STARBOOKS NEWS
DoST enhances hybrid learning through Starbooks, Reiinn
July 14, 2022
by The Manila Times
TO further enhance the hybrid learning in areas that are unserviceable by local telcos and internet providers, the Department of Science and Technology-Science and Technology Information Institute (DoST-STII) and Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DoST-ASTI) partnered to make science learning accessible to students in the far-flung areas of the country.
In the memorandum of agreement signing held at the Philippine International Convention Center on June 24, 2022, the two DoST attached agencies sealed their partnership with the use of its developed technologies to help provide scientific information within reach in the countryside.
For its part, DoST-STII will bring its Science and Technology Academic-Research Based Openly Operated Kiosks or Starbooks — a standalone digital offline library that contains hundreds of thousands of digitized science and technology information and reference materials aimed at providing library information to communities with no internet connection.
The Resilient Education Information Infrastructure for the New Normal or Reiinn Project of DoST-ASTI, meanwhile, is focusing on developing application frameworks and infrastructure to support the shift to remote learning to bridge the digital divide in the country.
Among the responsibilities under the agreement is that DoST-ASTI will make available the Starbooks resources through Project Reiinn's technology demonstrators, LokaLTE and RuralCasting, to selected pilot public schools.
LokaLTE, or the Local Development and Deployment of Community LTE Networks in the Philippines, is a small-scale, community-based network designed to provide LTE mobile broadband service in previously unserved areas, where a dedicated cell site tower will be established in areas with no cellular data service.
Meanwhile, the Interactive Learning and Distributing Educational Resources through Data Casting or Rural Casting exploits the use of data broadcasting (datacasting) mechanisms through digital TV, based on ISDB-T, the technical standard adopted by the Philippines.