Alvin Balaba
VIA21
Challenge
Many public schools in the Philippines are still traditional in practice. Most educators, particularly Social Studies teachers, still deliver classroom instruction using conventional methods. They lack contemporary ways of presenting lessons and their pedagogical techniques are meager amidst the different innovations taking place. Instructional materials that they use are also conventional in nature; thus, 21st-century skills are not learned and practiced consistently. Because of this learners are hardly engaged in the learning process. They think to themselves that Social Studies is a really boring subject. Though there is still value with common teaching strategies, they are not responsive to the way students learn, use, and process information in these unprecedented times. Learners are now coined as DIGITAL NATIVES who think and process information differently. Being in close contact with computers, mobile devices, and different social media platforms, they have naturally adopted modern ways of communication and developed dynamic styles of absorbing various information. As of the moment, there are no localized studies, implementations in Philippine public schools, and resources on technology in the classroom that teachers can study and replicate. Teachers caught up in the blurry gap and great divide between the learning competencies, teaching pedagogies, learning resources, and the unique learning styles will result in students not having meaningful learning experiences in school, poor learning outcomes and in turn, teachers will have poor performance ratings in their annual teaching evaluations.