials over the mobile phone. Text2Teach actually creates that culture of learning in a mobile way,” explains Globe Telecom Corporate Social Responsibility head Jeffrey Tarayao.
The program was recently launched in Ligao City, Albay in the Philippines. 24 public elementary schools in the area were givenText2Teach packages with almost 400 educational video materials preloaded on their Nokia devices.
“With the introduction of Text2Teach, we hope for a significant improvement in the academic performance of the pupils because we expect that our students will be benefiting much from this. Unlike in the normal method of teaching, which is simple lecturing, this time subjects like Mathematics, Science and English have become more lively, more enjoyable. And we are hoping that learning will become meaningful and lasting for the students in this direction,” Dr. Evangeline Palencia, Department of Education Schools Division superintendent, City Schools Division of Ligao shares.
According to Manuel Ferrer, a principal of an elementary school using the program, the school improved its National Achievement Test scores by 8 percent after only using it for a few months.
This program shows just how important online videos can be in improving our education. They are a new way to engage students in the classroom by changing up the teaching style. Online videos seem to be an educational tool that is quickly rising in importance and effectiveness.
Check out how you can join in the discussion:
I’ve found your blog to be quite informative. As someone new to blogging, I’m visiting various websites to learn about more about blogging in general and how I can monetize my blog. I’m going to bookmark your blog post so I can go to it from time to time.
Text2Teach offers a great alternative learning medium away from the class room, i struggle to see how it will really help academic results though.