THE Lyceum of the Philippines University bagged the gold medal for the Community Outreach Award from the recently-concluded eLearning Forum Asia Conference 2023 held at the University of Social Sciences in Singapore.

LPU was recognized for its 13 years of Community Outreach and Service Learning for Indigenous Peoples’ Education program with its indigenous communities in Agta of Quirino and Isabela, Aeta of Zambales, Batak of Palawan, and Dumagat of Aurora, Quezon, and Rizal.

“Focusing on its Teaching with Technology program which started in 2015 COSeL, Teaching and Learning Innovation Center, Information and Technology Department, and College of Technology worked hand-in-hand in providing computer skills training to teachers and indigenous children in the communities, producing learning materials (charts, AVPs, posters), donating computer equipment and solar lights/panel, and community mapping using GPS in some select areas,” LPU said.

“In partnership with Microsoft Philippines and IT Works, faculty and student ambassadors have also been tapped as trainers and mentors to almost 300 teachers in indigenous remote areas,” it added.

According to LPU, COSel has also maximized technology by continuously conducting online teacher training on cultural sensitivity and integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practice in the classroom; online photography session; IP rights and other advocacy campaign activities specifically during the pandemic in partnership with various organizations such as Assisi Development Foundation, Inc., National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and Department of Labor-Institute for Labor Studies.

“Traditional learning takes a lifetime to be imbibed while it takes technology a few moments to preserve it. If done properly, it allows IPs to trace and retrace their traditional bearings anytime without fear of these being supplanted by other ideas,” Dr. Marilyn Ngales, former director of COSeL and now the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said.

The Community Outreach Award is for organizations and individuals demonstrating unwavering passion with outreach to the less fortunate and disadvantaged through the use of technology services to improve the quality of education.

For this year, the conference’s theme was “Digital Futures of Work and Learning: Forging the Way Ahead.”