After a successful year of implementing the country’s first iPad pilot program for second year high school students, Foundation University is expanding the program to cover grades four to six in elementary and the entire first to fourth year high school levels.
Victor Vicente G. Sinco, FU vice president for finance and administration, made the announcement recently to parents during separate Parents-Teachers Association meetings for the elementary and high school levels.
“We want your children to be globally competitive,” Sinco, whose university is the biggest Mac user outside of Manila, said.
Foundation University is a 62-year old non-stock, non-profit and non-sectarian institution founded by Sinco’s grandfather, former UP President Vicente G. Sinco, in 1949. It made the bold move of requiring second year students to have iPads in lieu of textbooks last June. When parents threatened to look for other schools, FU didn’t budge but braced for the worst.
“We thought enrollment would go down but we just had to go on because we had to show to everyone that this program would work,” Sinco said. “To our surprise, enrollment actually went up!”
Sinco, a licensed architect in Hawaii, has been a fan of Macintosh computers since he started working in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. He spends half the year in the Philippines and half in Hawaii. When in Hawaii, he still helps his mother, University President Mira Sinco, manage the university online.
“When he’s away, he keeps in touch with everyone here on campus by email or by telephone and would attend university meetings by teleconferencing,” Joel Balajadia, the university’s IT supervisor, said of his boss.
Part of Sinco’s daily routine is to brush up on technological innovations, such as the iPad program, and bombards his staff with emails about these trends, forcing everyone to try hard to catch up, Balajadia said.
Technology may indeed be a cause for fear, especially for the uninitiated and for parents who belong to the “typewriter generation.” But Michelle Angana Tinio is starting to enjoy the wonders of information technology through her son Cyrus Paul, who belongs to the pioneer batch of the iPad program.
“I noticed that my son is eager to learn and his grades have increased,” Tinio told the Dumaguete MetroPost. And because part of the iPad program is to also orient the parents on how to use the device, Tinio uses the iPad on weekends. “I go to places with WiFi connection and I go on Facebook and send and receive my email. Even my 74-year-old mother enjoys browsing on the iPad,” she said.
Fe Cena, mother of four students currently enrolled at FU, said the iPad is a valuable tool for education. “It makes research easier,” she said. But the downside is with the printing of requirements because the have to send it to a computer with a printer by email. They also cannot use a USB to transfer files.
Cena said her daughter, Alessandra, can do anything on the iPad. “She has improved her presentations using iPad software like keynote.”
Cena and Tinio speak from their experience with the iPad program while parents of incoming students are still trying to understand how it will improve their child’s learning.
“I know many of you are confused and concerned, but give it a chance and see what it does for our child,” Sinco said.
“The iPad,” he explained, “is no longer the tool of the future–it is the present. If you don’t jump into this, you will be left behind!”
