ICT could manipulate teaching and learning processes not empowers teachers and students to enhance teaching and learning through interactive project-based learning that discusses local, national,and international issues and concerns with the use of critical thinking skills, teachers and students would engage themselves in an intellectual milieu that could help other teachers and students become aware about certain issues in a broader and global perspective.
Thus, teaching and learning beyond the classroom entails a boost in the mind and in the development of skills. Undeniably, online telecollaboration makes an edge in education and a difference in the globe.
International education and resource network
With the skills and knowledge gained from the Telecollaborative Learning Workshop for Teachers held at the Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore in 2001, Mrs Ma Luisa Hernandez-Larcena, Makati Science High School English Department coordinator, initiates and facilitates an international educational telecollaboration among her fourth year high school students via the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN).
iEARN is a non-profit organization consisting of over 20 000 teachers and more than 2 million youth in 115 countries. Since 1988, iEARN has pioneered online school linkages to enable students to engage in meaningful educational projects with peers around the corner and throughout the world.
Participating in international telecollaborative projects sponsored by the iEARN serves as a gateway for Makati Science students to be part of the global community of learners. It also paves the way for a broader scope of literacy and communication skills by encouraging interaction with other student-participants from around the world through the online project forum.
All iEARN projects involve a final product or exhibition of the learning that has taken place as part of the collaboration. This includes books, websites, magazines, art exhibits, workshops, letter-writing campaigns, creative writing anthologies, reports to government officials, and many more examples of youth taking action as part of what they are learning in school.
In addition to the online collaboration, iEARN Centers worldwide host a range of local, regional, national, and international conferences for country coordinators, teachers and student-facilitators throughout the year. Likewise, Mrs Larcena, the Project-Facilitator of A VISION: An Anthology of Creative Writings, was chosen by the Executive Council as the Philippine Delegate in the First and Second iEARN-Asia Pacific Conferences held in Tokyo, Japan, on July 31-Aug. 4, 2006, and on Aug. 23 and 25, 2007, respectively, along with delegates from 15 Asia Pacific countries—Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, United Kingdom, and United States.
The delegates were also joined by Japanese teachers and students. Both conferences were sponsored by the Japan Education and Resource Network. The first conference started the Asia Educational Network, via the Asian Learning Circles, which aims to provide Asian children with a place for secure dialogue, a place to improve conversation skills, a place to learn globally, at the same time to gain global perspectives, while the second conference gave the accomplishment results as part of the monitoring process.
Makati Science senior students are currently participating in the following iEARN telecollaborative projects:
 Teddy Bear Exchange Project. A telecollaborative project that encourages authentic writing and provides opportunity for students to develop an understanding of cultures other than their own.
Asian Learning Circle: My School Project. A telecollaborative project that promotes online interaction by citing similarities and differences among schools in Asia. It provides participants the opportunity to use the English language for conversation.
A Day in The Life Project. A telecollaborative project that focuses on cross-cultural comparisons through the participants’ accounts of their daily experiences. This project is complimented with a digital photo section in which students share captioned autobiographical photographs that have left an imprint in their memories and on their lives.
A VISION: Anthology of Creative Writing. A telecollaborative project which aims to showcase the youth’s thoughts,
viewpoints and insights of things around them and even across borders, regardless of cultural and racial diversity. Its purpose is to use art and the medium of creative writing to demonstrate that despite ethnic, cultural, linguistic, racial differences, teenagers around the world share the same hopes, fears, interests, and concerns.
Makati Science Robotics Team
Teaching students to design and to construct intelligent mechanical devices are novel pedagogical concepts, but with efficient training and continual support from the administration and the city government, the Makati Science has won a special award in an international robotics competition.
Since the start of the robot olympiad in 2004, the Makati Science has been representing the Philippines thrice in a row, and the Makati Science Innovative Minds and Genius Individual Network (Ms Imagine), Makati Science Robotics team, grabbed the Best Presentation Award in the Second World Robot Olympiad (WRO2) Science Fiction Open Category Junior High School Level in Bangkok, Thailand.
Besting 121 entries from Japan, China, Brunei, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Russian Federation, Ms Imagine constructed a futuristic city populated by robots fashioned out of Lego blocks.
During the competition, Ms Imagine’s Cyril Punsalang Lumboy of IV-Sir Isaac Newton and Siegfrid Paras Mendoza and Glenn Angelo Endaya Galano of IV-Michael Faraday were asked to visualize and to interpret the Earth a billion years from now.
Mr Clarence Sirisena, WRO chairman, said that the olympiad brings pupils and students around the world together to develop their technical, creative thinking, and problem solving skills through challenging and educational robot competitions.
In 2004, the Makati Science bagged fourth place, when it represented the country for the first time in the WRO1 Sumo Wrestling Spree Regular Category Junior High School Level in Singapore, besting 69 teams from 13 countries.
Last school year, the Makati Science represented again the country in the WRO3 Robot Adventure Regular Category Junior High School Level in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China.
Nicky Serina Amista of III-Antoine Lavoisier and Reinzy Cruz Colle, Jeremiah Songcuan Sablad, and Niño Mark Pascual Lustria of IV-Sir Isaac Newton, accompanied by Miss Katherine Evangelista Javier, former Ms Imagine coach; and Karlo Stefano Azcarraga Domondon of IV-Sir Isaac Newton and Mark Joseph Tajo Solis and Mario Bryan Nool Tan of IV-Michael Faraday, accompanied also by Mr Job Alzaga Ferrer, comprised the Philippine delegation in the WRO1 and WRO3, respectively.
Mr Roberto Vocis Anir, former Makati Science principal, accounted the school’s success in robotics to the full support of the Division of City Schools of Makati headed by Miss Elena del Rosario Ruiz and the City Government of Makati under the administration of Mayor Jejomar Cabauatan Binay of Makati because “they provided us eight robotic units and four IBM ThinkPad laptops.”
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