Bringing ICT to the hinterlands of Ilocos Sur

Gregorio Del Pilar, Ilocos Sur nestled on the slopes of the Cordillera mountains, is a historic town. This is where Tirad Pass is located, the place where a young general gave up his life in the defense of his country. And in honor of this general, the town got its name.

The people of Del Pilar are sturdy, simple, nature loving folks, hardened by the struggles of living on the Cordilleras. The people thrive mainly on farming the scenic terraced slopes. Water is abundant year round and the people can have 3 cropping seasons. Rice and tobacco are their main crops. The people of Del Pilar have simple aspirations in life brought about by their isolation from mainstream society

There are two routes leading to Del Pilar, Ilocos Sur. One is on land, a treacherous mountain trail passing the towns of Banayoyo and San Emilio, where only off-road 4-wheel drive vehicles could safely traverse and still with much difficulty. The mountain trail is usually close during the rainy season due to landslides along the route. The other route is both on land and water where only vehicles with a high wheel clearance (and much higher air intake) could safely traverse (amphibious vehicles will thrive here). This route passes through the towns of Galimuyod and Salcedo and traverses a river, crisscrossing it at least 9 times (without any bridge, that is) before reaching the town. This is the preferred route for the handful of passenger jeepneys that ply the Candon-DelPilar route because it is the shorter route. The nearest urban city is Candon (about 15 km via the river route) where the people of Del Pilar go to trade their produce and buy their daily needs.

iSchools 2009 recipients prepare sustainability plan

Stakeholders - consisting of the school Principal, a representative of the Local School Board, and a representative of the Parents-Teachers Association - from the 48 public high schools (PHS) from northern Luzon (cluster 2) which are recipients of the iSchools 2009F project attended the Sustainability Planning Workshop (SPW) held at Heritage Resort, Caoayan, Ilocos Sur on November 22-25, 2010. The SPW aimed to familiarize the iSchools recipients on the principles and concepts of sustainability and how these may be applied to their schools and assist the participants in drafting their school Sustainability Plan. Through a series of workshops, the participants analyzed their respective school and community environments, identified the most appropriate sustainability model and crafted their respective school’s sustainability plan. The drafted sustainability model was then presented in a plenary session for critiquing and improvement.

ISPSC completes CILC in 6 PHS

Four public high schools in Ilocos Sur and 2 in Ilocos Norte are added to the list of schools that are ready to integrate ICT in their curriculum. Teachers and selected students of Solsona National High School – Bagbag Campus (Solsona, Ilocos Norte), Nueva Era National High School (Ilocos Norte), Puro National High School (Magsingal, Ilocos Sur), Pantay-Tamurong National High School (Caoayan, Ilocos Sur), San Juan National High School (San Juan, Ilocos Sur), and Gregorio Del Pilar National High School (Del Pilar, Ilocos Sur)  completed successfully the Computer and Internet Literacy Course conducted by ISPSC iSchools project staff with the help of resource person from Benguet State University.

The participants of the CILC training learned to use Ubuntu Linux and Open Source office applications Writer, Calc, Impress and Firefox which are installed in the computers delivered to the iSchools recipient schools. They learned how to apply these applications in facilitating learning such as the use of multimedia presentations as well as in support activities such as lesson preparation, student evaluation, and correspondence. A workshop followed each module in order to apply the operations and skills demonstrated by the resource person. The participants were required to complete their outputs which include a communication letter, test paper, sample lesson plan, class record, grading sheet and multimedia presentation of a lesson. As a final output, the participants also presented their multimedia presentation and familiarized themselves in using the multimedia projector. They also learned to scan photos and book pages using the flatbed scanner. During the module on Internet, they created their respective email accounts and learned to search information and become critical with the information they get from the Net.

Dr. Rafael Querubin, ISPSC President, attended the closing program at Nueva Era National High School and exhorted the participants to use the computers and integrate ICT in their curriculum.

The CILC trainings were conducted by the following ICDL-certified trainers: Mr. Eduardson Tacuban (ISPSC), Mr. Charlie Dasalla (ISPSC), Mr. Jonathan Pagatpatan (ISPSC ), Ms. Frevy Teofilo (BSU), Ms. Jag Fernando (BSU), and Ms. Rachel Joy Sison (BASC). The trainers were assisted by the following qualified laboratory assistants from ISPSC: Mr. VJ Barayuga, Mr. Gerald Directo, Mr. Melvin Dato, Mr. Jonjon Ancheta, Mr. Eduardo Foronda, Ms. Felicidad Menor, Ms. Gina Mae Villanueva, Ms. Juvy Deocales, Ms. Ma. Cecilia Lazarte, and Ms. Julia Josephine Dasalla. The trainings were facilitated by Ms. Gemma B. Somera and Mr. Fernando Calacal.

