"Educational Leadership in the New Normal:
Navigating Technodependence"

The pandemic has caused formal education to massively shift to distance modalities worldwide, and with the emergence of global as well as contextualized best practices in online and technology-assisted teaching and learning, there might not be a return to the old paradigm anymore. Bringing together leaders of the top teacher education institutions in Asia, this panel will discuss priorities that can strategically steer the region toward quality education for all in the new normal. 

Technology has greatly supported academic learning amidst the pandemic.  The use of learning management systems, media, and other forms of technology has replaced the physical classroom and sustained learning.  At the same time, the use of technology in the classroom has made obvious the situations of those who have access to it and those who have limited or no access to it at all.  There are many areas in the Philippines that do not have the means to acquire the necessary tools, barangays that are too far out to have any access to technology at all, or folk who do not have the means to pay for internet subscription for their children to attend virtual classes or whose families do not have the requisite skills to handle technology in learning.  While Philippine schools have resorted to using varied modes of learning depending on their situation, many students are left behind or left out in academic learning in these challenging times.  This panel discussion brings these issues to the fore.  The central question is how can we bridge this “digital divide” in the country.  While the panel discussion does not aim to solve this issue, it hopes to bring together key players – academe, telecommunications, and government – to discuss the problem and to propose ways to address it.  

The pandemic has greatly shifted academic learning to online or distance education mode worldwide, and conventional face-to-face interactions in the classroom may not return anytime soon, or could permanently be replaced by the virtual classroom. This panel discussion brings together top administrators of teacher education institutions in the Philippines to discuss ways in responding to teacher education challenges and to discuss directions toward quality teacher preparation in the new normal.