At the recent 10th anniversary celebration of Text2Teach, Microsoft Devices re-established its support for education with an upgrade of the Microsoft Education Delivery (MED) technology that will continue to inspire teachers and improve the students' quality of learning.
MED, conceptualized in 2003, is a mobile software that enables the delivery of educational videos to remote, hard-to-reach areas with data stored in Lumia and other Windows Phone devices. Teachers and trainers can access and download over 300 tailored content for Grade 5 and 6 Math, Science, English and Values Education from a constantly updated catalog over a mobile network. These are used as teaching aids for classroom viewing via a television screen or a video projector.
After signing an agreement together with the Ayala Foundation, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Education (DepEd), Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), Globe Telecom that will mainstream Text2Teach, implementing it in 38,000 public schools nationwide, Sanna Eskelinen, Global Lead for Social Investment at Microsoft Devices shared that "local partners are important because it is instrumental in the success of the education program. Aside from allowing you to customize content, they also help in the implementation especially when faced with local issues such as electricity or natural calamity."
MED has evolved since its inception 10 years ago. Now approaching Phase 5, the system now enjoys the additional convenience of projecting the Lumia 630 Dual Sim's screen to the TV via WiFi. Equipped with Windows Phone 8.1OS that brings the ability to project a handset's screen on to a larger screen wirelessly, Lumia allows teachers to show downloaded videos effortlessly without the trouble of connecting wires.
Part of the upgrade is also an updated MED that will allow teachers to easily browse, comment and ask questions on content provided by the DepEd and download files and videos through an intuitive and user-friendly interface. The encouragement of interactivity among teachers allows better feedback, ensuring that teaching materials are constantly improved and crafted to better suit the needs of classrooms. Eskelinen says, "this mechanism will allow partner developers to continuously improve the technology and content to better suit its target teachers and students."
Text2Teach is the Filipino name given to the global program called BridgeIT conceptualized by Nokia, Pearson, the International Youth Foundation and the United Nations Development Program and is the longest-running out of the 12 countries that have implemented it since 2004 including other developing countries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh.
Reaching over 700,000 students and 16,000 teachers throughout 2,500 schools in the Philippines, Text2Teach has received global recognition, being dubbed "one of the 100 most inspiring social tech innovations" by Nominet Trust. It was also identified as one of the ten "Exemplary Information Communications Technology Innovations for Education" at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Forum on ICT in Education, last 2013.
The use of the MED technology has shown improvement in student's performance and National Achievement Test scores, fostering positive attitudes towards learning and using technology for teaching and the improvement of classroom environments.
"The rapid advancement of technology is something that we need to take advantage of, especially for education programs, where the need for constant improvement, renewal and updating is essential, " said Eskelinen.
