SINCE the pandemic upended the lives of countless people globally, many sectors have shifted toward using online platforms and digital tools as means to simulate a “business as usual” approach in terms of work, social, or school.
While blended learning has indeed accelerated education technology (ed-tech) in the country, there are still a few hurdles that need to be addressed in establishing such types of digital learning as a more accessible and affordable way to teach children various subjects without jeopardizing their interests.
Stock Knowledge—a promising new start-up in the ed-tech niche which recently entered into an agreement with the Department of Education (DepEd)—is a platform featuring free content in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for participating schools in the City of Manila. It involves both hardware and software elements that will enable students to utilize emerging technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, webXR, and artificial intelligence for gamified, immersive and adaptive DepEd curriculum subjects.
The pilot usage of Stock Knowledge’s open-source gamified and immersive adaptive learning tools, as well as its research activities, are developed with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund’s Innovation Fund.
“Stock Knowledge is proud to introduce a platform which educators can customize according to their students’ needs,” said the platform’s CEO Anna Marie Benzon. “It integrates gamification with essential tailored learnings on STEM subjects that we expect to be more engaging and appealing to students, and integrates webXR, which is also unique to the Philippine school system and is not yet available elsewhere in the world.”
A testing phase will be in place for the initial year of Stock Knowledge’s collaboration with the DepEd to gather student and faculty feedback to determine if tweaks are in order for usage and technology improvements.
On the part of the DepEd, platforms such as Stock Knowledge are huge steps in institutionalizing digital learning alternatives to the country’s 21.7 million students. Such technologies have come at the most opportune time when various curricula for senior high-school students have just recently been restructured according to the government’s K-12 program.
“Stock Knowledge is definitely a notable addition to the Division of City Schools [DCS]-Manila partners in the digital industry,” according to Dr. Maria Magdalena M. Lim, DepEd Manila-Schools Division superintendent.
“DCS Manila is currently reviewing alternatives that can provide immersive learning to our students not only as we weather this pandemic, but also in the future as we pursue more learning options that are truly accessible, affordable and delivers high effectivity rates,” she further stated.
Moving forward, Stock Knowledge is working to make more advances to its platform capabilities based on student feedback by introducing their breakthrough platform to more potential investors as education technology continues to be a most promising niche-investment option in startup ecosystems around the world. Learn more about it by visiting stockknowledge.org.