PARENTS and teachers will now have an easier time teaching younger children, especially if they are in kindergarten up to Grade 3, with Smart Communications’ recently launched Batibot Android application. Smart Public Affairs Head Ramon Isberto said the app ensures fun in learning through fun-filled games that will enable children in their formative years to hone their essential thinking skills. By using the Batibot app, children can learn basic concepts like matching, sorting and grouping.
“Through our umbrella program for education called #LearnSmart, we’re trying to make learning fun, engaging, and interactive for students with the help of digital and mobile technologies,” Isberto said. “By digitizing Batibot, Smart is addressing the need of children for localized educational content.
We also hope to make learning a shared experience between the parents and teachers, who grew up with the Batibot TV show, and their kids and students, who can now enjoy the Batibot experience on mobile devices,” he added. The Batibot app, which can be downloaded for free on Android devices, also supports early literacy by nurturing children’s love for storytelling.
Developed in collaboration with the Community of Learners Foundation (COLF) and start-up partner OrangeFix, the Batibot app is the first learning app in Filipino aligned with the national kindergarten curriculum of the Department of Education.
Just like in television, the Batibot app has also the popular interactive features like the classic game “Alin Ang Naiba,” where children are asked to pinpoint what is different from a group of objects and pictures.
Kindergartners can also practice writing by tracing letters on their device, and sing along to Batibot songs via the app’s videoke feature.
Meanwhile, the “Kuwentong Batibot” feature provides children with access to stories in Filipino, with the aim of establishing a firm foundation for early and emergent literacy. The Batibot app is one of the key features of the Smart TechnoCart, a mobile digital laboratory launched in June to enhance learning among kindergartners through mobile devices and applications.
Having a compact and portable design, teachers can easily transfer the kit from one classroom to another. So far, it has deployed the TechnoCarts in 15 public kindergarten schools identified by the Department of Education as initial beneficiaries.
Feny de los Angeles, COLF director and former research and curriculum director of the Philippine Children’s Television Foundation which produced Batibot, said the TV show had been a “playmate” and learning partner of Filipino children for nearly two decades.
“All those years, Batibot had been a trusted partner of parents who are their children’s first teachers—from infancy through the early childhood years. Now that the kindergarten program is a national program of the public-school system, we would like to continue this tradition of supporting children as they begin their journey in schools and we hope, as lifelong learners,” de los Angeles said.