Penang Institute in Malaysia and Centro Escolar University (CEU) in the Philippines vowed to support TechCamp Malaysia-Philippines, a funded alumni project of TechCamp Malaysia 2020, during the virtual signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Friday (March 12).
TechCamp Malaysia-Philippines will select 50 secondary school teachers and teacher educators, train them, and deepen their understanding of the importance of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in a fast-moving, digital media landscape. Penang Institute and CEU recognizes the need for teachers to keep up with media technology and address challenges in the digital revolution.
“We are naturally concerned about how public education is being challenged by new media and other global trends. It is therefore exciting for us to have CEU join the TechCamp family with a project aimed at educating educators on matters of grave importance to the well-being of future citizens and our countries,” said Dato’ Dr. Ooi Kee Beng, the Executive Director of Penang Institute.
The MoU specifies that Penang Institute will work collaboratively with CEU for matters about TechCamp Malaysia-Philippines, review the promotional materials before dissemination, and monitor the project’s progress.
Meanwhile, CEU will extend full support to TechCamp Malaysia-Philippines through event promotion, logistics, staffing, and other technical requirements. CEU will also explore other possible collaborations with Penang Institute in media information literacy, communication research, and other relevant project extension forms.
Specifically, TechCamp Malaysia-Philippines aims to: (1) design and conduct Media and Information Literacy (MIL) workshops with a series of select MIL topics for secondary school teachers and teacher educators; (2) create online and offline spaces to share knowledge, information, and best practices of MIL teaching and learning; and develop, review, edit and publish a MIL Teachers’ Guidebook and Lesson Plan Exemplars.
“By focusing on secondary school teachers and teacher educators, we hope to harness the potential of the multiplier effect,” said Ms. Lai Cheng Wong, co-chairperson of the Organizing Committee, emphasizing that championing MIL leads to information literate societies.
TechCamp Malaysia-Philippines is a virtual three-day workshop happening from March 29 to 31, 2021, via Zoom, with speakers from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Spain, Thailand, the United States, and the Netherlands.
