School Website for Learning Action Cell in Dalaguete Districts
George P. Lumayag, Jobel L. Antopina, Zenny Galera, Gina Aleonar, and Mary Ann Gemota corresponding authors @ https://georgelumayag.weebly.com/[email protected]/ 09213964825 (2017) SST3, Dalaguete NHS, Pob., Dalaguete, Cebu; TIC, Mangyan NHS, Sibonga, Cebu; Principal 1, Eastside Christian Academy, Carcar City; SST3, Upland Elem. School, Carcar City; Guidance Coordinator, Kalangyawon NHS, Kalangyawon, Napo, Carcar City, Cebu
Abstract The aim of this action research paper is to enhance the K to 12 teachers in the use of technology in teaching learning process through the DepEd Program: Learning Action Cell (LAC) using the school website. This study was done to assess issues and challenges in the implementation of LAC sessions in the secondary schools of Dalaguete districts. The respondents were 38.31% out 192 teachers. Descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze the data. Research findings revealed 59.38% Secondary School Teacher 1; 25.00% SST3; 10.94% SST2; and 4.69% Master Teacher 1. Moreover, there were 59.38% teacher-respondents obtained Master of Arts units. There were 35.94% who had been teaching from 1 to 5 years; 25.00% of them had been teaching from 6-10 years; 21.88% of them had been teaching from 16 years and above; and precisely, 17.19% of them had been teaching from 11 to 15 years. Teacher-respondents claimed that school facilities and equipment were moderately available. And they claimed that the issues and challenges they met in the conduct of the LAC sessions were moderately serious with a Weighted Mean value of 2.05. Statistically, more than half (62.50 to 78.13%) of teacher-respondents didn’t interact their school website considering that their schools had no WiFi boosters and Local Area Networking was not installed to all buildings of their schools. And finally, they need the relevant trainings specifically in the building of personal / departmental / school website. The proposed training would help the school in the conduct of the LAC sessions using the school website. Thus, it was recommended to adopt the proposed training program in the building of school websites in Dalaguete districts.
Keywords: Information and Communications Technology (ICT); DepEd DalagueteDistricts’ School Websites; Descriptive Research; Dalaguete, Cebu, Philippines
I.INTRODUCTION
The world’s learning institutions are providing the virtual environments to people around the globe. Professors, instructors, teachers, students, parents, and professionals, even the unemployed individuals can browse a learning network like the school website acts as a method of communication to the community, which is important as cited by Robin Thompson, Laurie Kitchie, Robert Gagnon (2011). School website in the conduct of DepEd Learning Action Cell (LAC) Sessions is really very important for neophyte teachers, experienced teachers, external resources, and administrators. Action learning is linking concepts to illustrate that it is not merely a process, but a dynamic interaction between professional learning, communities, leadership and change as cited by Peter Aubusson, Robyn Ewing, Garry Hoban (2012). In the United States of America, the education department develops and produces instructional materials, books, and manuals showing different strategies for effective teaching…. a number of options suitable for each subject matter and situation, and are useful references for individual teachers and for learning action cell sessions as cited in the journal United States. Dept. of Education. Office of Policy and Planning (1992). In the Learning Action Cell (LAC) session, professional development of teachers is the core value of the school… in a regular forum for collaborative action planning and review in addressing instructional/supervisory concerns as also cited in UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (1991). The State shall establish, maintain and support a complete, adequate, and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people, the country and society-at-large as stipulated in (Republic Act No. 10533) DepEd institutionalizes Learning Action Cells (LACs) that aim to develop and support successful teachers by nurturing their knowledge, attitudes, and competencies in terms of curriculum, instruction, and assessment in their work stations as cited in (DepEd Order No. 35, s. 2016) Learning Action Cell (LAC) sessions, should be conducted at least once a month. Interactions may also be done through ICT when it is difficult to have face-to-face sessions, particularly when involving clustered schools. There is a need to prioritize the building of school website for LAC Sessions because in using the school website, the possible issues and concerns could be technically assisted using the computer aided online collaborations and thus, this is the support system for teachers who are tasked to deliver basic education, which is the core business of DepEd as stipulated in (DepEd Order No. 35, s. 2016) So, therefore, the objective of this action research is to develop the school website using the free subdomain for DepEd Learning Action Cell (LAC) sessions in Dalaguete districts. This study is anchored from Media Naturalness Theory (Ned Kock (2005) cited in (Kelsey, Sigrid, 2012) , Jean Piaget’s Principle Goal of Education as cited by (Timothy Chris Oberg 2008), Burn’s Transformational Leadership Theory, that “….transformational leadership must be grounded in moral foundations,” (Leithwood, as cited in Cashin et al., 2000) and cited in (Mark C. Bojeun, Ph.D., 2014). This is strengthened by the Department of Education through DepEd Order No. 35, s. 2016 entitled THE LEARNING ACTION CELL (LAC) AS A K TO 12 BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SCHOOL-BASED CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING. And this action research would gather first the issues and concerns in relation to the areas: improving access to education; improving the quality of education; and improving governance as cited in (DepEd Order No. 43, s. 2015). Then, the proposed school website shall be developed in order to technically deliver the objectives of the Learning Action Cell.
