At the UNESCO sponsored Next Generation of Teachers Conference 3 held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan on October 24, 2012, Br Dennis gave participants (composed of CHED and DepEd officials, school administrators, teachers, non-government organizations) a glimpse of the PEARL Program of DLSZ. Below is the abstract of the presentation:
We normally worry about the future and ask ourselves what will the future bring to our children. A Xerox scientist in the 70’s once said: The best way to predict the future is to create it. In De La Salle Zobel (Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila), a basic education school (K-12) of 4,000 students, the future is being created through its pilot implementation of the mobile learning program called the PEARL Program. Br Dennis Magbanua FSC, the President and High School Principal and members of the DLSZ PEARL Executive Committee are at the forefront of the 1:1 (BYOD – Bring Your Own Device) implementation of the PEARL Program that began in June 2012 for two grade levels (a total population of almost 800 Grade 4 and First Year High School students). The new technology-enhanced curriculum offered challenged the school administration which led to the development of creative ways to deal with certain issues such as teacher training, instructional design, classroom management, home school collaboration, cost of the mobile learning devices, research, physical facilities and networking/internet access. It is important to note that the DLSZ PEARL Program aims to directly respond to the skills development of the 21st Century Learner and is inspired by the innovative attitude of the Founder of the De La Salle school system, St John Baptist de la Salle (France, 1719).
The presentation was well received as shown in the huge interest of the members of the audience to get to know more about the details of implementing the program in their own contexts.