SEAMEO INNOTECH launches MT4T resource kit
As a response to the growing concern about facilitating teaching and learning in the 21st century, SEAMEO INNOTECH locally launched the resource kit for its project, Mobile Technology for Teachers (MT4T), last 24 October 2014 at the SEAMEO INNOTECH Center, Quezon City.
MT4T is a teacher resource kit promoting the use of mobile technology in Southeast Asian education setting. The project focuses on enhancing the teachers’ personal and professional development, while promoting the development of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in themselves and among their students.
“Teaching in the 21st century has become far more challenging.” said Mr. Mario Deriquito, Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary for Partnerships and External Linkages. “The MT4T is designed precisely to update teachers on mobile technology and its many possible uses in the classroom.” he added.
The resource kit is composed of a web portal and set of eBooks. The MT4T web portal is an online resource where teachers can download various teaching-learning materials. It also serves as an online discussion forum for teachers who have used the MT4T resource kits.
As stated by Mr. Philip Purnell, Manager of SEAMEO INNOTECH’s Educational Research and Innovation Office (ERIO), “one of the underlying objectives [of the project] is to help facilitate building a Southeast Asian learning community of teachers and educators.”
The eBooks, on the other hand, provide a rich set of resources to develop the teachers’ skills, knowledge, and values in the use of mobile technology for teaching and learning. The eBooks also include task-based videos which make the learning more interactive. The eBooks can be accessed through the MT4T web portal or through the SEAMEO INNOTECH eReader.
SEAMEO INNOTECH partnered with Vibe Technologies to develop a unique eReader for the eBooks. It can be installed on iOS, Android, and Windows, and may be downloaded from the MT4T portal (www.seameo-innotech.org/mt4t).
Currently, there are seven eBooks that cover the use of popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Edmodo. The materials in the kit were designed and organized for different level of users such as Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.
Ms. Debbie Lacuesta, Senior Officer of SEAMEO INNOTECH’s ERIO and head of the MT4T project, said that one of the main reasons why the project was developed was to ensure that the use of mobile technology would be “positive and creative rather than destructive; foster curiosity, critical and reflective thinking rather than just passive consumption of information; and promote respect for diversity instead of negativism and cyber bullying.”
SEAMEO INNOTECH is set to launch the MT4T resource kit in six Southeast Asian countries and has already started conducting orientation sessions for primary and secondary teachers in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