II.MATERIALS AND METHODS/RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this study the issues and challenges in the conduct of the Learning Action Cell (LAC) were the variable of interests. A transmittal letter was forwarded to DepEd Schools Division Superintendent of Cebu Province and then, to the principals or teacher-in-charge of the selected secondary schools of Dalaguete districts, namely: Casay National High School, Cawayan National High School, Dalaguete National High School, and Mantalongon National High School. This study utilized the Descriptive Survey Method to explore issues and challenges in the conduct of the Learning Action Cell (LAC) sessions using the school website of the randomly selected 64 teacher-respondents out of 192 total population of teachers in the selected secondary schools of Dalaguete Districts. Two (2) types of research questionnaires were used, the online submission template on this link at http://www.georgelumayag.com/school-website-for-lac-sessions-in-dalaguete-district.html and the one (1) page Assessment Survey Form for teacher-respondents. Frequencies, percentages, and Weighted Arithmetic Mean (e.g. f x x=fx; fx1+fx2+fx3=TWP; TWP/n=Mean)(f is the frequency; x is the point scale value; TWP is the Total Weighted Points; n is the number of sample respondents) were then used in presenting quantitative data. All of the data were gathered, tabulated, presented, analyzed and interpreted.
III.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Information of the Selected Schools and Gender of Respondents Out of 104 teachers from Dalaguete NHS, there were 32 (30.77%) teacher-respondents; out of 50 teachers of Mantalongon NHS, there were 16 (32.00%) teacher-respondents; out of 24 teachers from Casay NHS, there were 8 (33.33%); and out of 14 teachers from Cawayan NHS, there were 8 (57.14%) teacher-respondents.
Information of the Teacher-Respondents Among the randomly selected secondary school teacher-respondents, there were 18 or (28.13%) male; and 46 or (71.88%) female. Regardless of schools, there were there 38 or 59.38% Secondary School Teacher 1; 16 or 25.00% SST3; 7 or 10.94% SST2; and 3 or 4.69% Master Teacher 1. Moreover, there were 59.38% teacher-respondents obtained Master of Arts units, and there was one (1) Teacher-In-Charge with teaching loads who was a full-fledged doctor (Dev. Ed. D.). Among of teacher-respondents, there were 35.94% who had been teaching from 1 to 5 years; 25.00% of them had been teaching from 6-10 years; 21.88% of them had been teaching from 16 years and above; and precisely, 17.19% of them had been teaching from 11 to 15 years.
School Facilities and Equipment Table 3 generally shows that teacher-respondents claimed that school facilities and equipment were moderately available with mean value of 2.03 in the selected secondary schools of Dalaguete Districts. This finding is similar to the findings of the journal (University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Centre for Academic Research and Publication Initiative for the Advancement of Human Knowledge, 2008) that state most of the infrastructural facilities and equipment are just moderately available in primary schools. The implication for this is that schools in the Philippines have constructed and secured the needed facilities and equipment. The top six (6) parameters such as Computer Laboratory, Multi-purpose Covered Court, computer tables and chairs, WiFi modems and routers with internet connections, computer systems in the network, and projectors were very much available in the selected schools wherein these facilities and equipment were very much needed in the conduct of Learning Action Cell sessions inside and outside the computer laboratory for a bigger number of participants. However, in the parameter, Others, teacher-respondents claimed that WiFi Booster, CCTV Cameras, Speech Laboratory, lavatory, urinals, LED TV in every classroom, water tank, Conference Room were less available in the schools with a Weighted Mean of 1.13 in which these were issues that shall have to be addressed because these could help facilitate smooth instructional process in educating students. Furthermore, the very less available was the Comfort Room in every classroom with the Weighted Mean of 1.11. This issue could not really affect in the conduct of the LAC session especially if the school has an official website wherein ICT LAC Activity Cards are published online. The LAC participant could easily recover himself or herself to the ICT Instructional activities set for the two (2) hour LAC session. But if we value time management, self-comfort, and self-convenience, a Comfort Room shall be available inside the venue or computer laboratory or to the classroom because this is a part of the school development plan.
