MANILA — Over 200 students from iACADEMY attended the campus-based conference ‘School of Creativity’ which was presented by adobo magazine and co-presented by Jollibee. Held on 26th September, the event featured educational speakers who gave tips to both students and lecturers on how to leverage technology and digital media to improve the education system.
The first speaker for the event was Galvin Ngo, CEO of Woohoo Learning Lab, who was quick to point out the presence of educational technology and its rapid growth in the classroom. The new generation of kids come ready to work with these new technologies, which play an important role in children’s learning and acquiring various cognitive knowledge.
IN PHOTO: Galvin Ngo, CEO of WooHoo Learning Lab
“I think we have to begin to ask questions about what we want to demand from technology at least as far as teaching is concerned,” Galvin Ngo said. “When we give you access to technology, we give you access to an abundance of resources that allow you learn not just from us, teachers, but to also learn from the resources that you have accessed.”
For Ngo, teachers have to be motivated to use educational technology materials because the use of these in teaching provides better interaction with students and better reception of information as the students receive knowledge in visual, auditory and kinesthetic way. Among other things, an educational technology motivates students to work independently where they are more motivated to return to learning and working because modern technical equipment is widely available at any given moment.
“One of the things that we are moving towards in WooHoo Learning Lab is to eventually become like an online learning studio where we break in the intersections of media, production, and learning,” Ngo shared. “It’s a very exciting time in education because as we produce all of these things, the variety of things that people can learn from continue to grow.”
With the development of information and communication technology, especially computers, instructors need to try to see the benefits and the effect of the use of educational technology compared to older, traditional learning.
“Learning is not just for you to learn about content, but we also want students to think about what they are learning about,” said Ngo. “We want students to be able to reflect on their learning to make connections with real life because after all, if you don’t know why you’re learning what you’re learning, then I don’t think it will be something that you’ll continue to remember or that you’ll find relevant in the future.”
IN PHOTO: Ria Lu, Executive Creative Director of Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP)
Following Ngo on the podium was Ria Lu, Executive Director of Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP), who talked about the application of game concepts into teaching in the classroom. “Gamification is basically using game design and play concepts on [non-game activities] to promote a certain behavior or to motivate [students] to do a certain action.” Lu explained.
Implementation of game elements in education is logical since there are some facts that are typical for the games and training. Users’ actions in games are aimed at achieving a specific goal (win) in the presence of obstacles. In education there is a learning objective, which has to be achieved by performing specific learning activities or interaction with educational content. Tracking the players’ progress in games is an important element, because next steps and moves are based on their results. In education, tracking the students’ progress is essential to achieve the learning objectives as students’ learning path is determined by the achieved levels of knowledge and skills.
“The good thing about [gamification] is [when] normally things are not very interesting to do like classes we’re not so engaged with so, using these gamification concepts, you’ll be able to use game designs or some ideas we use in games to make that class more interesting or more enjoyable.” Game mechanics are familiar to consumers as most of them have played or continue to play different games. Although this conclusion applies to companies and their employees, it is unconditionally true for education as well.
IN PHOTO: Lester Cruz, Co-Founder and Head of Corporate Sounding Affairs of SERIOUS STUDIO
The last speaker for the event was Lester Cruz, Co-founder and Head of Corporate Sounding Affairs of SERIOUS STUDIO, who talked about how to build portfolios that are more on contextualized things that will be valuable in getting someone interested when you present them.
For Cruz, “portfolios are really a good thing in our industry ‘cause in other industries, you’re just judged based on your resume and resumes are just sheets of paper that don’t really tell you what you really are until you’re in the space.” He added, “portfolios are way for us to see like how you’re skilled with your creative stuff or how you think.”
The personal information that you incorporate into your portfolio can greatly reflect on your abilities as an individual as well as become a useful tool in marketing yourself to employers, corporations, colleges and universities. A portfolio does not take the place of a resume, but it can accentuate your abilities and what you can offer in the chosen field.
One lesson that Cruz left the student was: The real purpose of making portfolio is to provide tangible proof of your value in the workplace, and there’s a whole host of ways to do that. From outlining project descriptions and showcasing work samples to offering up letters of reference and customer reviews, a portfolio can document your professional accomplishments in any way that makes sense for your gig.
