ASTI, STII sign MoA to support remote education

24 Jun 2022 7:21 PM
By Mary Grace Datiles

(From left to right) STARBOOKS Project Leader Alan Taule, DOST-STII Director Richard Burgos, DOST-ASTI Director Franz de Leon, and Project REIINN Technical Lead Philip Martinez signed the Agreement.

The Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) and the DOST-Science and Technology Information Institute signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on 24 June 2022 to support remote education in unserved and underserved communities.

The Agreement was signed to commence the implementation of Science and Technology Academic and Research-Based Openly-Operated Kiosk Stations (STARBOOKS) educational resources in Resilient Education Information Infrastructure for the New Normal (REIINN) project.

DOST-ASTI Director Franz de Leon said that this partnership demonstrates the DOST-ASTI and DOST-STII's continuous commitment to provide information and connectivity to geographically-isolated schools and communities through technology-based interventions.

"By reinforcing this partnership, we are taking another significant step to achieving our shared goal of improving the state of infrastructure, education, resilience, and overall quality of life in the country," he continued.

DOST-ASTI Director Franz de Leon (left) and Project REIINN Technical Lead Philip Martinez (right) discussed Project REIINN with media partners.

Project REIINN focuses on developing application frameworks and infrastructures to support the shift to remote learning and to narrow the digital divide in the country. Currently, the project offers two initiatives: LokaLTE and RuralCasting.

Meanwhile, STARBOOKS aims to provide STI (Science, Technology, and Innovation)-based content in various formats to students in geographically-isolated and economically-challenged schools and communities throughout the country. It contains hundreds of thousands of digitized science and technology resources in various formats (text and video/audio) placed in specially design “pods” set in a user-friendly interface.

"We hope that through our partnership, we'll be able to reach more communities, more students, more people, so that nobody shall be left behind in the knowledge divide," STARBOOKS Project Leader Alan Taule mentioned in his message.

(From left to right) STARBOOKS Project Leader Alan Taule, DOST-STII Director Richard Burgos, DOST-ASTI Director Franz de Leon, and Project REIINN Technical Lead Philip Martinez signed the Agreement.

The Agreement was signed during the 11th anniversary of STARBOOKS.

To know more about Project REIINN, visit their website page and Facebook page.