PLDT Enterprise Rolls Out eLearning Program to Aid Millennials' Studies

Wazzup Pilipinas!

PLDT Enterprise, via their Digital Mobility team, leads innovation in eLearning or digital technology-backed education as it recently launched SMART's new eLearning Program for the academe and training institutions. This consists of a suite of products that leverage the benefits of internet-based technologies in schools.

This erases the perception that many people have of technology such as gadgets as mere distractions to students' studies. The products in this suite are specifically developed to benefit not only students and teachers, but also administrators, parents, among many others.

"Our view is that the devices will serve more as effective study aids, and act less as distractions," said Gio Abaquin, Head of Digital Mobility, Disruptive Business Group (DBG), the emerging technologies business unit of PLDT Enterprise.

"Today’s millennials have learned to accept the role that devices play in their daily lives. It is important to bring in this new technology into the classroom, for both the obvious, physical reasons, such as lighter physical loads versus heavy books and notebooks, as well as for technological benefits," Abaquin explained.

"Mobile learning supports the learning process rather than being integral to it. Mobile learning can also be a useful add-on tool for students with special needs. It can be used as a ‘hook’ to re-engage disaffected youth," Chet Alviz, Head of SMACS (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud and Security) added.

For the eLearning App, there will be package options such as app-only, app with SIM, as well as tablet bundles.

More than a Learning Management System (LMS), the SMART eLearning program creates an end-to-end Digital Campus Experience. SMART is set to roll out the eLearning program with select schools.

The whole suite offers PLDT iGate, SMART WiFi, SMART M2M SIMs, SMART Prepaid SIMs, customized website with eCommerce capability to help establish online presence, Vehicle and Personnel trackers for the school transport as well as for student use, customized App, including evolved learning solutions such as SMART's eLearning LMS and Microsoft Office 365. All these can be accessed by authorized teachers, admin, and students in and out of the campus.

“We are very pleased to have included in our service portfolio an educational digital tool that not only benefits students, but also the entire school ecosystem. Parents, for example, will be able to gain access to their child’s developmental progress.
​ ​Educators, on the other hand, will be able to freely interact with both students and parents on the more important aspects of today’s learning experience,” added Nico Alcoseba, Head of PLDT’s Disruptive Business Group.

PLDT Enterprise stressed digital technology-backed education is ever more rising and it believes the Philippines has a high potential for growth in eLearning adoption. Ambient Insight, an international market research firm that specializes in eLearning and Mobile Learning, said in a statement that in Asia alone, the market for learning and training programs supported by electronic technology is expected to reach $11.5 billion by 2016, or more than twice the $5.2 billion in 2011.

The two countries with the highest growth rates in the world are Vietnam and Malaysia, respectively at 44.3 percent and 39.4 percent. Also in the top 10 are Romania and China. The Asian region is also known for a high adoption in mobile technology, due to proliferation of low priced mobile devices.

Currently, the Philippines ranks at seventh place in terms of growth rate in e-learning. The country joins Thailand, India,Kenya, Slovakia, and Azerbaijan with growth rates of between 30 percent and 35 percent.

This shows that the Philippines is well on the way towards adapting eLearning for educational institutions – and even in businesses. SMART's goal is to be at the forefront of that digital change, at home, at work, and even in school.

LRT, MRT Common Station Now A Go After 7 Year Deadlock

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The seven-year deadlock is finally over.

After years of legal entanglements, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has inked a consensus among shareholders to identify a single location of the Common Station, which will connect the three urban transit lines: LRT Line 1, MRT-3, and the proposed MRT-7, which will run from North Avenue to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

The Common Station, which will be built between SM North EDSA and Trinoma with access to both malls and major roads such as EDSA, will provide a common concourse or atrium wherein train commuters can conveniently transfer from one line to another.

An agreement between the DOTr, Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPHI), Universal LRT Corp. (ULC) and Light Rail Manila Consortium (LRMC), North Triangle Depot Commercial Corporation represented by Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will be signed tomorrow, Sept 28 to finalize the agreement.

The DPWH also assured that the underpass being built will seamlessly integrate with the Common Station.


Resolving the dispute

Getting all parties to agree is among DOTr’s Secretary Arthur Tugade targets within the first 100 days, and it involved engaging all stakeholders in meetings in order to reach a consensus. In a meeting last Sept. 8, the country’s top CEOs: SM’s Tessie Sy Coson and Hans Sy, Ayala’s Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, San Miguel’s Ramon Ang, and Metro Pacific’s Manny Pangilinan agreed that a unified station is necessary to make commuting more convenient to the public.



Legal tussle

The Common Station project started in 2009 and has been on hold due to legal issues. The LRT Authority inked a deal with SMPHI to build the station near SM North EDSA. Five years later, the DOTC decided to build the Station near Ayala’s Trinoma citing reasons to cut costs. The Supreme Court (SC) intervened and issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in favor of SMPHI to stop the construction of the Common Station.

The agreement to be signed tomorrow will pave the way for a filing of a joint motion to the SC to lift the TRO.

Hearing on Bills for Maternity Leave and Nutrition Support for Infants

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Asserting that there is an inextricable link between the well-being of mothers and the health of their children, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros today chaired two consecutive committee hearings that deliberated two of her health legislation; the bills seek to expand the paid maternity leave of working women and scale up nutrition support for infants.


Healthy Bulilit Act

Senate Bill No. 1145 or the Healthy Bulilit Law was deliberated in the Senate Committee on Health and Demography.

Hontiveros explained that her bill mandates the Department of Health (DOH) and the National Nutrition Council (NNC) to increase nutrition support to all children in the first 1,000 days. She characterized this period as crucial and intervention at this time is key to combatting nutritional stunting. The senator said undernutrition remains the underlying killer of children as it makes them vulnerable to bout of infections, low birth weights and wasting.


Philippines lost P328 B to undernutrition

Hontiveros, citing a report by the Save the Children International, also said that the Philippine economy lost at least P328 billion or the equal of 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013 due to the impact of childhood stunting on workforce productivity and education.

"We need to strengthen the government's commitment to provide children all the necessary nutrients to ensure their healthy growth. We must ensure that we have healthy bulilits who will grow up to become healthy Pinoys and Pinays," Hontiveros said.


150 days of maternity leave for working women

Hontiveros' Senate Bill No. 215 or the Expanded Maternity Leave Law Act of 2016 was heard by the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, which the senator also chairs.

The senator said her bill seeks to provide women workers in the public and private sectors, married or not, 120 days of maternity leave, and an additional 30 days for solo mothers. The additional 30 days can be allocated to alternate caregivers such as their common law partners, or relatives up to the 4th degree of consaguinity. It can also be extended to adopters or any person who has adopted a minor.

"It's time to introduce radical reforms to our maternity law to bring it at par with international standards. In Asia, we are lagging behind Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.

The government must respond to our women workers' pre and post-natal health needs. The government must also recognize and provide full support for women's reproductive work," Hontiveros said.


"Centennial gifts"
Hontiveros said that as the Senate celebrates its 100 years, she hoped that the passage of her bills will be some of the institution's "centennial gifts" to the Filipino families. "There is no better gift than the gift of a secure and healthy future. Let us bring forward real changes in the lives of our women and children," she concluded.