De La Salle Santiago Zobel School has recently been given recognition by Apple, Inc. as an Apple Distinguished School for innovation, leadership and educational excellence for 2016 and 2017.
Every year, Apple opens its doors to different schools across the globe for this distinguished recognition. DLSZ is one of the first three schools in the Philippines to have achieved this.
“This vision of DLSZ is to be the spark of technology-aided learning. In the next 10 years, we hope that from what we have learned, we will be able to contribute to Philippine education in deepening further the use of technology and promote the use of a more dynamic and active type of learning that we have experienced during these years. I hope that our students would be leaders in their own education and our teachers will be experts in the nation and share these experiences to other schools. With all these, the students learn outside the walls of their classroom and the possibilities of their learning would be endless,” Br. Bernard S. Oca FSC said.
In 2012, DLSZ introduced the PEARL Program, a personal mobile learning program. After three years, this was upgraded to the Next Generation Blended Learning (NxGBL) Program–blending face-to-face instruction, multimedia and mobile devices to enable dynamic and personalized learning processes so that students will be able to develop innovation skills.
Through the years, the school has continuously updated its infrastructure and facilities, teacher-training programs and utilization of mobile learning devices inside the classrooms. Additionally, the entire campus is enabled with 400 Mbps of Internet bandwidth and 125 Wi-Fi access points making every corner a learning space for students to learn more than they can imagine. The students are encouraged to use mobile devices so that they can be more creative and responsive inside and even outside the classroom.
Furthermore, DLSZ teachers undergo regular training programs to arm them with the necessary skills to create innovative, constructive and authentic curriculums that would answer the needs of 21st century learners. Mobile applications and learning management systems are widely used by the teachers in facilitating student learning.
In the first Apple Education Leadership Summit held in the country on April 28-29, 2016, six teachers and twelve grade school and high school students served as showcase presenters and shared best practices in producing performance-based outputs.
Attesting to the school’s thrust of providing training programs in technology-aided learning, Ms. Winona Diola, Grade School Science Teacher has also been recognized as an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE), Class of 2015. She was also one of the ADE Showcase Presenters during the 2014 ADE institute and will also attend the Worldwide Institute on July 24-29, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) are part of a global community of education leaders recognised for doing amazing things with Apple technology in and out of the classroom. They explore new ideas, seek new paths and embrace new opportunities. (apple.com/ph/education/apple-distinguished-educator/).
In the future, the school intends to produce more ADEs from among its faculty. DLSZ President and High School Principal, Br. Bernard S. Oca FSC said, “Our faculty have been doing research in the effectiveness of the use of this type of learning. So we will continue to deepen this with further research in different disciplines and subject areas.” Ms. Genevieve Pillar, Grade School Science Coordinator and Mr. Jose Mari Calamlam, High School Math Teacher, presented their research outputs in international conferences last year.
DLSZ will continue to be a pioneer in integrating technology inside the classrooms and to provide more learning spaces for students to become reflective, creative, collaborative, critical thinkers and problem-solvers. This recognition has helped the school to be identified as a world-class, learner-centered institution.