CILC trainings starts

The training component of the iSchools project starts with the conduct of the Computer and Internet Literacy Course on site in the 6 recipient public high schools in Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte provinces.
The ISPSC iSchools team, together with invited CILC trainers from other SUC partners, will begin the CILC training on November 19-21 for the first phase. The training teams will return to the schools for the second phase on December 4-6, 2010.

Deployment @ Gregorio Del Pilar NHS

Bringing computerization to the hinterlands of Ilocos Sur where roads don't exist is quite a challenge. The iSchools team that went to install the wireless internet learning laboratory (WILL) at Gregorio Del Pilar National High School did had an unforgetable adventure during their travel to that place.

Click the link below to view photos during the deployment at GDPNHS.
Deployment @ GDPNHS

6 iSchools laboratories installed

Finally the computers arrived in the recipient schools. What a delight to behold the bright and joyful faces of students, teachers and parents as they admired the brand new computers that emerged from the boxes. And how much more when they saw the colorful lights of the cooling fans of the server which has a transparent casing, the projector, the scanner and the subwoofer. The installation team was relieved despite the fatigue and exhaustion of working in the warm rooms.


Six recipient schools in Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte have already been installed with the Wireless Internet Learning Laboratory (WILL) on October 2, 4, and 11, 2010 namely: Solsona National High School, Nueva Era National High School, San Juan National High School, Puro National High School and Pantay-Tamurong National High School and Del Pilar National High School. One school, the Puro NHS, which has already an existing Internet connection was online right away.


There were several problems encountered with the installed machines, generally, the installation of the WILL was successful. some of the problems were fixed right away such as loose wi-fi card, loose memory card, loose hard drive connection and the like. One keyboard was found to be defective and three units could not connect to the wi-fi.

The school principals were instructed to install the air conditioning unit, and if possible it should be operational before the start of the CILC trainings.

The installation team consisted of Mr. Eduardson Tacuban, Mr. Jonathan Pagatpatan, Mr. VJ Barayuga, Mr. Fernando Calacal, Mr. Melvin Dato and some OJT students. The teachers and students of the recipient schools also assisted during the opening of the boxes, checking of the serial numbers and cleaning up of the boxes and trash.

The next phase of the project will be the series of trainings to be conducted in the recipient schools. These are the Sustainability Planning Workshop, the Computer and Internet Literacy Course, the Laboratory Management Training, the Website Development Training, and the Library Management Training.

After the trainings, the teachers of the recipient schools are expected to become proficient in using ICT to enhance and improve the teaching and learning process.

Community mobilization completed

The ISPSC-iSchools team completed the community mobilization phase of the iSchools 2009 project. The team visited each of the recipient schools from July 7, 2010 to July 15, 2010 to inform the stakeholders regarding the iSchools project and elicit their commitment to support and sustain the project.

The stakeholders in all the schools were delighted to learn about the project and promised to extend their all out support for the success of the project. Except for Gregorio Del Pilar National High School, the other recipient schools have started the preparation of the Wireless Internet Learning Laboratory (WILL) such as the wiring installation, construction of computer tables, painting of the room and provision of window grills and reinforced doors. Gregorio Del Pilar NHS is a replacement for Mabilbila NHS and the stakeholders were not able to attend the project briefing. However, during the community mobilization, the parents, the LGU officials and the teachers vowed to complete the preparation of the WILL before the deployment.

The recipient schools for iSchools 2009F are the following:
Ilocos Norte
- Solsona National High School - Bagbag campus
- Nueva Era National High School
Ilocos Sur
- San Juan National High School - Bacsil, San Juan
- Puro National High School - Magsingal
- Caoayan National High School - Pantay-Tamurong, Caoayan
- Gregorio del Pilar National High School - Del Pilar, Ilocos Sur

New PM for ISPSC

The iSchools project team of ISPSC has a new manager for the 2009f implementation.

Mr. Eduardson A. Tacuban, the current Open Source Technology Expert (OSTE) has been appointed as the new project manager effective February 2009. Mr. Tacuban started his official capacity as PM when he attended the Project Planning for iSchools 2009f on February 8-12, 2010 at Angeles City.

Edson, as he is called by friends and colleagues, is a "workaholic". He is responsible for the establishment of the new Internet Center of the college, and is working on the interconnection between the campuses of ISPSC for faster and better communication and information sharing. Mr. Tacuban has just finished his Masters in IT at the University of the Cordilleras, Baguio City.

iSchools 2009f kicks off

More public high schools (PHS) will receive the computer laboratory and computer trainings for 2010 through the iSchools project 2009 fund.
The Human Capital Development Group (HCDG) of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) revealed that 600 public high schools all over the country will benefit from the iSchools 2009f bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 1000 since the start of the project.
The iSchools Project Management Office together with the ICT Coordinators from the partner state universities and colleges (SUC) conducted the planning conference on February 8-12, 2010 at Angeles City.

WELCOME

Welcome to the ISPSC iSchools 2009f Blog