Issues and Challenges Met Table 4 generally shows that teacher-respondents claimed the issues and challenges met in the conduct of the LAC sessions were moderately serious with a Weighted Mean value of 2.05. They claimed the top three (3) parameters such as (1) “Time constraints or conflict of time schedules”, (2)“Lack of printed learning materials” as cited by (Antoni Verger, Hulya K. Altinyelken, Mario Novelli - 2012), and (3) “Lack of downloadable instructional materials” were very serious. The No. 2 finding is similar to the findings of (Antoni Verger et.al. 2012) that state the limited supply of printed materials, the inadequacy of the school budget allocation for the purchase of learning aids. The implication for these issues denotes financial capability of the school, now these can be allocated in the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOEA) as stipulated in DepEd Order 13, s. 2016 Well, aside from financial matters, a good intervention for these issues is the building of official school website that would provide teachers downloadable files and easy-accessed links for them to use in their teaching instructions. These downloadable files are also the suitable replacements of the printed learning materials wherein teachers can easily modify such files instead of retyping the contents of the documents. When it comes to the issue “Time constraints or conflict of time schedules” in the conduct of the LAC sessions, the best approach to solve such issue is the development of the official school website wherein they can download the ICT LAC Activity Cards anytime and anywhere. With the use of the official school website, the online conduct of the LAC session will be done anytime and could be participated by teachers who are willing to learn the virtual environment of pursuing the LAC sessions through the use of the official school website to enhance teachers’ skills in the use of ICT resources in their teaching learning process. However, the parameter Others which were less serious for teacher-respondents with a Weighted Mean value of 1.25 would still be considered issues. This parameter specifies “Electronic outputs or online outputs are needed”, “Lack of time or opportunity to practice”, “Availability of the teachers”, “The classroom is not conducive for learning due to no electricity”, “No proper training on LAC”, and “No internal resource persons”. All of these issues excluding an issue, “The classroom is not conducive for learning due to no electricity” were precisely less serious. But these could still be addressed when the schools have its official websites wherein could link other credible school sites that shared their downloadable files and reliable links for teaching instructions.
Availability of Official School Website Table 5 shows that there were 50 or 78.13% teacher-respondents stressed that they did not download ICT Activity Cards from their school website; 46 or 71.88% of respondents claimed that their school website was not used in the conduct of the Learning Action Cell (LAC) Sessions; 40 or 62.50% of respondents stressed that their school has no official website; and that same number, 40 or 62.50% of respondents claimed they did not browse their school website. Among the 40 teacher-respondents, there were eight (8) of them from Cawayan National High School confirmed that they really didn’t have the school website in the school year, 2016-2017. This finding is not similar to the findings of Parsad, B., and Jones, J. (2005) that state nearly 100 percent of public schools were connected to the Internet in 2003,14 schools generally had the capability to make information available to parents and students directly via e-mail or through a website. The implication of these results would encourage to DepEd educators to develop the school and department websites. In building the school website is very easy using the free subdomain. e.g. http://dnhs6022.weebly.com/ for the school; and http://dnhs-eclassroom.weebly.com/ for the department website. These websites had availed the free subdomain of Weebly.com, a U.S. based server-provider.
Table 6
IV. CONCLUSION
In the selected secondary schools of Dalaguete Districts, the teacher-respondents claimed that school facilities and equipment were moderately available especially in the conduct of the Learning Action Cell (LAC) sessions. However, the issues and challenges met by teacher-respondents in the conduct of the Learning Action Cell (LAC) Sessions were considered as very serious. Statistically, more than half (62.50 to 78.13%) of teacher-respondents didn’t interact their school website considering that their schools had no WiFi boosters and Local Area Networking was not installed to all buildings of their schools. And there was one school hadn’t developed the school website. It is further concluded that the schools did not declare their official website. And finally, the teacher-respondents need the relevant trainings specifically in the building of personal / departmental / school website. The proposed training would help the school in the conduct of the LAC sessions using the school website. And this training program shall become a better benchmark to other national high schools in Cebu Province so that junior and senior high school teachers become competitive enough in the utilization of ICT in their teaching instructions and ready for the ASEAN Integration.
V. RECOMMENDATION
Based from the findings of this action research, it is recommended for that DepEd Secondary Schools of Dalaguete Districts may accept the utilization of online collaborations for the Learning Action Cell (LAC) sessions and try to enhance teachers in the use of ICT resources in their teaching instructions. It is further recommended that DepEd Cebu Province Division may approve the teachers’ training-workshops in the Development of School/Department Website for LAC Sessions.
The researchers are thankful to the CTU Systems, headed by the University President Dr. Rosein A. Ancheta, Jr., to the CTU Argao-Campus Director, Dr. Juanita P. Pinote, to the Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Anesito L. Cutillas, to the CTU-Argao-Campus Director in Research and Development, Dr. Hemres M. Alburo, to the Superintendent of DepEd Cebu Province, Dr. Rhea Mar Angtud, CESO VI, to the Principal IV of Dalaguete NHS, Mr. Roger D. Banogbanog, to his assistant principal, Mr. Emeliano Bustamante, to the administrator of Casay NHS, Dr. Roberto D. Moran, to the administrator of Cawayan National High School, Dr. Roldan C. Rosales, to the Principal I of Mantalongon NHS, Mr. Robert Ceniza and to the Faculty members of the selected schools of Dalaguete districts.