INNOTECH, DepEd, UNICEF conduct writeshop to develop ALS LAC session guides
SEAMEO INNOTECH, the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd), and UNICEF Philippines continue to work together in forwarding the Alternative Learning System 2.0 (ALS 2.0) Five-Year Strategic Roadmap. Under a tripartite cooperation agreement, the Technical Support to DepEd ALS 2.0 (TS-ALS 2.0) Project seeks to provide capacity building programs for the ALS implementers on the use of mobile technology for teaching and learning, and digital citizenship. Part of INNOTECH’s contribution to this project is the development of two Learning Action Cell (LAC) Session Guides (SG) for ALS.
(Related article: INNOTECH partners with DepEd ALS and UNICEF Philippines for National Orientation on MT4T)
In a poll conducted in December 2020, Key Trainers of ALS were asked about the topic to be prioritized in the development of LAC SGs. Majority of the poll respondents identified as a priority focus area the contextualization of e-Citizenship Learning Packets—Mobile Technology for Teachers or MT4T’s resources on digital citizenship—for ALS setup, while the ALS Task Force selected the implementation of MT4T orientation program as another priority topic. The LAC session guides based on these two topics were developed through a ten-day writing period with live feedbacking sessions, and asynchronous team consultations and review from 8 to 19 February 2021.
Two teams worked on developing the selected LAC topics. Each team had one lead writer, two ALS implementers as ALS context validators, and an INNOTECH representative as content expert on MT4T. Two sets of panel reviewers were also formed to evaluate each LAC session guide and give technical feedback to enhance the quality and relevance of the drafts prepared. Each panel was composed of an ALS mobile teacher, a District ALS Coordinator, a school head, a Division ALS Focal Person, a Regional ALS Focal Person, an ALS Task Force representative, and an INNOTECH representative.
The writeshop included three online sessions. The first online session, which happened on 8 February 2021, provided an opportunity for each team to get an overview of their assigned topic and agree on a LAC guide outline. The outline was then presented to the panel of LAC evaluators for critiquing and approval before the team embarked on the writing process. The second online session involved only the teams of LAC developers. Each had a consultation process on their own to validate the initial drafts prepared by the lead LAC writers based on the approved LAC outlines.
The third and final online session, which took place on 15 February 2021, gathered both teams with their panel of reviewers for the presentation of the draft LAC guides. The drafts were revised in real time as the panel of reviewers gave their comments. The lead LAC writers were then given a few more days to finalize the drafts before submitting to INNOTECH for internal review and copyediting. Once this process was completed, the LAC session guides designed for ALS were scheduled for try-out in three pilot sites—Oriental Mindoro in Region IV-B, Iligan City in Region X, and Cotabato Province in Region XII.
