Republic of the Philippines

SORSOGON STATE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Sorsogon City Campus

LADESMA-DOMA, Gen Rose F. Educational Innovations and Technology

MaEd-English

Role of Educational Innovation and Technology in Teaching and Learning amidst the Pandemic: A
Reflection

As a whole, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost everything in the world – economy,
health, education, etc. The threat this pandemic has posed varied consequences. These consequences are
all unbecoming.
In relation to everything said, the field of Education is among the suffered most. There were
reports in which school around the globe shut down in order to lessen virus contact. This closure has
posed challenges to institutions as to how to make teaching and learning continue without compromising
students’ health. Because of the said, institutions adapted varied modalities as a solution – adjusting to
what is befitting to students and teachers. This is where the role of educational innovations and
technology come in handy. Innovations on digital teaching and learning arose. This includes rampant use
of emails, online video conferencing, social media use, etc.
Although emails have been in the web world for almost 20 years already, it hasn’t been widely
used since paper mails and other academic related transactions were still observed. We were all inclined
to receiving printed documents which has its obvious advantages. The use of emails nowadays has made
everything easy and doable. Teachers can now easily notify their students about school updates, making
communication a breeze. Another, submitting outputs have been very efficient as the manner is
paperless, that in just a simple click, an output can already be turned in.
Among the digitalization in teaching and learning is online audio and video conferencing. This has
been widely used even before but not for the sole purpose of having a class. This manner has equated to
face to face class in which the teacher get to discuss lessons and that students can share their thoughts on
discussions. Although this innovation poses its great advantage, it also have disadvantages as there are
places in the world where internet connection is not accessible. This is where institutions conduct simple
needs analysis as to what innovation in education should they utilize. In connection to this, the
Department of Education adapted various modalities to make teaching and learning efficient. These are
synchronous learning, asynchronous, online modular, printed modular, radio based instructions,
television-based instruction, etc. These innovations challenged institutions to facilitate effective teaching
and learning during the pandemic.
Another, social media was used solely for leisure but as pandemic hits, it has become one of the
media utilized by students and teachers to notify each other about school updates. This has been widely
used in areas where internet connection is limited. Outputs requiring taped-video presentation, soft-
copies of documents, etc. can easily be sent to their teachers without requiring big amounts of mobile
data. These innovations has been helpful to students with limited access to internet.
Now, innovations did not only focused on digitizing learning and teaching but also it modified
what teachers has been doing for a long time. Printed modular is among the innovations on teaching and
learning. This innovation or modality made use of information technology, making lessons and
assessment simplified but based from standards set from the Most Essential Learning Competencies
(MELCs). This innovation is highly utilized in the Philippines due to limited access to internet of most
areas. This modality or innovation has posed many dilemma to both teachers and students – printing of
modules in 1:1 ratio, checking and providing each student with personalized feedback.
Although the pandemic has challenged the Education sector, this has flowered to numerous
innovations which would eventually revolutionize teaching and learning the future.